Host On-Demand Version 11.0 Readme

This file contains information that became available too late for inclusion in the publications or the online help. This file also contains important support information.

Third Party Components' names and license terms are referenced in license.txt, located in the directory where you installed Host On-Demand.

For product documentation, visit the Host On-Demand Information Center. For Windows, the Host On-Demand Information Center is located at Start > Programs > IBM Rational Host On-Demand > Information Center.

For the latest information, please visit the US or Japanese Host On-Demand Web site.

For hints and tips and other support, please visit the Host On-Demand support page.

For product brochures, white papers, redbooks, and other documentation, visit the Host On-Demand library.

For a list of APARs fixed in this release, please refer to the file apars.txt. The location of this file depends on the form in which you received this release:

To print a complete copy of Planning, Installing, and Configuring Host On-Demand with page numbers and a table of contents, use install.pdf, located on the DVD in /doc/xx/doc/install, where xx is your two letter language suffix. You can also open the HTML version, install.html, located on the DVD in /doc/xx/doc/install, where xx is your two letter language suffix.


Changes in Version 11.0.2

Changes in Version 11.0.1

Version 11.0


Changes in Version 11.0.2

Meta Tag Editor for Deployment Wizard

This new feature in Host On-Demand Deployment Wizard will allow administrators to add meta tags in the HTML files are generated. A new panel titled Tags has been added under Advanced Options->Other->Tags. This pane of the Tags panel has a text area where administrators can type the meta tags to be added as per the HTML syntax.

To add the meta tags follow these steps:

  1. Select Advanced Options ->Other->Tags.

  2. Add meta tags (as per the HTML syntax) in the text area located on the right pane.

For example, a meta tag for disabling Google indexing is:

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">

Host On-Demand does not perform any HTML syntax validation on the content being added in the text area. Whatever text is added by the administrator will be written to the HTML file created by the Deployment Wizard under the Header tag.

When the administrator edits the HTML file using the Deployment Wizard, the text area will show the previously added meta tags. If the administrator wants to add, edit or delete meta tags, this text area content should be modified accordingly.

Catalan Language Support

Catalan language support has been added starting this release level of Host On-Demand V11.

ISMP does not support Catalan language, and as a result, the installer panels for Host On-Demand will not display installation or text messages in Catalan language.

No timeout for Connected status message

This new HTML parameter will allow the Connected status message on the Host On-Demand session status bar remain until the next message arrives. This applies to 3270 sessions only.

Name: persistConnectedStatusMessage

Value: true or false

Description: To use this feature, set the HTML parameter 'persistConnectedStatusMessage' to 'true'. The default value is 'false', which means the Connected status message will continue to be removed  from the status bar after a predefined time-out value.

No Help button for custom beans applications

Starting this release, the Help button from Host On-Demand's Custom Function Dialog in the Keyremap bean has been removed. This allows Host On-Demand beans users to add their application-specific help support and remove any redundancy.

3278 APL Extended Character Code support

Starting this level of release, Host On-Demand supports 3278 APL Extended Character Code along with 3270 APL Characters for 3270 Display sessions.

Configuration: The ExtendedAPL applet which has the mappings for 3278 APL Extended Character Set can be added to the session at startup as follows:

  1. Start the Deployment Wizard and select Create/edit the HTML. In the Properties window for any session to be used with APL, add the following in the Start Options tab:

    1. Set the Auto-Start pull-down to Applet.
    2. Type com.ibm.eNetwork.HOD.applet.ExtendedAPL in the Auto-Start Name field.
  2. Save the HTML file.
  3. Access the new/modified html on the client system.
  4. APL can be enabled or disabled by pressing the Ctrl+F11 keys.

This applet can also be run after the session has been started by selecting Actions > Run applet from the session menu and typing com.ibm.eNetwork.HOD.applet.ExtendedAPL as the name of the applet.

To run this applet in WCT, hodappln2.jar (or hodappl2.jar if problem determination is enabled) user needs to be added as User Jar file while creating the plugin.

Note: The addition of 3278 APL Extended Character Code does not affect the existing 3270 APL functions, which can be enabled using the Ctrl+F8 key combination.

This support is available only for the Type 3 APL keyboard layout. (Not available for BIDI, Thai and Hindi codepages.)

The Regional and Language settings of the system should be as follows -

When the ExtendedAPL applet is running, the Ctrl+F11 key combination is always used to enable and disable Extended APL mode, and any action assigned to this combination in keyremap will be ignored.

New public APIs to import and export color remap properties

public Properties getRemapColors();

This method will return a Java Properties object with all the modified color properties for the current session. If default colors are not changed and this method is called, it will return an empty Properties object. This object will have key value pairs as the Color remap property string (based on the host type) and a numeric value which is the color code (combination of both foreground and background).

Note: Writing the properties object to a file (if needed) should be implemented by the user or programmer in their application. One of the ways of doing this is by using the Java API 'properties.store(new FileOutputStream("filename.properties"), null);'

public void setRemapColors(Properties p);

This method will take a Properties object (similar to the one returned by getRemapColors() method) and apply the colors defined in the properties object to the current session. The properties object passed to this method should have key value pairs as the Color remap property string (based on host type) and a numeric value which is the color code (combination of both foreground and background).

Note: Reading the properties from a file (if needed) should be implemented by the user/programmer in their application. One of the ways of doing this is by using the Java API : 'properties.load(new FileInputStream("filename.properties"));'


Changes in Version 11.0.1

Enhanced HOD Status Bar

The HOD status bar has been enhanced for  Lu-Lu sessions. With this new enhancement, the HOD Status Bar now also displays the LU name (if set) with the host name and port number by default.

Bidirectional layout transformation in HOD macro extract/prompt actions

Bidirectional layout transformation in HOD macro extract/prompt actions enables the bidirectional layout transformation from user-specified client-side attributes to the current session attributes (current Presentation Space format) and vice versa. For example, if the client is Logical LTR, and the session format (current Presentation Space format) is Visual RTL, the text of prompt action will be converted from Logical LTR to Visual RTL so the data will be displayed correctly on the Presentation Space. Also, the extracted text will convert from Visual RTL (current Presentation Space format) to Logical LTR to display correctly.

In order to enable the BIDI transformation in the macro extract/prompt action, three parameters should be added:

For the prompt action:

Japanese JIS2004 Unicode support

The JIS2004 support is separated from original 1390/1399 host code page and two new host code pages are added into the host code page selection list for JIS2004 support. Select 1390 Japanese (Katakana Unicode Extended; JIS2004) or 1399 Japanese (Latin Unicode Extended; JIS2004) host code page to enable JIS2004 support. The following functions are also enabled for JIS2004 support:

Improved ToolBar merging

This release includes enhanced logic for merging the buttons in the HTML-based HOD client, based on button entries in the server as well as in the client.

Note: An earlier enhancement, HTML parameter "mergeToolbarConfigs", had to be set to "true" to enable the enhanced button merging; the parameter was set to "false" by default. With this feature, the HTML parameter is "true" by default, so it does not need to be set explicitly. Also, setting the HTML parameter to "false" will disable the buttonBar merge logic for that particular HOD client. By setting it to "false", however, you may need to reset the buttonBar once in the client system to see the server buttons if they do not appear. This is due to a difference between the old and the new buttonBar settings formats. Resetting the client buttonBar clears the client button settings. To do this, right-click with a mouse on buttonBar and click "Set to Default".
 

Find Host On-Demand server version installed

To find the HOD version installed on your system (server system only), invoke the HODVersion.class file under sm.zip with a simple command.

In the command prompt, type the following:

%JAVA_ENGINE% -classpath %HODVERSIONCLASSPATH%
com.ibm.eNetwork.HODUtil.services.admin.HODVersion

where

Note: Available on all supported server platforms.

Improved Offline feature

With this enhancement, HOD displays the Dialog window with an ADD FAVORITES button and a text field. You can give the bookmark a different name by editing the name in the text field. Clicking Add Favorites adds the URL to the Favorites in the browser window. You click the Continue button to access HOD. This enhancement is available only for Microsoft Internet Explorer with Java2.

Note: This enhancement only works if the default Favorites path is unchanged.

Support Statements

SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 8.2, 9.0 and 10.0 (For HOD Client and Server)

Windows Server 2008 R2 (For HOD Client and Server)


Version 11.0

Screen History

This feature provides users the opportunity to view or go through the screens that are previously navigated. This is particularly useful for Host On-Demand 3270 and 5250 Display Sessions, which are screen-based. The Screen History feature also allows the users to re-use any data from previously navigated screens on the current screen. For example, if you need data from the first screen and are currently on the 10th screen, you can navigate to the first screen through Screen History and retrieve its data. Screen History feature is available in two flavors - Traditional and Simple.

Hot spot Enhancements

Host On-Demand V11 provides several new types of enhanced hotspot capabilities along with the option to make each hotspot 3D. Five types of hotspots are available. URL hotspots is active by default, but you must activate the others (Mailto, Function/Number Hotspots, Execute macro/script, Point-and-Select Commands) before you can use them. You must use a mouse for hotspots- they really provide a way of performing functions with a mouse rather than with keys.

This new feature provides users the capability to search text in their current display session. Under this new feature, users can enable the SearchText Panel from the View menu similar to other menu items such as Keypad, Macro Manager, and the like. This panel contains a text field, Next and Previous buttons, IgnoreCase and Wrap Search check boxes. In VT sessions, this panel has one extra field to include the text logged into the VT history.

