Con-nect offers an interface (the application) which enables you to run (PERFORM) an existing Natural program from within your Con-nect session. The Natural program itself is not added to Con-nect, it is merely made known to Con-nect via an application definition.
Through use of Con-nect applications, you have direct access to the data processing capabilities of your system. You can maintain data directly from Con-nect, as well as use it in your daily office work.
This document covers the following topics:
Issue the following command sequence from any point in Con-nect:
ADD Application
As a result, the "Add Application" screen appears.
11:49 AM * * * C O N - N E C T 3 * * * 4.Feb.94 Cabinet LS Add Application Friday Folder Work___________ File _______________ Application Name ________________________________ Description ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Private use _ or Security Read 7 Modify 7 Complete the information above and press ENTER to add Command / / Enter-PF1---PF2---PF3---PF4---PF5---PF6---PF7---PF8---PF9---PF10--PF11--PF12--- Help Menu Quit Mod Send Flip Home |
In addition to the information which you enter in every "Add" screen (see The "Add" Screens), you must specify the following application definition criteria in the "Add Application" screen.
- Application Name
A unique name which identifies the application within Con-nect. This name must not exceed 32 characters.
Press ENTER to display the "Add Application" window.
11:49 AM * * * C O N - N E C T 3 * * * 4.Feb.94 Cabinet LS Add Application Friday Folder Work___________ F +---------------------------------------+ ! Add Application ! Application Name SN_______________ +---------------------------------------+ ! ! ! Library: ________ ! Description Super Natural____ ! ! _________________ ! Program: ________ ! _________________ ! ! _________________ ! Parameters: ! ! 1) ______________________________ ! ! 2) ______________________________ ! Private use _ or Security Re ! 3) ______________________________ ! ! 4) ______________________________ ! ! 5) ______________________________ ! ! 6) ______________________________ ! +---------------------------------------+ Complete the information above and press ENTER to add Command / / Enter-PF1---PF2---PF3---PF4---PF5---PF6---PF7---PF8---PF9---PF10--PF11--PF12--- Help Menu Quit Mod Send Flip Home |
Specify the following information in the "Add Application" window:
- Library Name
The name of the Natural library in which the program is cataloged.
- Program Name
The Natural program which is to be executed whenever an application is performed.
The Natural program must have been defined previously (by the Con-nect administrator, yourself or another user).
- Parameters
Optional - parameters which are passed to the application when it is performed. You may specify a maximum of six parameters.
The parameters will be placed in the Natural stack and will be read by the first INPUT statement of the application. In addition to other parameters, you can specify the following:
/C/ for current cabinet ID (A8). /N/ for current name (A20). /I/ for ISN of the current object (N10). /P/ for password of current cabinet (A16); for usage of Administration and Utilities only. /H/ for the name of your home node in the transport service (A8). In all cases, the slash (/) is the pseudo blank character.
Press ENTER to close the window and to add the application.
The blank "Add Application" screen re-appears and you can add another application.
If Natural Security allows you to use the Natural library SYSCNT2B, you can perform the print utilities directly from your Con-nect session. See Con-nect Utilities, section Utilities - Format/Print for detailed information.
To access the print utilities from Con-nect, you must first ADD an application.
Specify the following information in the "Add Application" window:
- Library Name
Specify "SYSCNT2B" as the name of the Natural library in which the program is cataloged.
- Program Name
Specify "Menu" as the name of the Natural program which is to be executed.
Press ENTER to close the window and to add the application.
To work with one of the above utilities, you must PERFORM the application:
PERFORM Application name
As a result, the "Utilities - Main Menu" appears. Select "Format/Print Utilities" to access the "Utilities - Format/Print" screen. Mark the required utility with any character and press ENTER.
Note:
The System Maintenance functions can only be performed by an
administrator.
You can perform many of your daily office tasks using the applications which are available to you within your environment.
