Mainframe test automation using TE Elements

ACCELQ supports automated test logic against mainframe terminal emulators. With the same simple natural language interface, you can build action logic to accomplish data entry and verifications on mainframe applications. ACCELQ supports both HLL and COM-based emulators.

Commands explained in this article work against TE Elements from the element repository. Here is an article on how to set up TE Elements.

Establishing Connection

Open terminal emulator session

Opens a mainframe session with configuration information captured from the given session file. Session file should be available on the Agent machine.

This command must be used before performing any other operations on the TE screen. 

emulator client



session file path

Terminal emulator client type
Supports: attachmate/ibmpc/hummingbird/custom
Choose 'custom' to use host configured setup

file path for TE session file

Note: It is expected that te.ini file is pre-configured on the agent machine.

Read Information

Get terminal emulator field text

TE element

text length

Returns

TE Element to retrieve text

length of text to be retrieved, which can be left blank to retrieve entire field

text from terminal emulator field

Returns

text from the terminal emulator screen

Example output might looks something like this. You can use ACCELQ's JSON command library to parse this information and insert specific business logic.

{
   "1":"First Name << John",
   "2":"First Name << Todd",
   "3":"ID << 9871"
}

Find column with starting text in terminal emulator screen

Gets column number from Terminal Emulator screen, where the given text starts.

screen row

column text to check

Returns

row number on screen

text to find column number

column number where the given text starts

Get cursor row number on terminal emulator screen (COM only)

Gets cursor row number in current terminal emulator screen. If failed to get row number, returns -1.

Returns

row number of the cursor

Get cursor column number on terminal emulator screen (COM only)

Gets cursor column number from current terminal emulator screen. If failed to get cursor column number, returns -1.

Returns

column number of the cursor

Get row number for matching text on terminal emulator screen (COM only)

Gets matching row number for the given search text of current terminal emulator screen. If failed to get row number, returns -1.

search text

Returns

text to search on the screen

row number of the search text on screen. If failed to get row number, returns -1.

Verifying / Inquiring Information

Verify terminal emulator screen has matching text

Verifies that Terminal Emulator screen contains given text.

match criteria

expected text

failure action

match criteria to evaluate

expected text that should exist in the TE

action to be taken if verification fails (continue or abort test case)

Verify terminal emulator screen does NOT have text

Verifies that the current terminal emulator screen does not contain given text.

match criteria

expected text

failure action

match criteria to evaluate

expected Text that should not exist in the TE

action to be taken if verification fails (continue or abort test case)

Verify terminal emulator field text is

TE Element

expected text

match criteria

failure action

TE Element to retrieve text

expected Text that should exist in the TE field

match criteria to evaluate

action to be taken if verification fails (continue or abort test case)

Verify terminal emulator field text is NOT

Verifies that text in the terminal field is NOT matching the given text.

TE Element

expected text

match criteria

failure action

TE Element to retrieve text

expected Text that should not exist in the TE field

match criteria to evaluate

action to be taken if verification fails (continue or abort test case)

Is terminal emulator screen text

Returns true if terminal emulator screen has given text, else returns false.

match criteria

text

Returns

match criteria to evaluate

text to check on screen

true/false

Enter Information

Enter text in terminal emulator field

text TE Element special key

text to enter in the field TE Element to enter text special key ("TAB" or "ENTER") to press after text is entered. Select "None" if no special key is required.

Enter encrypted text in terminal emulator field

Enters encrypted text in given terminal emulator field. Optionally, sends a special key to commit the input.

text TE Element special key

encrypted text to enter in the field TE Element to enter text special key ("TAB" or "ENTER") to press after text is entered. Select "None" if no special key is required.

Enter text in current cursor position on terminal emulator screen

Sends given text to current cursor position on terminal emulator.

text press enter key

text to send press enter key at the end or not

Send special key to Terminal Emulator screen

Sends given special key to current terminal emulator session screen.

special key

special key ("TAB", "ENTER", "PAGEUP", "PAGEDOWN", "HOME" or "END") to enter after text has been entered

Move Cursor to terminal emulator field

Moves Cursor to given terminal emulator field.

TE Element

TE Element which cursor should be moved

Clear terminal emulator screen text

Clears terminal emulator screen text.

Synchronizing on Screen Text

Wait until terminal emulator screen has matching text

Waits up to a given number of seconds for a given text to appear on the terminal emulator screen.

wait time match criteria text failure action

Maximum time in seconds, to wait for the text to appear on the terminal match criteria to evaluate text to wait for action to be taken if verification fails (continue or abort test case)

Wait until terminal emulator screen does NOT have text

Waits up to a given number of seconds for a text to disappear on the Terminal Emulator screen.

wait time match criteria text failure action

Maximum time in seconds, to wait for the text to disappear from the TE screen match criteria to evaluate text to wait for action to be taken if verification fails (continue or abort test case)

Close terminal emulator session

Closes the current TE session.

Note: Screenshot issues when connected using RDP

If you are connecting to the VM or the desktop which hosts the Mainframe terminal using RDP, ensure the following so that test execution can successfully create screenshots.

• Do not close RDP Session directly by closing the RDP window. Instead, use the following script which will ensure the display drivers are still active when you disconnect RDP. Create this batch file on the host machine and simply double-click when you need to disconnect from RDP.
• The batch file should contain the script below. You may name this for example, as disconnect.bat

for /f "skip=1 tokens=3" %%s in ('query user %USERNAME%') do (
  %windir%\System32\tscon.exe %%s /dest:console
)