Version 4.2.6 for Mainframes
 —  Utilities  —

Recording Utility

With the Recording utility, you can record a Natural session and later play back the recorded session.

The Recording Utility documentation covers the following topics:

Related Documentation:

Terminal Commands


Purpose of Recording

The Recording utility can be used for the following purposes:

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Data and Functions Recorded

The Recording utility records the following:

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Recording a Session

This section describes the steps required to activate and deactivate a recording.

Specifying Libraries

Start of instruction set To specify the library in which all subsequent recordings are to be stored

If you activate the recording process without having specified library-name, the name of the library in which the recording is stored is the same as the value of the system variable *INIT-USER (see the System Variables documentation) at the time when the recording process is activated.

When you log on to another library during a session being recorded, the library in which the recording is being stored remains the same (that is, either the one specified with %B= or the *INIT-USER library); this means that one recording can record keyboard actions across multiple applications.

Activating a Recording

Start of instruction set To activate a recording

name denotes the name under which the data recorded are saved in source form as a Natural object of the type Recording. You can treat this source as any other Natural source (for example, delete it, copy it), except that you must not edit it: recordings contain binary data an editor will destroy.

name can only be specified once. If a recording object of the same name already exists in the library specified for recording, Natural returns the message Error in recording activation.

Caution:
Any situation that leads to a backout transaction or rollback (for example, a non-activity timeout) while a recording is in progress, will delete part of the recording thus making the entire recording useless.

Terminal command %Aname included in a recording should be followed by terminal command %B as described in Recording %A.

Deactivating a Recording

Start of instruction set To deactivate a recording

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Playing Back a Recording

When a recording is played back, the sequence of, for example, commands and function keys is actually executed again.

The recording is independent of the terminal type; that is, a session recorded on one terminal can be played back on a terminal of another type. You can also play back a recording in batch mode; a recorded online session may, of course, react differently when played back in batch.

This section covers the following topics:

Step Mode and Background Mode

A recording can be played back in two modes: background mode and step mode.

In background mode, the entire recording is played back invisibly; that is, all keyboard actions of the recording are carried out without anything being displayed to you on the terminal screen during the execution of the recording. You cannot interrupt a recording that is played back in background mode, unless the recording contains the terminal command %R as explained in Manipulating a Recording.

In step mode, a recording is played back step by step and all keyboard actions are displayed on the screen. By choosing any function key, you proceed from one step to the next. In step mode, it is also possible for you to interrupt the recording by pressing CLEAR as explained in Interrupting a Playback.

By default, a recording is played back in background mode.

Start of instruction set To set modes

  1. To activate step mode, enter the following terminal command:

    %GON
  2. To deactivate step mode and activate background mode, enter the following terminal command:

    %GOFF
  3. To toggle between step and background mode, enter the following terminal command:

    %G

Activating a Playback

Start of instruction set To play back a recording

Recording %Aname

If you issue the command %Aname while a session is being recorded, the recording specified with %Aname is not executed but the command %Aname is included into the object source that is being recorded. Thus, you can execute a recording from within another recording and concatenate a series of recording to one another. However, you cannot have nested recordings; the execution of the recording that contains the %Aname command stops after this command and is not resumed when the execution of name finishes. As a result, the data recorded after %Aname will never be played back. To avoid this, you should enter %B immediately after you have entered %Aname in a recording.

Interrupting a Playback

Start of instruction set To interrupt a recording that is played back in step mode

Once you have interrupted a recording, you have the following options:

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Manipulating a Recording

By recording the terminal command %R, you can manipulate a single step in a recording when it is played back. This applies in step mode and in background mode. In background mode, %R is the only way to interact with a recording that is being played back. Interaction, for example, may be required to provide an input option for sensitive data, such as passwords which are unknown at the time of the recording.

If the terminal command %R (redisplay last screen) has been recorded, the subsequent screen is open for user input when the recording is played back; that is, the input data for this screen are not taken from the recording but from what the user enters. Subsequently, the execution of the recording is continued.

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