SEM Development Guide

Introduction to the SEM Development Guide

Welcome to the Sysgem Enterprise Manager (SEM) Development Guide!

This guide outlines the concepts for developing and/or customizing SEM modules. It introduces the SEM Framework and the tools for developing, testing, and releasing software for the SEM environment.

Readers of this guide should have a prior understanding of the programming language Perl for developing scripts to run on the Windows platform and optionally the command languages for the following platforms:

• Linux / UNIX (Korn Shell)

• OpenVMS (DCL)

• OS/400 (CL)

Overview of SEM Components

This section describes the purpose of the following software components that are installed with the Sysgem Enterprise Manager and it gives an overview of how the components interact with each other:

• SEM Authorization Server

• SEM Management Console (GUI)

• SEM Agents

An overview of the Sysgem Enterprise Manager(SEM) framework is decribed on the SEM Overview page.

Start the SEM Development Interface

This section describes how to edit either your own private SEM library or a SEM Module library that is available to all users of the SEM system.

Before you can access the SEM Development Interface the following three conditions need to be satisfied:

• Your SEM License has to contain the permission to use the Development Interface

• The SEM 'Master Profile' on your system needs to have the permission set

• The SEM 'User Profile' allocated to your SEM account needs to have the permission set

To learn how to set up and start the SEM Development Interface please read the Start SEM Development Interface page.

Navigate the SEM Development Interface

This section describes the features available to the SEM Developer and how to navigate around a SEM library.

The first display shown after selecting the "Edit" ( ) option is a list of "Custom Display Windows" that are contained within the library.

Editing a Custom Display gives the following 'property' pages

• General Page

• Startup Page

• Service Display Page

• Data Cache Page

• Columns Page

• Layouts Page

• Common Page

• Menu Page

• Drag and Drop Page

• Scripts Page

To learn how to create or customize Windows and options within a SEM Module using the SEM Development Interface please read the Navigate SEM Development Interface page.

SEM User Permissions

A user needs an Account in Sysgem Enterprise Manager (SEM) in order to use the product. A SEM user account needs an "Access Control Profile" to control the level of 'SEM Base Privileges', and an Access Control Profile needs "Access Control Token(s)" to control the level of privileges offered by SEM Module(s).

The following sections describe how SEM Accounts, Profiles and Tokens are set up and how the settings are accessed by scripts:

• SEM User Accounts (How to set up a SEM User Account)

• Access Control Profiles (Access Control Profiles are allocated to a 'SEM User' to control what 'SEM Base Privileges' are available)

• Access Control Tokens (Access Control Tokens are allocated to a 'Profile' to control what 'SEM Module Privileges' are available)

Developer Examples

Below is a list of topics giving tips and programming examples to help the SEM Developer:

Defining the Characteristics of an Input Form:

• Field Definitions. (How to create and set up the permanent characteristics of fields on a SEM input form using the SEM Development Interface.)

• Change Input Field View. (How to dynamically change the view of fields on a SEM input form from the "Fields" script.)

Input Variables Preset in Scripts by the SEM Framework:

• Script Input Variables. (Script variables preset by the SEM framework before a script is run and then available as input to the script.)

Controlling Subsequent Actions After a Script has Run:

• Start-up Initialization. (Setting Values in the Start-up window of a SEM Display)

• Suppress Agent Output in Post-process. (Normal output from the SEM Agent may be intercepted and modified by Post-processing)

• Dialogue Boxes. (Display Information/warning/error messages in a pop-up box.)

• Error Tab of Log Window. (Adding an entry into the Error pane of the Log Window.)

• AUTOAPPLY command. (Do not pause to gather input after making a menu selection, but action the transaction as soon as the menu option is selected.)

• AUTOCLOSE command. (Automatically close the input form after a transaction is complete.)

• APPLY_OFF command. (Do not allow the transaction to proceed. The "Apply" button on the input form is made unavailable. The only option is to cancel the transaction after reading the error message.)

Passing Data to a Main Target Agent Script

• Main Display Pre-Processing Script Output (Passing data to the main target agent script when a SEM display is started)

• ADD_SVR from a menu Pre-Process (Passing data to the main target agent script when a SEM Menu Option is run)

Retrieving Data from the Central Options Cache

• Fetch From Options Cache (Fetching data from the Authorization Server Options Cache)

Starting a 'Child' Window from a menu option on a 'Parent' Window

• Spawning a Child Window (Spawn a child window and pass data for display from the parent)