Help function (standard Screens or TUI clients)

You can associate a help with a Screen or a TUI client.

Overview of the help function

The help documentation is present at two levels:
  • Screen help (how to use the screen)
  • Input field help (which lists the possible values for example)
The user accesses the help by either:
  • Moving the cursor to the appropriate field and pressing a PF key
  • Entering a special character in the choice field (CH) for screen help, or in an input field for input field help
On the help screen, the user can use the choice field to complete the following tasks:
  • Return to the beginning of the help documentation
  • Continue scrolling through all help documentation
  • Stop the help display and return to the initial work screen

The help screen must be defined but not described because its format is fixed and cannot be modified.

The code of this Screen is XXHELP, where XX is the Dialog code. The external name must also be indicated (PACHELP by default). It must then be generated using the appropriate Type of COBOL and map to generate, according to the environment.

Contents of the help function

You use help messages to document Screens and Data Elements and to explain the rules for information coding and error detection.

These messages can be created as needed and generated on request to update the sequential error message file.

This file is used to create the error messages files of applications. These are indexed files or databases depending on the environment.

The screen help comes from the -GE Lines of the Screen -G Lines tab.

The input field help documentation comes from the:
  • Data Element Description (-D Lines tab),
  • Documentation of the Data Elements called in the Screen on the -GE Lines (on C or T lines entered after an F line)
  • Standard error messages (type 2 to 5)
  • User error messages (alphabetic type A to Z)
  • User error messages (numeric type 6 to 9)
  • Description lines or Text calls (-GE Lines) associated with Data Element-related errors:
    • User errors: C or T lines following a U line
    • User or standard errors: C or T lines with the error code.
Note: For a better presentation of the help screen, the numeric type user error messages should be used rather than the alphabetic type. The numeric type messages are grouped with the standard error messages.

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