The following topics are covered below:
To start an application, issue the PERFORM command in conjunction with the application:
PERFORM Application name
Generally, when you leave an application which you have performed from Con-nect, you are returned to your Con-nect session.
There are two methods of returning from an application which is not in the Con-nect library (SYSCNT2) to a Con-nect session.
Include the following Natural statements in the application to cause an automatic return when the application is exited:
STACK TOP COMMAND 'RETURN' STOP
Or exit the application (refer to the documentation for the application or to the application administrator) and then issue the following Natural command:
RETURN
The following suggestions may be useful in integrating applications into your Con-nect office.
PERFORM is the default command for an application. If you assigned a unique name to the application (i.e. if there is no other object with that name in your cabinet), you can simply enter the name of the application in the command line and press ENTER to perform it.
You can assign the command sequence "PERFORM Application name" to a PF-key (see PF-Key Assignments).
You can create a new menu that contains the application, or incorporate it into an existing menu (see Creating Your Own Menus). You can then choose to have that menu displayed as your "Menu" each time you access Con-nect (see Menu and Overlay Calendar).
Issue the following command sequence from any point in Con-nect to display a list of all available applications which have been made known to Con-nect:
DISPLAY Application
As a result, the "Display Applications by Name" screen appears.
11:53 AM * * * C O N - N E C T 3 * * * 4.Feb.94 Cabinet LS Display Applications by Name Friday Cmd Name Description Folder --- -------------------- ------------------------------------- --------------- __ SN Super Natural Work __ D-TRACE (S) Cmds are 1 or 2 characters from the list below (FLIP for PF-keys) Command / / Display Erase File Modify Perform Send Top |
The applications are arranged alphabetically. Your own applications are displayed first, followed by those created by the Con-nect administrator.
The columns display the following information:
- Name
The name of the application.
- Description
The description entered when the application was added.
- Folder
The name of the folder in which the application is stored. Applications which have been created by the Con-nect administrator are marked with (S); you can use these applications, but cannot erase, file or modify them.
The command prompting line of the "Display Applications by Name" screen shows all the commands which apply to applications. The commands are described in section Commands. The following exceptions apply when working with applications:
The DISPLAY command displays the application definition criteria specified when the program was added. (The application itself is stored in a Natural library, and the only way to display it is via the appropriate Natural commands and statements.)
The MODIFY command allows you to modify the application definition criteria (which identifies the Natural program to Con-nect), but does not allow you to modify the Natural program itself. You can, however, specify that another Natural program be used for the application, or modify the parameters.
The PERFORM command starts the application as discussed in section Performing an Application.
When you SEND an application, the "Send" screen appears; you enter addressee(s), attach a cover note (mandatory) to the application and send it with the CONFIRM command, just as with any other mail item.
When the addressee displays the new mail item in the Inbasket, the cover note is shown first. A message at the bottom of the Inbasket screen says that the mail item is an application. To display the application definition criteria, the addressee must issue the QUIT command.
To use the application, the addressee must must first FILE it and then issue the PERFORM command as discussed in section Performing an Application.
This example demonstrates how to create a Con-nect document using an application (in this case, the Software AG product Super Natural).
First you must ADD an application as shown below:
11:54 AM * * * C O N - N E C T 3 * * * 4.Feb.94 Cabinet LS Add Application Friday Folder Work___________ File _______________ Application Name snat____________________________ Description ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Private use _ or Security Read 7 Modify 7 Complete the information above and press ENTER to add Command / / Enter-PF1---PF2---PF3---PF4---PF5---PF6---PF7---PF8---PF9---PF10--PF11--PF12--- Help Menu Quit In Send Foldr Docs Note Cal Flip Last Home |
Press ENTER to display the "Add Application" window in which you enter the following information:
11:54 AM * * * C O N - N E C T 3 * * * 4.Feb.94 Cabinet LS Add Application Friday Folder Work___________ F +---------------------------------------+ ! Add Application ! Application Name snat_____________ +---------------------------------------+ ! ! ! Library: SYSSN___ ! Description _________________ ! ! _________________ ! Program: MENU____ ! _________________ ! ! _________________ ! Parameters: ! ! 1) ______________________________ ! ! 2) ______________________________ ! Private use _ or Security Re ! 3) ______________________________ ! ! 4) ______________________________ ! ! 5) ______________________________ ! ! 6) ______________________________ ! +---------------------------------------+ Complete the information above and press ENTER to add Command / / Enter-PF1---PF2---PF3---PF4---PF5---PF6---PF7---PF8---PF9---PF10--PF11--PF12--- Help Menu Quit In Send Foldr Docs Note Cal Flip Last Home |
Press ENTER to close the window and to add the application.
