Recording a navigation

The purpose of this feature is to enable you to record the steps in which you arrive at the parked screen, and then not have to keep repeating all the previous steps, thus saving time and increasing efficiency.

Right-click on Navigation in the Pools window and click Open. And as shown in the figure below, click Connection Settings from the Navigation Window.

The following screen appears:

Provide relevant information for the following parameters in the Connection Settings window:

Connection type: Select either HTTP and TCP/IP as your connection type.

HTTP Port: If the Connection Types is HTTP, then select the port of the Web site where the virtual folders of HostFront Server cluster are running. If you are using a secure site with HTTPs, then select the SSL check box and modify the port number to reflect the one configured on the Web server.

Cluster Service: Select this check box to make the Pool Manager service work with the HostFront Server 5.0. If this parameter is not selected, the Pool Manager service will use the connection methods of Version 3.5.x specifically.

Cluster port: If you are using the Cluster Service, enter the port of the cluster service as defined on the Cluster Properties of the HostFront Server.

Emulation: Select the emulation you want to use with this pool.

Server address: Enter the address of the HostFront cluster entry point.

HostFront Identification:

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Account: Enter the user name of the HostFront account that will be used to authenticate the pool sessions to the HostFront server. Ensure that this user has the correct sessions assigned to it.

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Password: Enter the password for the above account.

Proxy: Use this feature if you need to get the settings required to connect to HostFront Server through a proxy server.

Enter the values needed to allow your connection through the proxy server, and click the OK button to close both dialogs.

Click on the Recording button and you will see the Navigation node appear.

Click on the Connect button and the screen on the host server will appear. In the example below the Pool Manager is connecting to the system sign-on screen on the AS/400 server.

Navigate as a normal operator would do using the terminal emulator. Notice that a PutField node is added to the navigation tree for each field that you type in the green screen. If you pushed a key to go the next screen then a PushKey node is added for this key and a new screen node is added to the navigation as well. Navigate through the screens until you reach the last screen where you want your pool to "park".

Click on the Recording Start/Stop to end recording.

Click on the File → Save menu to save the navigation. Your navigation is now recorded and saved and ready to be used by the Pool Manager service.

In the Pools window, when you click on any New Pool the following properties will appear in the Properties Grid that you can configure according to your requirements:

Name: Refers to the name of the pool. This name is used to access the pool from your integration application.

Notes

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Pool Name is case sensitive

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HostFront Server IP Address, Port, and the Emulation Type can only be configured from the Connection Settings dialog box.

Checkout Time Limit: When a session is taken from the pool by an application, the pool service will expect it to be released back within this time limit. If the session was not returned within this time limit, the pool service will disconnect that session and establish a new one as a replacement using the same parameters of the original session. This feature allows the pool to maintain its sessions at all times should the application(s) using the sessions face a problem and fail to return the sessions to the pool.

Log Folder: The pool service will log its activities to log files in the specified folder. Logging is controlledd by the next two properties.

Log Pool Activities: If True, the pool service will log all activities to a file in the log folder. The logs will include detailed information about the sessions connecting (or not) at start up, what sessions ID's are assigned, the profile information used, the requests received from applications using the pool and the returns of sessions.

Log Start up Screens: If True, the pool service will dump to a text file in the log folder all the screens navigated during the startup. This file can be useful to debug navigation problems causing the pool not to start properly.

Poll: Refers to the interval at which the pool manager service will poll the HostFront servers to check the status of the pools sessions and keep them alive.

Port: Refers to the port of the HostFront cluster entry point. Serial Start: refers to how the pool sessions will start. For instance, if this property is set to 'True', the sessions of the pool will start one after the other as opposed to all in parallel.

Server IP: Refers to the IP address (or computer name) of the HostFront cluster entry point.

Sessions: Refers to the number of sessions needed in this pool. This property allows you to define not only the number of session but also the HostFront user accounts that will be used by a pool. Each user .account is used in a round-robin mechanism by the pool service. It is important for you to ensure that each account is configured on the HostFront cluster and has the required sessions.

Start at Start up: Refers to when the pool will start. If this property is set to 'True', the pool starts when the Pool Manager Service starts. If it is set to 'False', the pool has to be started manually by the user interface or programmatically through the integration application.

User Cluster: Used for backward compatibility. If set to True, the Pool Manager will use the connect method of Version 4.x. If set to False, it will use the connect method of Version 3.5.x.