Session Control

Session Control panel (Page 1 of 4)

When you select Session Control from the pull-down menu, the Session Control pop-up panel, shown below, is displayed:

This panel contains the following fields:

• VTAM session LU name prefix

  This prefix consists of the first four characters of the VTAM APPLIDs that were allocated at your site for use by the Message Advisor ISPF interface. Message Advisor ISPF appends a numeric suffix (0001, 0002, etc.) to obtain the complete VTAM APPLID. Depending on howMessage Advisor was installed, this field may be filled in with a prefix for your site. If not or if an error occurs, contact your system administrator.

• VTAM APPLID for Message Advisor

  This APPLID is currently being used by the Message Advisor Server with which you want to communicate. Depending on how Message Advisor was installed, this field may be filled in with an APPLID for your site. If not or if an error occurs, contact your system administrator for assistance.

• VTAM logmode

  This VTAM logmode table entry is assigned at your site for use by Message Advisor. Depending on how Message Advisor is installed, this field may be filled in with a logmode for your site. An invalid logmode will not cause a fatal error, but it may cause a message to appear at your system console or slow down Message Advisor response. When you execute a request or select an option that requires information from the Message Advisor Server, the Message Advisor ISPF interface automatically starts a VTAM LU 6.2 session with the Message Advisor Server identified by the VTAM APPLID described above.

  Some requests may take a long time to complete. The Message Advisor ISPF interface displays the Waiting panel in such cases to inform you about the request status. Any significant messages received from the Message Advisor Server are displayed on the Waiting panel as they are received. The following three options allow you to control the display of the wait panel:

  • Display wait pop-up after

    This option tells the Message Advisor ISPF interface how long to wait (in seconds) before displaying the Waiting pop-up panel for the first time. This capability avoids the overhead of displaying the Waiting panel briefly for requests which complete quickly. The Message Advisor ISPF interface ignores this option and displays the panel immediately if a significant message is received from the Message Advisor Server.

  • When waiting, update display every

    This option tells the Message Advisor ISPF interface how often (in seconds) to update the wait panel after the initial display. The Message Advisor ISPF interface updates the elapsed time display on the panel to assure you that Message Advisor ISPF interface is still waiting for the Message Advisor Server. The panel will be updated immediately if a significant message is received from the Message Advisor Server.

  • Pacing value for message display

    Significant messages from the Message Advisor Server are displayed on the Waiting panel and scrolled off as the panel fills up. If several messages are received at once, they may scroll off the panel before you have time to read them. The pacing value tells the Message Advisor ISPF interface to wait for a short period after displaying each message before displaying the next message. The value is specified in hundredths of seconds (10 indicates 10/100ths or one-tenth of a second). You can always scroll back through the messages when a request completes; so not seeing a message may not cause a problem.

    Some requests for information from the Message Advisor Server may result in hundreds or thousands of data items in reply. If the Message Advisor ISPF interface waited for all of these to be returned, response time would suffer. Therefore, the Message Advisor ISPF interface stops waiting and displays the interim results as soon as possible.

• Maximum destinations per transmission

  When you use option 2 on the Message Advisor Primary Menu to display destinations with messages, the Message Advisor ISPF interface displays a list of destinations as soon as some destinations are returned from the Message Advisor Server. You can scroll past the bottom of the list to retrieve more destinations. Each time you scroll past the bottom, more destinations will be added to the list.

• Maximum log entries per transmission

  When you use option 4 on the Message Advisor Primary Menu to display log and checkpoint history, the Message Advisor ISPF interface displays a list of logs as soon as some SLDS are returned from the Message Advisor Server. You can scroll past the end of the list to retrieve more data set names. Each time you scroll past the end, more data set names are added to the list.

• Maximum QPF problem list entries

  When you use option 8 on the Message Advisor Primary Menu to display the QPF Problem List, the Message Advisor ISPF interface displays the problems list. This is the default maximum number of entries to be displayed.

Session Control panel (Page 2 of 4)

To see page 2 of the Session Control pop-up panel, shown below:

This panel contains the following fields:

• When executing command sets, show

  The Message Advisor ISPF interface displays significant messages on the Waiting panel while a request is executing. You use this option to tell the Message Advisor ISPF interface which messages are significant. This option applies only to requests that you explicitly execute from option 1 on the Message Advisor Primary Menu.

