Reading Data From a MainFrame Screen

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Hi All,

I would like to know if there is a way by which i can read/capture some specific data from a static mainframe screen.

I mean can i read data at some specific position (pixel).

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

--
Thanks & Regards,
Anurag Malani

Posted 6-Feb-15 2:14am

anurag.netdeveloper

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OriginalGriff 6-Feb-15 8:18am

That depends.
What mainframe, where is your software, and how do they communicate?

anurag.netdeveloper 6-Feb-15 8:24am

I am not sure how to add screen prints here otherwise that would have made it lot easier for me to explain the problem.

-> I am doing some data extraction (not any sql query but by giving some parameters on it)

-> The result is displayed in the form of screen (that black mainframe screen)

-> I want to copy the content of this screen in a notepad.

Hope it is clear now.

OriginalGriff 6-Feb-15 8:38am

Is your software running on the same computer that displays the data?

anurag.netdeveloper 6-Feb-15 8:41am

yes

ZurdoDev 6-Feb-15 8:33am

What program is the data in?

anurag.netdeveloper 6-Feb-15 8:36am

If i could dump the contents of that screen in a file, my work will be easy as i will be able to parse data from that file (but i can't parse a screen data)

ZurdoDev 6-Feb-15 8:37am

I'm asking what program is it being displayed in? Are you using Reflection for example? It's some terminal app right?

anurag.netdeveloper 6-Feb-15 8:40am

There is no such issues in displayed data, i just want that data for other manipulations.

ZurdoDev 6-Feb-15 8:43am

You're not understanding. Isn't the data you want "on the screen" in an actual terminal type program?

anurag.netdeveloper 6-Feb-15 8:48am

Yes it is.
Please find below the sample link of screen. Now i need to rip that content from the screen.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kYElx-cyG30/T0vlFuqdZ5I/AAAAAAAAAe8/ylcihSjEzYM/s1600/snapshot32.png

ZurdoDev 6-Feb-15 8:54am

Thank you. That's what I've been asking you all along. :)

So, what is that program? Does it have a scripting language? For example, I used Reflections years ago to screen scrape data from a mainframe. Reflections had a proprietary scripting language similar to VB that allowed me to send keys to it.

anurag.netdeveloper 6-Feb-15 9:07am

Can you please explain more about it.

I'm going to operate this under two assumptions here.

-> By screen scraping you not only mean getting a screen shot but then deciphering text and other items on the screen (data in notepad file).

-> You can't use 3rd party utilities because i don't want to install them on the systems.

I would like to write a C# code for that.

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David I Carter · Answer 1 · 2015-02-10T00:18:00

You should be able to get the characters that are on the screen directly.

There ought to be an interface to the mainframe screen software you are using. This would probably be either DDE or WinHLLAPI. To have any chance of doing this you first need to identify the screen emulator software you are using as there are lots of different ones. Then get a programming guide or similar manual that describes the interface for that emulator. Try talking to the tech support people who look after the mainframe- perhaps they might help. If you are really lucky the help on the screen emulator might give some clues.

If that proves impossible you could try sending ctrl A and control C to the emulator from your program and then see what you get on the clipboard. Try it manually first to see if it gets sensible data. Most mainframe screens have a state called "forms mode" that means you only get the data in the forms boxes and this might complicate things. However there are usually control commands that will flip the screen in and out of forms mode that you might need to use to get what you want. Have a look on the emulators menus it might tell you what it is.

If and when you get the data there will inevitably be some strange characters in there that you don't want. These are screen control characters for bold and colors etc. You probably want to strip those out and you may need to replace them by spaces to keep the formatting.

Sorry its not a simple answer but you do need to do a bit more research to narrow down the problem.