Screen simulation and address of elements

You can simulate a Screen by opening its emulator. You can then see the fields and labels of the Screens as they will be displayed when the transaction is run. The overlapping errors are displayed in a dedicated view.

The Screen Emulator view

From a Screen whose design editor is opened and selected, click one of the following icons in the toolbar to open the simulation:
  • Open the emulator on the selected Screen to see the simulation with the color attributes that are indicated in the Screen Definition.
  • Open the emulator on the selected Screen with colors to see the simulation without the color attributes that are indicated in the Screen Definition.

The colors are recognized in the internal emulator of the Software Delivery Platform, which is the default emulator. It is displayed in the Screen Emulator view, which opens when you click one of the two icons. The size of the simulation screen in this view is automatically computed from the field positions that are indicated in the Screen -CE Lines. Only the following sizes are possible: 24x80, 32x80, 43x80, and 27x132. Simulation-related preferences are available from Window > Preferences > Pattern Driven Programming > Pattern Driven Programming. With these preferences, you can specify a listening port number and force the use of an external emulator for the simulation.

If modify the -CE Lines, you can see the modification in the Screen Emulator view by clicking Open the emulator on the selected Screen or Open the emulator on the selected Screen with colors again. You can also link the Screen Emulator view with the Screen by clicking Link with current Screen in the view toolbar. The view then listens to the modifications in the -CE Lines and displays them simultaneously.

If you simulate a Screen that contains overlapping fields, an error message indicates that the address of elements is not correct for the Screen and that you must review the -CE Lines. When you click OK in the message box, you automatically switch to the Screen Address of elements view.

The Screen Address of elements view

From a Screen whose design editor is opened and selected, click Launch Screen Address on the selected Screen in the toolbar to see the addresses of all the elements in the Screen. The Screen Address of elements view opens.
Note: This view opens automatically if you simulate a Screen that contains overlapping fields.

This view is available on the instances that are present in the local workspace.

It contains a table with information that comes from the -CE Lines: column and length of the field, field type (R for a Data Element and L for a label), name of the called Data Element, number of repetitions for the repetitive category, horizontal and vertical repetitions. The first column of the table contains an error symbol Error on all the overlapping fields. A tooltip on the error symbol displays the position and the name of the overlapping fields.

If you modify the -CE Lines, you can see the modification in the Screen Address of elements view by clicking Launch Screen Address on the selected Screen again. You can also link the view with the Screen by clicking Link with current Screen in the view toolbar. The view then listens to the modifications in the -CE Lines and displays them simultaneously.

If you click See errors only in the view toolbar, the view displays the overlapping fields only.

You can generate a Screen that contains overlapping fields. A warning is displayed but the generation is not blocked.


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