• For internal ISPF requests, show

  Use this option to tell Message Advisor ISPF which messages are significant for internal ISPF requests. The Message Advisor ISPF interface issues these requests internally to obtain data from the Message Advisor Server. For example, options 2, 3, 4, and 5 on the Message Advisor Primary Menu all result in internal ISPF requests.

• Log/Checkpoint list order

  Option 4 on the Message Advisor Primary Menu, as well as the PROMPT action for checkpoints and log data set names when building a REQUEUE command, results in a display of logs and/or checkpoints. Use this option to control the order of these lists. When the list is first displayed, the most recent elements will be displayed whether they are at the top or the bottom of the list. You then scroll up or down to access older elements.

Session Control panel (Page 3 of 4)

To see page 3 of the Session Control pop-up panel, shown below:

This panel contains the following fields:

• Prompt for VTAM LU names each time a session starts

  If you do not select this option, the Message Advisor ISPF interface automatically starts a session with VTAM and with the Message Advisor Server whenever necessary, by using the APPLIDs specified on Page 1 of 4. If you select this option, the Message Advisor ISPF interface prompts you before starting a session. This prompt is useful if you have several Message Advisor Servers and want to be able to select the appropriate Message Advisor Server for each request.

• Include default values in all command sets built

  Use this option when you build a request (option 1 on the Message Advisor Primary Menu). The Message Advisor command sets can contain many keywords, most of which have default values. If you do not select this option, the command sets you build will not contain any of the keywords for which you have selected the default value. This feature makes the command sets simpler and easier to understand. If you select this option, the command sets you build will contain all applicable keywords, even if the default value was selected. This selection makes the command sets longer but shows the options you chose more explicitly and makes it easier to edit the command set if you want to update a value manually.

• Confirm before executing/submitting a request

  If you select this option, when you use the execute ( Q or X) action from the Member List or the EXECUTE or SUBMIT command while updating a request, you are prompted to confirm the request.

• Confirm JCL before adding for submit

  If you select this option, when you use the execute ( X) action from the Member List or use the SUBMIT command while updating a request, the Message Advisor ISPF interface checks the member to see whether it contains JCL. If so, the Message Advisor ISPF interface submits it as is without confirmation. If the member contains no JCL, the Message Advisor ISPF interface appends the JCL before submitting the request. The Confirm JCL panel is displayed to show you the JCL before adding it to the request.

• Confirm before deleting members

  If you select this option, when you use the delete ( D) action from the Member List, you are prompted to confirm the requested deletion.

• Confirm before saving members

  If you select this option, when you use the save ( S) action from the Member List to update a request and make any changes, the Confirm Save panel is displayed when you exit or cancel. You can choose to save the request in the same or a different member or to cancel the changes.

• Confirm changes to individual command sets

  If you select this option, after updating an individual command set in a request, the Confirm Changes panel is displayed. With this panel you can accept or cancel the changes. Accepting the changes here does not save the request; it merely updates the request in storage. You can still cancel all changes to the request without saving. The purpose of this confirmation is to allow you to cancel changes to the command set without affecting other changes you may have made to other command sets.

• Confirm before dequeueing messages interactively

  If you select this option, the Confirm DEQUEUE panel is displayed when you use option 2 on the Message Advisor Primary Menu to display messages and then use the Dequeue message ( D) action to dequeue messages.

• Confirm before saving changes to customization options

  If you select this option, the Confirm Save panel is displayed when you use option 5 on the Message Advisor Primary Menu to update and save customization options.

• Confirm before deleting customization options

  If you select this option, the Confirm Delete panel is displayed when you use option 5 on the Message Advisor Primary Menu and then use the Delete ( D) action to delete a set of customization options.

• Confirm before executing QPF actions

  If you select this option, the Confirm QPF Actions panel is displayed when you use option 8 on the Message Advisor Primary Menu and then initiate a QPF action against any problem on the QPF Problem List.

Session Control panel (Page 4 of 4)

To see page 4 of the Session Control pop-up panel, shown below: