The Terminal Emulator enables a machine to connect to and communicate with another machine using a command line or graphical interface. The Terminal Emulator uses the Telnet or SSH protocol to communicate with other machines.

The Terminal Emulator command enables you to connect to and automate tasks on another machine. You can use this command to access and control operations on a remote machine.

To learn more, search for the Automating Tasks Using the Terminal Emulator course in Automation Anywhere University: RPA Training and Certification (A-People login required).

Before you start

1. Establish a connection with a host machine using the Connect command.

   You must first establish a connection with a host machine to automate any Terminal Emulator related task. When establishing the connection, specify the details of the host machine and associate it with a session name. The system uses the session name in other commands so that you do not have to provide details of the host machine in those commands again. See Using Connect command.

   Important: If you use any other command from this package before establishing the connection, the system encounters an error.
2. Use the other Terminal Emulator commands to automate a task. For example, use the Get field command to retrieve the value from a particular field.
3. After you have automated all the Terminal Emulator related tasks, terminate the connection to the host machine using the Disconnect command.

The following commands are available:

Connect

See Using Connect command.

Control

Provides the option to perform the following operations on the terminal console:

• Show Terminal: Shows the terminal screen. This command enables you to show the terminal screen when the Show Terminal Window option from the Connect command is not selected. It is useful when you want to display the terminal screen when a bot is performing certain tasks.
• Hide Terminal: Hides the terminal screen. This command enables you to hide the terminal screen when the Show Terminal Window option from the Connect command is selected. It is useful when you do not want to display the terminal screen when a bot is performing certain tasks.
• Clear Terminal: Clears the screen of the terminal.
• Set Cursor Position: Sets the position of the cursor on the screen of the terminal based on the row number and the column number you provide.
  Note: You can enter a value between 1 to 999 to specify the row and column number where you want to set the cursor.

Disconnect

Terminates the connections you have established using the Connect command with another machine.

Get All Fields

Gets values of all the fields from the terminal console and assigns them to an array variable for the TN3270 and TN5250 terminal types.

• Specify the Terminal emulator session name that you used to establish a connection with the terminal using the Connect option.
• Select the array variable to store the retrieved data from the Assign the value to an existing array variable list. The array stores each field as a row, with values of each field organized in the following columns:
  • Field index
  • Field name
  • Field value
  • Is Editable (yes/no)
  • Is Hidden (yes/no)

Get Field

Gets value of a field based on its Index or Name and assigns it to a variable for the TN3270 and TN5250 terminal types.

Get Text

Retrieves text from the terminal and stores it in a variable. Select from the following options:

• Last Line: Retrieves text from the last line of the terminal.
• All Lines: Retrieves text from all lines of the terminal.
• Line From-To: Retrieves text from the specified range of rows in the terminal. You must provide values in the Start Row and End Row fields to specify the range.
• Lines With Column Range: Retrieves text from the specified range of columns in the terminal. You must provide values in the Start Column and End Column fields to specify the range.

Note:

• When you connect to the mainframe server, the lower security cipher for the TLS/SSL connection is now supported for the TN3270 and TN5250 terminal types with Advanced Technology.
• For a TN5250 terminal, the Get Text command returns incorrect values when there is data in a hidden field and the Include Hidden Text option, and the Advanced Technology option from the Connect command are not selected.
• For ANSI/VT terminal types, changes in the font style, size, layout, or format might change the text on the screen and the Get Text output in Advance Technology compared to Legacy Technology.

  This issue does not occur when Legacy Technology is used.

Search Field

Searches for the field based on the text it contains. You can specify the text based on which you want to search the field and select an option to specify whether to retrieve the index or name of the field.

Note: If more than one field contains the same text, the system returns only the first field that contains the same text.

Set Field

See Using Set Field command.

Send Text

See Using Send Text command.

Wait

See Using Wait command.