ISPF Dialog Development

Course objectives
The Interactive System Productivity Facility (ISPF) is the standard dialog manager for MVS, OS/390, and z/OS.
The Program Development Facility (PDF) and the Spool Display and Search Facility (SDSF) are two among many of the IBM-supplied dialogs that run under ISPF's control.
On completion of this course, the students will know how to exploit all ISPF features, customize existing dialogs, as well as develop their own ISPF dialogs.

Audience
- System programmers
- Other programmers/analysts who could make efficient use of ISPF

Prerequisites
You need to be acquainted with PDF, for instance after having attended the Job Control Language (JCL) course.
Since all examples and practical exercices are based upon REXX, you need to know that programming language, for instance via the REXX course.

Class infrastructure
The students must have access to an OS/390 or z/OS system and logon under TSO.

Course contents

TSO/E logon procedure

ISPF dialog elements: functions, variables, panels, messages, tables, and file tailoring skeletons

Implicit and extended implicit exec invocations

ISPF product libraries

ISPSTART command

Diagnostic utilities

ISPF termination

Panel types: menus, display panels, table display panels, and help panels

Panel definition

Systems Application Architecture (SAA)

Common User Access (CUA) mode

Edit model classes

Dialog Test facilities

ISPF system commands

Edit use and REXX coding hints and tips

Variable pools

Using preprocessed panels

ISPF in batch mode

Message definition

System variables and Control variables

ISPF command tables

System-level, application-level, and user-level libraries

ISPF services

Pop-up windows

Long message and command line placement

Action bar choices

Dynamic areas

Extendable areas

Scrollable areas

Table processing

Enqueueing

File tailoring

Job Control Language (JCL) generation

Help/tutorial panels

Library access services

Edit macros

SuperC, SuperCE, Search-For, and Search-ForE utilities

ISPF Workstation Agent (WSA) component

ISPF in Graphical User Interface (GUI) mode

File transfer between host (mainframe) and workstation (PC)

Executing workstation commands

Workstation tool integration, i.e. using ISPF Edit to access workstation files and your PC editor to access host data sets.