Re: Bypass Signon for RF Scanners

[Scott Klement <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I know I can override the signon screen at the subsystem level.  Maybe in
> the DDS I could provide the default user/pass for this limited account.
> Would no bypass signon completely, but would reduce it to a press of the
> Enter.

That would work -- and you can also change the signon screen's appearance 
so that it just looks like a blank screen with the words "Press <ENTER> to 
start session" or something like that.  Then the user doesn't even know 
it's a sign-on.


> The Acquire scenario sounds very interesting, but I have not done something
> that generically grabs sessions.  We have automated some of our UPS billing
> by using a dummy telnet session to simulate user keystrokes....
>
> If we were to write a generic program to grab these sessions, how would we
> know one was sitting on a signon screen?

I'd write a never-ending program that sits in batch listing (via APIs) the 
status of the specified devices.  When one shows up with a sign-on screen 
status, I'd submit a job that would take over the screen.

You could combine this with the other technique (changing the sign-on for 
the subsystem) to make it less confusing for the user.  If the sign-on 
screen only says "Please wait...." then the delay before the acquite 
program takes control would not confuse the user.

A fourth alternative (that I thought of since posting my last message) is 
to use the TELNET "device initialization exit program" capability.  The 
TN5250e protocol is capable of transmitting the userid, password, 
program/procedure, menu and current library fields as telnet USERVARs. 
When that happens, the telnet device initialation program receives these 
fields and puts themm into a data structure.  I got to thinking, what 
would happen if my EXIT PROGRAM filled in these variables instead of 
TELNET?  Would it then sign on as that userid/password?  Worth a try.

In fact, I think I'll experiment a bit...