Re: Placing data on the clipbaord -- MIDRANGE-L

Hi Thomas,

No, you were absolutely clear that the browser and 5250 emulator are on the same PC.

But your question was whether a program running on IBM i could put stuff on the PC's clipboard. Since that's a different computer it cannot.

-SK

On 10/9/2014 12:01 PM, Thomas Garvey wrote:

Hi, Scott,

I guess I wasn't clear that I am not talking about two different PC's
here ("they can have a PC user with a web browser into their order
processing application AND a green screen client running
simultaneously"). I guess I should have added "on the same PC".

The same PC would have the web browser running AND the IBM i Access
program. I realize the Access program is not an IBM i program (as
though it were on a dumb terminal), just as the browser is not the logic
that accumulated the data presented there.

Someone responded and suggested using a macro, inside the IBM i Access
session, assigned to a keyboard combination, which would do the
selection to the clipboard and (maybe) an Alt-Tab, followed by a Ctrl
V. I'll look into this at least.

Thanks

Thomas Garvey

On 10/9/2014 11:38 AM, Scott Klement wrote:

Thomas,

For a program to put data on the clipboard, it must be running on the
same computer. So you want to load data into the clipboard on Alice's
PC, then you need a program that's running on Alice's PC that can do
that.

A program running on Bob's PC can't put data onto Alice's clipboard,
(though it could put data on Bob's.) Similarly, a program running on
Carol's Linux box or David's IBM i box cannot put data on Alice's
clipboard. Hope I said that clearly... only a program running on the
same computer can access the clipboard.

There are many ways to write programs and have them run on someone
else's computer, of course. For example, a browser session could load
a signed Java applet into that browser. Code could therefore be fed
from a web application sent from a server to the user's web browser
where the applet could load the data into the clipboard.

Or, a program like IBM i Access (or another 5250 emulator) is running
on the PC, so it is able to put stuff on the clipboard... but it is
designed to do so only when the user manually uses the copy/paste
options that the emulator provides.

You could, of course, write a PC program that sits and waits for data
to be sent over the network from your IBM i program, and when it
receives that data, it could put it on the clipboard. (Though, make
sure you consider security if you do something like that.)

But, I hope you can see the major logic flaw in your original
question... a program running on IBM i cannot insert data into a
Windows clipboard simply because it's running on a different computer.

On 10/9/2014 9:41 AM, Thomas Garvey wrote:

Hi, everyone,

Is it possible to have a green screen IBM i program place data on a PC's
clipboard?

I have a client that uses a web-based order processing application that
runs on an IBM i server.
However, the web based application is unchangeable. No code available.

They do have green screen capability and knowledge of the application's
infrastructure and database.
So, they can have a PC user with a web browser into their order
processing application AND a green screen client running simultaneously.

Can a green screen program be written that does X and then automatically
places it's results on the clipboard so the user can simply Alt-Tab to
the browser
and paste the results into the web application? If the green screen
program can place data on the clipboard, maybe it could perform the
Alt-Tab and Ctrl-V (paste) as well?

Yes, I know they could do it manually (select the data from the green
screen using the mouse/keyboard and press Ctrl-C to place it on the
clipboard in the first place).
But they would like to skip the manual copy to clipboard step at least.

Can it be done? How?

Best Regards,

Thomas Garvey