Entire Connection Terminal Emulator - Application Modeller Settings

[AdwaitKawtakar]

We are using Entire Connection Terminal emulator for one of our process and not able to connect to the application using Blue Prism. I have explored Blue Prism mainframe documents and have not found any reference to the emulator we intend to automate.

Additionally, for Entire Connection Terminal not able to figure out the DLL Name and DLL Entry Point. If someone can point us in the right direction on how to connect/interact with the emulator using Blue Prism that will be helpful.

Below is the link to the product documentation if that helps. 

https://documentation.softwareag.com/natural/pcc454e/print/installation.pdf

I have attached a screenshot of emulator's general settings that has been configured. Using BP v6.6.0.

If someone has experience automating this emulator please share the details on how to make it work. 

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Adwait Kawtakar
Consultant
Lateetud, Inc
America/New_York
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[wagnervasconceloos]

I understand that you are facing difficulties in connecting and interacting with the Whole Connection Terminal emulator using Blue Prism, and that you have not found specific references to this emulator in the Blue Prism documentation. Unfortunately, I do not have previous experience with this particular emulator.

However, I would like to highlight an alternative that may be helpful for your situation. During the Blue Prism V7.3 Webinar, the Smart Vision feature was introduced, which utilizes OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) to map regions of the screen that Blue Prism cannot natively identify.

During the presentation, the high level of accuracy of Smart Vision in identifying elements in a screenshot within Paint was demonstrated, achieving 100% accuracy. This technology can be a viable solution for interacting with the Whole Connection Terminal emulator, especially if you do not find a native way to make it work with Blue Prism.

To take advantage of this functionality, you need to be on version 7.3 of Blue Prism and request a new license that includes Smart Vision. It is important to note that this request does not incur additional costs. I recommend reaching out to Blue Prism's technical or sales support to obtain more information on how to obtain this license and start using Smart Vision in your automation processes.

To find out more about this feature, please see Blue Prism® 7.3 New Features and Updates course for more information.

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Wagner Vasconcelos - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wagnervasconceloss/
Intelligent Automation Consultant
Brazil
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[Denis__Dennehy]

Firstly,  Wagner - FYI, this is not a windows application it is a terminal emulator, the screens Adwait showed were for the config of the terminal emulator rather than the actual screens to be interfaced.  The strong recommendation is to get a terminal emulator interface working where the robot will go 20 times faster than a human and there will be enormous robot utilization rather than considering using any kind surface automation.  If surface automation is the only option left then there should still be a guide on the portal somewhere that I created many years ago to demonstrate the best way to do that which grabs the entire screen and parses it (https://portal.blueprism.com/documents/surface-automation-terminal-emulators)

I recommend doing the following:
1.  Do some research into the Entire Connection Terminal emulator yourself (via their website/documentation/support/forum) to understand if they have a Hllapi compliant interface that can be used.  Generally all commercially available terminal emulators are Hllapi complient - some very cheap or free ones are not.  

2. If it is Hllapi complient,  the information you find will hopefully tell you how to turn it on in the emulator config.  I recommend that you then follow the Blue Prism guideance to try to use the Generic emulator option within Blue Prism.

3. If the emulator is not Hllapi complient,  I very strongly recommend your company invest in per user licenses in a different terminal emulator which does have a hllapi interface.  The per user licenses for a different emulator will more than be paid for in the increased speed of your interface compared to having to use windows and image interfaces instead.   I have no idea how much per user licenses for a terminal emulator are these days,  the emulator I used to recommend as an alternative several years ago used to cost under £100 per person/robot.

4.  The final option when all else fails is to follow my guide mentioned above which includes a starter VBO i think so should get you a good part of the way to building a solid windows interface - but is the last option.

[Denis__Dennehy]

Just noticed - the documentation you provided says this is Hllapi compliant.  If you do a search can you find a dll anywhere with Hllapi in the name that is installed alongside the emulator (willbe called something like ehllapi.dll)?   If there is not then go back to emulator vendor to find out where it is (it is needed).
If the dll exists then following the online instructions for getting Blue Prism hllapi working should work,  using the generic hllapi option rather than one for a specific emulator.  If it does not work try make sure the dll location is referenced in the Windows OS dll paths (you can google how to do that),  if that does not work experiment with copying the dll into the Blue Prism Automate install directory.   If that does not work try calling the Blue Prism support team for help... if they cannot help then follow my guidance above about getting hold of a more widely used emulator or using my surface automation guide.

(It is bizarre that I am posting on this - but I was once many years ago the expert in BP on this topic...  the BP support team are extreamly good at helping with this now).