Re: [COBOL400-L] Conditioned Field

[Simon Coulter <shc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 29/04/2005, at 1:29 AM, Good, Brad wrote:

> I have a screen with an IO field and another output only field.
>
> If the user types a value over a certain limit into the IO field, I set
> an indicator 53 in the COBOL on and move a message to the output only
> field saying "over limit".
>
> On my screen I have an error message on the IO field for indicator 53.
>
> What I want to happen is that the error message triggers AND the "over
> limit" shows in the output only field.
>
> What actually happens is the error message gets triggered but the 
> output
> only field shows a previous value of "under" even though when I display
> the value of that field just before the write to the screen the value 
> is
> indeed "over limit".
>
> What would be causing this?

All this traffic and still no answer.

The behaviour you see is the expected behaviour. Read the appropriate 
reference material (i.e., the Restrictions and Notes for Display Files 
in the ERRMSG and ERRMSGID section of the DDS Reference) and you will 
see that ERRMSG and ERRMSGID perform no other processing except that 
required by the keyword itself. That is when ERRMSG or ERRMSGID are 
active and the record format containing them is rewritten the only data 
sent to the workstation is:
	1) The text of the error message
	2) The attributes for the field in error

Further research will explain why this behaves as it does. ERRMSG and 
ERRMSGID use PUTOVR, OVRATR, and OVRDTA under the covers. These 
keywords cause only the data or attributes affected by the keywords to 
be sent to the display. It is intended to reduce the network load by 
not resending the screen when you only want to display an error.

How to solve:
	a) Stop using ERRMSG and ERRMSGID and use a real message subfile and 
sent the messages from your application via the QMHSNDPM API or a CL 
program the runs SNDPGMMSG. This will allow you to send the message, 
reverse image the field, and update data on the panel.

	b) Stop using ERRMSG and ERRMSGID and use PUTOVR, OVRATR, and OVRDTA 
appropriately to accomplish the same effect as ERRMSG and ERRMSGID. 
This will allow you to display a message, reverse image the field, and 
update data on the panel.

	c) Redesign the screen behaviour to fit with the documented 
limitations of ERRMSG and ERRMSGID

NOTE: You can't try to fool the system by specifying PUTOVR at the file 
level and OVRATR and OVRDTA on another field conditioned with the same 
error indicator (i.e., 53) into which you would write "OVER" or "UNDER" 
and expect that to be sent to the workstation along with the error. 
When the documentation says ERRMSG and ERRMSGID are the only things 
processed they mean it.

Regards,
Simon Coulter.
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