topic Re: Get cursor position from a mainframe application in Product Forum

Get cursor position from a mainframe application

JeremyRTDean — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 23:47:14 GMT

I am interacting with an IBM Midrange application (greenscreen) that indicates an error on submit of an Order by highlighting the field and placing the cursor on it.

Fine for a human to work with but Blue Prism can't see the highlighting and there seems to be no way to identify the cursor position.

I thought perhaps Global Send Key up and count up to the top of the page but the cursor just loops around the page - it doesn't stop at the top.

Any ideas on how to identify the cursor position?

Re: Get cursor position from a mainframe application

PvD_SE — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 11:08:05 GMT

Hi Jeremy,

On most emulators for IBM i and Mainframe, the cursor row and column position is on display in the bottom of the screen. Something like this:
which indicates the cursor to be on row 21 and position 7. The place where you can find these coordinates differs per emulator, the example above is from IBM ACS,

Happy coding!
---------------
Paul
Sweden

Re: Get cursor position from a mainframe application

JeremyRTDean — Sun, 09 Jul 2023 23:55:32 GMT

Good answer Paul van Doorn! Now I just need to work out how to get access to that footer area of the window. Currently Blue Prism doesn't seem to be able to see/read it.

-Jeremy