CONNX enables submission of OS/400 commands from a client computer via the ODBC SQLExecDirect API or the SQLPrepare/SQLExecute API. The CONNX parsing logic scans the text input string and detects whether it is an OS/400 remote command or an SQL statement, and forwards the string to the host.

Although CONNX recognizes OS/400 remote commands based on standard three-character prefixes ( WRK, DSP, CRT, DLT, etc.) and forwards these command strings to the host, the host remote command processor does not permit all OS/400 CL commands to be executed from a remote client.

For example, commands such as WRKSPLF can be submitted via CONNX, but the host will reject them because they require additional interaction via a 5250-based emulator product.