PERFORM the application and create a Super Natural transaction using Report Destination Con-nect. See the Super Natural documentation for further information.
In this example, the transaction selects the staff members in department COMP02 who have more than 22 days of vacation remaining.
RUN the Super Natural transaction.
As a result, a document is sent to the Con-nect system folder Connect.
Note:
If the transaction is of Report Type Con-nect and Report Destination
Con-nect, a Con-nect document is created for each record found and is
stored in the Con-nect system folder Compose.
Exit Super Natural and return to Con-nect. See your Super Natural administrator for further information.
The name of the document created by the Super Natural transaction is enclosed in parenthesis. The document is identified by a prefix supplied by Super Natural, transaction ID and date and time of transaction execution.
11:55 AM * * * C O N - N E C T 3 * * * 4.Feb.94 Cabinet LS Display Documents by Name Friday Cmd Document Name Enc Typ Folder File Date Filed --- ---------------------------- --- --- -------------- --------- ------------ __ Planning Guide Txt Work 2.Feb.94 __ Report Txt Work 1.Feb.94 __ sample-doc Txt Work 4.Feb.94 __ Structure Txt Work 2.Feb.94 __ Test Results Txt Work 2.Feb.94 __ Tool Txt Work 2.Feb.94 __ Vacation Txt Work 31.Jan.94 __ Work Results Cnf Work 1.Feb.94 __ Zoo Txt Work 3.Feb.94 DI (ICONN 1994/02/04 10:33) Txt Connect 4.Feb.94 __ CON-FORM1 Txt (S) 20.Oct.93 __ CON-FORM2 Txt (S) 25.Oct.93 Cmds are 1 or 2 characters from the list below (FLIP for PF-keys) Command / / Copy Display Enclose Erase Export File Format Info Modify Output Print Send Top Translat X |
The following example is a document created by a Super Natural transaction.
11:56 AM * * * C O N - N E C T 3 * * * 4.Feb.94 Cabinet LS Display (ICONN 1994/02/04 10:33) Friday Folder Connect File Page 1 Line 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 101 DEPT ='COMP02' 1 AND LEAVE-DUE > 22 4.Feb.94 FIRST-NAME NAME DEPARTMENT LEAVE CODE DUE PLANNED LEAVE -------------------- -------------------- ---------- ----- -------- -------- LARS BOLAN COMP02 33 94/04/13 94/04/24 HARRY ROSE COMP02 33 94/06/01 94/06/05 ULRICH CHRIS COMP02 32 94/03/16 94/03/20 SYBIL HANSEN COMP02 31 94/04/27 94/05/01 THOMAS PINKERTON COMP02 30 94/02/17 94/02/28 KARIN FORD COMP02 30 94/02/26 94/02/28 JAMES LAMPERT COMP02 29 94/03/18 94/03/20 ROGER BACH COMP02 29 94/05/26 94/06/03 WILLIAM OSBOURNE COMP02 28 94/03/26 94/03/27 Press ENTER for next page, or type a command (FLIP for PF-keys) Command / / Column Copy Erase Export File Flip Format Info Modify Output Page Position Print Quit Send Top Translat |