Challenges of the Green ScreenThe green screen just isn’t a welcoming envi-ronment for modern users, and this can lead to big costs for organizations. Training users to work with mainframe applications quickly and accurately is challenging. This is particularly true of younger users who are used to mod-ern interfaces.

Unfortunately, some of the same employees who need access to mainframe applications regularly to be productive work in settings—like call centers, retail floors and in the field—that suffer from high turnover rates. This leads to huge training budgets and slow employee onboarding. What you need is a way to make the green screen much easier to navi-gate and use without modi-fying the original COBOL ap plications themselves.

SmartUx is a tool that lets developers do just that.

SmartUx?SmartUx allows you to add visual elements, drop down menus, and other modern elements to your mainframe application’s interface. Your corporate developers can create functions with short pieces of Visual Basic—often no more than a few lines of code. These new features can guide users, ensure that users enter in-formation in the correct format, or make com-plicated or common tasks easy to find, select, and use.

The Modern Mainframe: SmartUx The mainframe revolutionized data processing when it first appeared 50 years ago. Today, mainframes remain the technological spine of many organizations. Unfortunately, mainframe interfaces are fundamentally different than the Windows applications most of us are used to, in part because many mainframe applications created up to 50 years ago are still in use today. Terminal emulators like Micro Focus® Reflection® provide users access to these mainframe applications plus all the productivity features they’re used to using in Windows applications. But what if you want to go further, and modify the green screen application itself?

Product FlyerSmartUx

SmartUx at a Glance

Modern Interface:

SmartUx allows you to add vi sual elements, drop down menus, and other modern elements to your mainframe appli cation’s interface.

The required field border and the Date Picker are features of Reflection SmartUx.

Product FlyerThe Modern Mainframe: SmartUx

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ButtonsYou can use SmartUx button control to place buttons on your session screen. The buttons can serve as simple labels or messages, or you can design them to perform a variety of actions.

The code for a button is straightforward Visual Basic. To illustrate how little code is required, below is the code to create a button that opens or closes the Reflection Scratch Pad:

‘Declare a global ButtonDecoration with events to bind the button to the buttonclick event

Dim WithEvents button As SmartButton

Private Sub DrawButton() ‘Create the button Set button = New SmartButton

‘Define the button position, dimensions, and text label button.startRow = 3 button.StartColumn = 53 button.EndRow = 3 button.EndColumn = 65 button.ToolTipText = “Hide Scratch Pad” button.text = “Hide Notes”

‘Add the button to the view ThisView.AddSmartControl buttonEnd Sub

‘Handle the ButtonClicked event to toggle the scratch pad visibility.Private Sub button_ButtonClicked(ByVal sender As Variant)

‘toggle the scratch pad on and off If (ThisIbmTerminal.Productivity.ScratchPadPanelVisible) Then ThisIbmTerminal.Productivity.ScratchPadPanelVisible = False button.text = “Show Notes” Else ThisIbmTerminal.Productivity.ScratchPadPanelVisible = True button.text = “Hide Notes”

End If

End Sub

When Time Matters, Get Consultant on Demand

Want to put Reflection SmartUx to work as quickly and easily as possible? Contact us by phone, email, or the web, and we’ll connect you to a dedicated consultant who can help you get the right results. Working as an extension of your team, our consultants provide:

A direct route to fast responses (answers within four business hours).

Deep expertise in host systems, products, and your business.

The same specialized tools used by our onsite consultants, with more convenience and less cost.

Let’s get started today. Contact us at www.attachmate.com/company/contact/.

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DropdownsDropdown lists give you control over data entry, limiting your users to specific possibilities so everyone is using the same terminology and your data remains consistent. You can also use dropdowns to select from a list of actions.

Required Field Indicators or Other BordersSkipping a required field in a form on a host screen is a common mistake, but an annoy-ing one. Required fields should stand out from the rest of a form. You can make them do so

by adding a red required field border around them using SmartUx. You can also add a white border to other fields to draw attention to them or outline them.

Date PickerThe Date Picker control allows users to select dates from a calendar. This is convenient for the user, but it also serves the purpose of uni-fying your date formats. It is common during

data entry to have different users input dates in different formats. This can cause inconsis-tencies in your data or errors when users try to submit information.

Productivity for the Modern WorldModern technology may be moving fast, but mainframe applications aren’t going anywhere. To keep today’s users working productively on green screen applications, you need a better interface. With Reflection, your developers can give your users a customized and improved user experience to keep them working efficiently.

The Date Picker makes selecting dates much easier for users.

This dropdown offers the choice of three applications the user can run.

About Micro Focus

Since 1976, Micro Focus has helped more than 20,000 customers unlock the value of their business logic by creating en-abling solutions that bridge the gap from well-established technologies to modern functionality. The two portfolios work to a single, clear vision—to deliver innovative products supported by exceptional cus-tomer service. www.microfocus.com

SmartUx allows you to add visual elements, drop down menus, and other modern elements your mainframe

application’s interface, significantly improving the user experience and ultimately, productivity.

Micro FocusUK HeadquartersUnited Kingdom+44 (0) 1635 565200

U.S. HeadquartersSeattle, Washington206 217 7100800 872 2829

Additional contact information and office locations: www.attachmate.com

161-000016-001 | A | 07/15 | © 2015 Micro Focus. All rights reserved. Micro Focus, the Micro Focus logo, and Reflection, among others, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Micro Focus or its subsidiaries or affiliated companies in the United Kingdom, United States and other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.