Pathmaker Programming Guide

Modifying Requesters
Advanced Pathmaker Programming Topics
067868 Tandem Computers Incorporated 9–3
Using a Requester Copy
Library
If you want to add your own SCREEN COBOL code to the generated code of a specific
requester or group of requesters, use a requester copy library.
A requester copy library has sections in which you can specify SCREEN COBOL
compiler commands, specify and initialize Working-Storage data items, and make
security checks. Other sections allow you to add your own SCREEN COBOL logic
either before or after:
Every function key action
The initial action of the requester
Every display of the screen’s data
Accepting input from the keyboard
You can use the USER action on the Function Key Assignments screen when you want
the application to execute only the SCREEN COBOL code you supply in a requester
copy library section associated with a particular function key.
The Pathmaker product creates a requester copy library file for you when you first
generate a requester if you provide a name in the Copy Library field on the Requester
Generation Data screen. The requester copy library contains the section names of each
entry point into the generated requester code. The code you add to this copy library
will be incorporated into every requester that includes the copy library’s file name on
the Requester Generation Data screen.
Assume that a requester has been added to the project catalog and is ready for
tailoring. To generate the requester copy library file, follow these steps:
1. Specify a copy library file name and a source code file name on the Requester
Generation Data screen. The Pathmaker product will create these files if they do
not already exist. Update the Requester Generation Data screen.
2. Generate the requester from the Requester Definition screen.
The Pathmaker product creates a requester copy library file with empty section
headings and a SCREEN COBOL source code file that shows you where each section is
copied into the requester.
After you have created a requester copy library file, you can copy it and use it as a
starting point for all your requester copy libraries.
Here are some guidelines for using a requester copy library:
You can delete unused section names from the requester copy library file.
Code you add to this file should only use one of the following:
Working-Storage or DDL definitions and records that you have defined
A subset of Pathmaker variables that will not change in future releases of the
product
The Pathmaker variables that will not change in future releases are described in
“Using Pathmaker Variables and Paragraphs” later in this subsection.