AS400 tasks automation

[Neutro]

Hey guys!

Here are some informations on how to automate AS400 tasks with AutoIT. AS400 are mainframes made by IBM and used mainly in professional workplaces. 

First you need to launch an IBM Iseries console to the AS400. It looks like this:

As it is a regular window, you can use the "AutoIT Window Info" tool and functions like "ControlSetText", "ControlClick" to automate the login process.

Notice that the name of the window (in the top left of the above screenshot) is "Session A". This is because it is the first Iseries window that is opened on the client computer. If you do not close it and open another one, the next one will be named "Session B". The third one "Session C"...

Once you're logged into the Iseries console interface, the OS400 login window shows up:

Use this code to create an autoIT object linked to the iseries console:

global $oOIA = ObjCreate("PCOMM.autECLOIA")
$oOIA.SetconnectionByName("A") 

global $oPS = ObjCreate("PCOMM.autECLPS")
$oPS.SetConnectionByName("A")

The letter "A" is a reference to the name of the session displayed in the iseries console window, as explained before. Change it to another letter if you have multiples iseries console windows opened at the same time.

Then there are 3 main functions that you can use to interact with the interface:

$oOIA.WaitForInputReady() ;waits for the interface to be ready for input.

$oPS.SetCursorPos(6, 53) ;put the cursor of the interface to position X = 6, Y = 53

$oPS.SendKeys("hello world[enter]") ;write the text "hello world" where the cursor of the interface is then press the enter/return key

$result = $oPS.SearchText("banana") ;search for the text "banana" on the interface screen. Returns "True" if found, "False" if not.

The function "WaitForInputReady" is badfully not very reliable. For better results, use the fuction "SearchText" in a while loop to wait for a specific text to appear on the interface if you want to be sure that the interface is ready for input.

With these 3 functions you can pretty much do anything you would do manually on an Iseries console. Special keys for the "SendKeys" function can be found using the virtual keyboard included in the iseries console software.

Enjoy

Original post (credit to @DangerousDan and @bwochinski) for helping me understand the above stuff ^^):

 

 

Edited October 5, 2020 by Neutro
adding a link to the original topic

[IErrors]

This is great -  It's cool to see someone else interested in AS400 automation!

A few years ago I developed an application for my employer that automated iSeries and wrote a massive library to operate on these PCOMM classes. I found that using the AutScreenDesc class was a very reliable way of waiting for a screen by first describing it then calling the WaitForScreen() method. Alternatively, the WaitForString() and WaitForStringInRect() methods work just as well.

I also found the SetConnectionByHandle() method was a bit more reliable when dealing with multiple sessions.

I wish I could share the lib, but unfortunately it technically doesn't belong to me

Though IBM provides a wealth of knowledge on these classes here and even provide VB example code which makes it super easy to translate into AU3.

[ViciousXUSMC]

Not sure what I will need this for yet, but  I know I will.

Just got assigned t he AS400 and do not know a thing about it.

First things first, gotta go figure out where to get the PTF's and how to install them.

[Neutro]

Welcome to the AS400 world

PTFs are the windows updates of AS400, so IBM are providing them

Fyi all moderns AS400 are virtual and run on an IBM hypervisior (the same way a VM runs on ESXi), so I recommend you backup your virtual AS400 image before trying anything  

[ViciousXUSMC]

5 hours ago, Neutro said:

Welcome to the AS400 world

PTFs are the windows updates of AS400, so IBM are providing them

Fyi all moderns AS400 are virtual and run on an IBM hypervisior (the same way a VM runs on ESXi), so I recommend you backup your virtual AS400 image before trying anything  

Not ours.  Not one but 2 physical machines

and we have a TON of other servers and services that interface it.

Some of those might be virtual, not sure yet.

Edited August 4, 2017 by ViciousXUSMC

[Neutro]

13 hours ago, ViciousXUSMC said:

Not ours.  Not one but 2 physical machines

and we have a TON of other servers and services that interface it.

Some of those might be virtual, not sure yet.

When you have 2 physical machines, 1 is usually dedicated to business operations and the other one to backup/test.

I find it unlikely that your 2 physical machines are not hypervisors. If they are not then your hardware is most likely kinda old ^^

As i told you by PM you should try to contact IBM support

Edited August 5, 2017 by Neutro

[PhilippeLabarre]

Thanks for the information, that is very helpful.

I almost succeed to do what I try to do.

I tried to get screen content using  GetScreen function but I always got errors.

Is it my syntaxe or it's not possible to use that function ?

