Rational Developer for System z, Version 7.5

Help function

The Help function allows to branch to a Help documentation screen at any time.

Overview of the Help function

Help documentation is present at two levels:
  • Screen-level Help (how to use the screen),
  • Input field Help (for example, possible values).

The user branches to a Help screen by positioning the cursor on the appropriate field and pressing a PFkey, or by positioning a designated character in the CHOICE field for screen-level Help, or in the desired input field for input field Help.

On the Help screen, the CHOICE enables the user to:
  • Return to the beginning of the Help documentation,
  • Continue scrolling through all Help documentation,
  • Stop the Help display and return to the initial work screen.

The Definition of the Help screen must be created, but it is not described, since its format is fixed and cannot be modified.

The code of this Screen will be XXHELP, where XX is the Dialog code; the external name must also be indicated (PACHELP by default). It must then be generated using the appropriate Type of Cobol and Map to generate, according to the hardware in use.

Contents of the Help function

VA Pac generates documentary Help messages that will be used to document Screens and Data Elements and to explain the rules for information coding and error detection.

These messages can be created as needed and generated on request to update the sequential error message file.

This file will be used to create the applications’ error messages files. These are indexed files or databases depending on the hardware in use.

The error message file of a given application will be accessible in the generated transactions and for documentary purposes via the standard program performing the Help function.

The screen-level Help documentation is taken from the -GE Lines section of the -G Lines tab.

The input field Help documentation is taken from the:
  • Data Element Description (-D Lines tab) in the Repository
  • Documentation of the Screen's Data Elements (text or comments associated with the Data Element) on the -GE Lines; C or T lines following an F line.
  • Standard error messages (type 2 to 5)
  • User error messages (alphabetic type A to Z),
  • User error messages (numeric type 6 to 9).
  • Description lines or text calls associated with Data Element-related errors on the Error messages-Help (-GE Lines section).
    • User errors: C or T lines following a U line.
    • User or standard errors: C or T lines with the error code.
Note: In order to have a better presentation of the HELP screen, the numeric type user error messages should be used rather than the alphabetic type, as the numeric type are grouped together with the standard error messages.
Related tasks
Specifying help messages
Related reference
-GE Lines section

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