Access
To display or modify the general characteristics of the current program, you must either:
Choose the General characteristics option from the Program menu of the SSG.
Click the Characteristics button in the "Program" section (third button panel) of the Question/Answer programming interface dialog box.
These characteristics mainly apply to the use of certain function keys common to all transactions, to the size of the screen, and to some possible options for using the keyboard.
Data entry
Name
Name of the program as defined in the Object manager.
This name must be a valid program name (as defined by IBM), unique among the names of programs in the environment.
Mandatory entry.
Description
Description of the program as defined in the Object manager.
Error message line
Line where the error messages will be displayed.
Generally, the last line of the screen is selected (24th or 27th).
The line number specified here cannot be greater than the last line number of the screen, except when the Error message subfile box is checked: in this case, the line number can range from 1 to the number of lines of the screen +1.
Radio buttons
Visibility
The visibility of a program can be either public or private.
Only the owner of the program, or a software engineer with modification authorities, can change the visibility.
A public program cannot be changed into a private program if it is attached to more than one application area.
Check boxes
The options selected here will be applied in the same way in all transactions.
Help key allowed
Allows or forbids the use of the Help key to display the user documentation of the transaction.
Field-level help
Allows or forbids the use of the Help key to display the user documentation of the transaction.
This check box is not active when no field-level help is specified in the screen standards at the application area level.
Rollup key
Rolldown key
Allows or forbids the use of rollup and rolldown keys when displaying subfiles in transactions.
Error message subfile
Checked |
The error messages are stored in a subfile and can be displayed simultaneously. The transaction control is then performed thoroughly. Moreover, you can customize messages by using the INIT_MSG instruction for each message that uses variables. |
Not checked |
The error messages are displayed one after the other, as they are generated. The transaction control is then performed field by field. The messages sent cannot be customized. |
Change default attribute
Allows or forbids, at the level of the Screen layout manager, the modification of default field attributes (specified at the level of screen standards).
Print key allowed
Allows or forbids the use of the Print key for AS/400 screen hard copies.
Function keys
The function keys are displayed here as check boxes: it is thus possible to define or to modify the way the function keys will be used for all the transactions of the program.
The function keys which are not defined here can be specified at the level of each transaction.
An empty box means that the corresponding function key is not specified at the level of the program.
Click the box to check it: the type of the corresponding function key is then CF (function key: transmits the data to the program) for all the transactions.
Double-click to blacken the box: the type of the corresponding function key is then CA (attention key: does not transmit the data to the program) for all the transactions.
Click a third time to clear the box: the function key is undefined again.
Lists
Screen size
The list box offers the three screen sizes accepted on the AS/400: 24 lines/80 columns, 27 lines/132 columns or Mixed.
This will be the size of all the screen-type transactions of the program.
Program template
Program template used by the program.
The list box displays all the interactive program templates attached to the current application area.
Buttons
Formal parameters
This button opens a dialog box which is used to display, create or modify the formal parameters of the current program.
Other parameters
This button opens a dialog box which is used to display, create or modify the other parameters of the current program.
Information
This button opens a dialog box displaying information on the current program, such as the name of the software engineer-owner, the dates and times of creation and modification.
Comments
This button opens a dialog box for entering a comment text which will be associated with the current program.
Modify (validation)
This button validates the modifications made and closes the dialog box.
Cancel
This button closes the dialog box without validating the modifications made.
Keyboard shortcut: Esc.