My code.

global $oOIA = ObjCreate("PCOMM.autECLOIA")
$oOIA.SetconnectionByName("A")

global $oPS = ObjCreate("PCOMM.autECLPS")
$oPS.SetConnectionByName("A")

Global $actualKw

$oPs.GetScreen($actualKw, 51, 9, 18, 50);

MsgBox($MB_SYSTEMMODAL,"Actual Web Keyword", _ArrayDisplay($actualKw))

 

[PhilippeLabarre]

I got what I wanted by using 

$oPs.GetText(9, 18, 50);

 

[Charlie12]

Hi Guys, im new on this and i'm trying to automate an AS400 console, im following the example of Neutro but when trying to declare the variables im having the following error:

"C:\Windows_x86-64\TestScript.au3" (4) : ==> Variable must be of type "Object".:
$oOIA.SetconnectionByName("TESTENV")
$oOIA^ ERROR

Following the code:

global $oOIA = ObjCreate("PCOMM.autECLOIA")
$oOIA.SetconnectionByName("TESTENV")

global $oPS = ObjCreate("PCOMM.autECLPS")
$oPS.SetConnectionByName("TESTENV")

RunWait("acslaunch_win-64.exe")

Sleep(5000)

 

If you can give me a light on how to get around of this error or do the SetCursorPos on the window it will be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[Neutro]

Hey,

Sorry to answer a bit late but better late than never ;)

For this to work you need to have the IBM iseries software installed on your computer and check that you can effectively use it to connect to interface with your AS400 with the 5250 emulator as displayed in my screenshots in my first post.

If you do not have the iseries software and the 5250 interface emulator installed the object creation will fail in autoIT and you will get the error message that you had.

Also in your code you used SetconnectionByName("TESTENV") but "TESTENV" here is wrong. Please read again my first post, instead of "TESTENV" this should be the letter of the session that is displayed when you open the 5250 interface emulator as shown in my screenshots (letter A and B in my examples).

If you set anything else than the right letter in SetconnectionByName the code will fail.

Also if i recall correctly, when i did this post back in 2017 it was on windows 7. If my memory is right i've tried using the same on Windows 10 and it also worked, but i'm not 100% sure.

Also i just checked and saw that the "IBM i Access for Windows" software that includes the iseries software that i'm referring to has been discontinued if i'm not wrong:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-i-access-windows

and replaced by the new version called "IBM i Access Client Solutions". 

I stopped working on AS400 for a while now so i dont know if the code in my first post still work with this version, but even if IBM say in their article that the first version of I Access for Windows has been discontinued and does not support Windows 10, it might still work properly as i tested it back then when i was working on migrating our IT from windows 7 to win10 and had no problems.

[Ravali]

Hi ,

Error message “unknown function name” is thrown when trying to create objects for autECLOIA or autECLPS. Do we have to include any libraries before hand. If so how to include them. 
I have gone threw different posts but unable to find the libraries or how to include them.

Thanks in advance.

@water: could you provide me an advice on the above issue.

Edited September 23, 2020 by Ravali

[water]

I have never worked with AS400, just with IBM mainframes.
You have to make sure that the correct software and the correct version is installed (as Neutro describes above).
How to do this and how to set up the computer for automation is described in the docu of the software.

Sorry for not being more specific but that's all I can do based on the information you provide.

[Ravali]

@water/ @Neutro : Sorry for the less information provided. I am just trying to connect and automate ibm as400 database using autoit.Do i have to include or download any libraries for auto it to recognize the below statements. Unknown function name is thrown when trying to create object for autECLOIA or autECLPS.

global $oOIA = ObjCreate("PCOMM.autECLOIA")
$oOIA.SetconnectionByName("A")

global $oPS = ObjCreate("PCOMM.autECLPS")
$oPS.SetConnectionByName("A")

[Danp2]

Sounds like either you don't have the correct software from IBM installed or one of their libraries isn't properly registered.

[mLipok]

@Ravali  to  forum.

Please make a small reproducer just how you create object and connect, of course do not forget to anonymize your security related data.

 

[water]

But please first answer Danp2' s questions.

• Which software do you use?
• Which version do you use?

[Ravali]

Hi,

I am able to access the AS400 Ibm sessions manually. But facing the issue when trying to automate through autoit.

As am able to access the application without any issue , I dnt think this might be the download problem of the software.

I am using IBM Personal Communications iseries as neutro mentioned in his first post.

Session manager version 6.0 for windows is used.

The code in autoit is

Global $oOI=ObjCreate(“PCOMM.autECLOIA”)

Global $oPS=ObjCreate(“PCOMM.autECLPS”)

 

this might be a silly mistake but am unable to figure it out as am new to autoit.

Thanks in advance.

 

[water]

Maybe when installing PComm the libraries needed by AutoIt haven't been selected and hence are now missing?

[mLipok]

14 hours ago, mLipok said:

Please make a small reproducer just how you create object and connect, of course do not forget to anonymize your security related data.

Again please post small reproducer to this

2 hours ago, Ravali said:

Global $oOI=ObjCreate(“PCOMM.autECLOIA”)

Global $oPS=ObjCreate(“PCOMM.autECLPS”)

Complete I mean which you run to check....

Edited September 25, 2020 by mLipok

[water]

According to this post you need to create objects for the connection manager and a session and then you call autECLOIA and autECLPS.
Could you please give this code a try?

Edit: You need HACL (Host Access Class Library) objects as described here to automate a PCOMM session.
A good overview can be found here.
My understanding is that at least you have to create a connection.

Edited September 25, 2020 by water