Rational Developer for System z

Playing a terminal flow

To play back a terminal flow in the host editor, click the Play Flow icon Play Flow.

A terminal flow is a flow that interacts directly with the application screens of a terminal application (see Terminal flow).

Playing back a terminal flow allows you to verify that the flow operates as you expect.

Troubleshooting: If you encounter a problem in playing a flow see Troubleshooting problems in playing a flow.

This topic contains the following subtopics:

Steps for playing a flow

To play back a flow in the host editor:

  1. Important: Because the host editor plays back the current contents of the working flow therefore, if you want to include a recent modification into the playback, you must first incorporate the modification into the working flow (see Incorporating recent changes).
  2. In the host editor, navigate through the host application to the particular application screen that corresponds to the first Invoke screen operation node in the recorded flow.
    Note: You can play an entire flow starting at the first Invoke screen operation node in the flow and starting at the application screen that corresponds to that node. You cannot begin playing back a flow at some other location in the flow.
  3. Click the Play Flow icon. Play Flow. Playback begins.

    • If an error message is displayed see Limitations on features and capabilities when you play a flow and Troubleshooting problems in playing a flow.

    • Setting a screen recognition limit to prevent an endless loop during playback: If the flow contains one or more recorded loops, then before beginning playback the host editor prompts you to specify the maximum number of times that you want to allow a screen description to be recognized during playback. This value applies to every screen description that is recognized during playback.

      The purpose of this feature is to prevent the flow from being caught in an endless loop during playback.

      The default value is 100. To set a different value:
      1. Type the new value.
      2. Click OK.
      Then during playback if any screen description is recognized the maximum number of times that you specified, the host editor displays an error message and terminates the playback. The error message is:
      Macro Error: Recolimit reached, but goto screen not provided,
      macro terminating.
  4. If the flow contains input variables then the host editor opens the Set flow inputs window. This window contains an input field for each variable in the input message of the flow.

    The window initializes each input field to the value that you specified for the same field at the beginning of the previous Play Flow operation. In this window:
    1. For each input field, type the value that you want to use or keep the existing value.
    2. Click OK.
  5. The host editor plays back the flow beginning with the first node in the flow.

  6. At the end of playback, the host editor displays the following information:
    • The values from the output message of the flow's interface operation.

Limitations on features and capabilities when you play a flow

Because playing a flow uses Host Access Transformation Services (HATS) components to perform the playback, the limitations on features and capabilities that apply to generating a HATS macro also apply to playing a flow (see Limitations on features and capabilities when generating HATS macros or when playing flows).

Example: If a flow contains a Switch node then both of the following are true:
  • The Generate Runtime Code wizard cannot generate a HATS macro from the flow.
  • The host editor cannot play the flow.
Note: Although these limitations affect generating a HATS macro and playing a flow they do not affect the generation of COBOL source code for the CICS® Service Flow Runtime environment.

When you click the Play Flow icon Play Flow the host editor searches the flow for both the substantial limitations and the minor limitations that are applicable (see Limitations on features and capabilities when generating HATS macros or when playing flows).

For each limitation that the host editor detects it displays the same error message that would be displayed for that limitation if you were trying to generate a HATS macro from the flow. (For example, the message might refer to an error in generating the flow even though you are trying to play the flow.)

See Limitations on features and capabilities when generating HATS macros or when playing flows.


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