Robot/REPLAY automates interactive processes
Robot/REPLAY, the plug-in for Robot/SCHEDULE, lets you automate System i processes you thought you couldn’t automate. Robot/REPLAY reliably automates interactive functions used by many popular software packages (such as BPCS, Infinium, InforERP [formerly MAPICS], and Prism), as well as by your internally developed applications.
You might be surprised at how quickly Robot/REPLAY can transform manual tasks to automated tasks that run unattended. Like Robot/SCHEDULE, Robot/REPLAY has a “learn” mode that allows you to perform the actions you normally do to submit the job. Robot/REPLAY “learns” the keystrokes required by your application, and stores them in a Replay object. The Replay object can be edited, played back, and scheduled to run in Robot/SCHEDULE. You can even run a Replay object from your own program using the RPYEXECUTE command.
Key concepts to understand
When working with Robot/REPLAY, there are a few key concepts that can help you use the product to its full potential and are useful if you need to contact technical support.
- Multiple Jobs: When you execute a Replay object, it runs a number of System i jobs. At minimum, there are two—a parent (batch) and a Virtual Terminal (interactive) job.
- Parent job: The parent job initiates a Replay session when you run the commands RPYEXECUTE or RPYSTRLRN. It is responsible for starting a Virtual Terminal job and communicating with it. The job log for this job contains status messages that let you determine the success or failure of screen images.
- Virtual Terminal job: The Virtual Terminal (VT) job is an interactive job initiated by the parent job. The keystrokes recorded in the Replay object are executed by this job. The job log for this job contains information about what was actually run by the object. This job displays on Robot/SCHEDULE’s Job Completion History panel with the job name VTSESSION.
- For the rare occasions when a Replay object ends abnormally, the job logs from the parent and VT jobs are very helpful for problem resolution.
- Child job(s): A child job is a batch job submitted by the VT job and is known to Robot/REPLAY. Not all Replay objects run child jobs, but if they exist there can be more than one. If you have specified that Robot/SCHEDULE should wait for the completion of a child job(s), the parent job waits to report its completion status to Robot/SCHEDULE until the child job(s) finishes.
- Play Back Replay Object: When you play back a Replay object, the application does not execute. Robot/REPLAY displays the images as they were captured, unless Robot/SCHEDULE reserved command variables (RCVs) have been substituted for fixed values. If so, their value is resolved during playback.
- Virtual Terminal job attributes: Robot/REPLAY sets the user library list, current library, and several job attributes to match the parent job prior to executing any screen images. If you need more specific information, check the VT job log.
- Authority: To perform any function on a Replay object, the requesting user profile must have *USE authority to the user profile defined for the Replay object.
Contributed by Brenda Peroutka, Maintenance Software Engineer