Quick Connect

Host On-Demand V11 provides an option for quickly starting a new session from the current session. To start a new session using the Quick Connect feature, the user has the option to copy the reference of the current icon object associated with the current session and clone this object. Specifying hostname is mandatory. This feature is also available for FTP sessions.

Scratch Pad

This new feature provides a text editor in the session window, which helps the user to write notes and get text from the terminal screen on demand. The Scratch Pad (text editor) provides an option to save its contents (text) to a file. Option is also available to send selected text from terminal screen to scratch pad.

SSH Banner

In the latest release of Host On-Demand, the SSH server sends an SSH Banner message at any time after the authentication protocol starts and before authentication is successful. This message contains text to be displayed to the client user before a user attempts authentication. The SSH banner displays on the terminal screen. An option is provided in the SSH properties dialog to enable or disable banner.

Display session watermark

With this new feature in HOD V11, Administrators can now add an image that will be displayed on the session screen as a watermark. The host data will continue to get displayed in its pre-configured settings (text size, etc) on the terminal screen. The watermark overlays the screen data in such a way that the user can continue working with the terminal screen as usual. This allows an administrator to customize the display session by embedding a watermark in addition to enhancing the visual appeal. This feature also provides the end user a facility to select an image that will be used to display on the terminal in the client machine and an option to change the opacity of the watermark to let the screen data remain clearly visible.

Deployment Wizard for Linux

Starting form HOD V11, Deployment wizard is supported on all supported platforms of Linux Flavors capable of displaying the GUI.

Field Oriented Copy/Paste

This new function allows the user to copy data from the session screen in the form of a table. This table is determined by the position of the fields on the screen. Unlike the already available Copy as Table function wherein the data is divided into columns based on the space characters appearing on the screen text, this enhancement will segregate data into columns based on the field positions on the display session.

Japanese JIS2004 Unicode support

The JIS2004 support can now be enabled by selecting the existing host code pages 1390 Japanese (Katakana Unicode Extended) and 1399 Japanese (Latin Unicode Extended).

Copy SO/SI as space

Host On-Demand V11 offers the Copy SO/SI as space option into the Cut/Copy tab of the Edit window. The Copy SO/SI as space option would be only available in the 3270/5250 DBCS session and unavailable in the SBCS/VT session.

Print Multiple Screens in one Page

This new feature provides an option to the users to print multiple captured screens on one page.

Additional HTTP Proxy Option

Support has been added for establishing a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connection to an HTTP proxy for display sessions. The Proxy SSL Options can be configured on the Proxy Server panel of the display session properties. It is SSLv3 only. TLS is not supported. If the certificate used by the HTTP proxy is from a well known certificate authority like VeriSign or Thawte, the WellKnownTrustedCAs file is used. If the certificate used by the HTTP Proxy is a self signed certificate, it must be added to the CustomizedCAs.p12 file using the Host On-Demand Certificate Management utility (IKEYMAN). The Proxy Authentication Method can be set to either None or Basic. This SSL support is for HTTP proxies only; it does not support SOCKS proxies. This was tested using the IBM HTTP Server 6.1.

GUI Option for Enabling Contention Resolution

Host On-Demand V11 provides the option for the Host On-Demand Administrator and/or Clients to enable/disable Contention Resolution for 3270 Enhanced Display Session.

Menu items in Host On-Demand V11 have been reordered based on groups and submenu items accordingly. For example, in the Edit menu, the Copy Append and Copy as Table have been merged under the Copy Special sub-menu item. This reordered menu provides a more logical grouping of tasks for users.

Codepage 1166 (Kazakhstan) for 3270 display sessions

The 1166 Kazakhstan Euro codepage has been added for 3270 sessions. Note that for host file transfer, there is currently no native codepage 1166 support on Windows platforms. Therefore, files received from the host using Text Transfer Mode are written to the client file system in Unicode, Little Endian. Similarly, files to be sent to the host using Text Transfer Mode must be in Unicode, Little Endian format on the client system. This restriction does not apply to files transferred in Binary mode.

Codepage PRC GBK (936) for VT sessions

In earlier versions of Host On-demand, VT session support the UTF8 codepage but does not support the native DBCS codepage. Therefore DBCS characters could not be input or displayed correctly in a VT session if your host codepage was set to GB2312. In the latest version of Host On-Demand, a new codepage PRC GBK has been added to the host code page list in the Host On-Demand VT session to resolve this issue .

Save history from current screen in VT

A new method, setHistoryFromCurrentScreen(boolean b), is added only for HACL users (it is not currently available in HOD GUI) to start writing history to the file from current screen without the text in history buffer. This should be set to true before you start writing history to a file.

CMS ZipPrint Support

This support allows you to print the CMS files available on the VM/CMS system using ZipPrint. Note: This feature does not provide DBCS or Thai support. This feature works only for the VM/CMS system and not for MVS/TSO or CICS systems.

Shortcut keys for submenu items

In previous versions, Host On-Demand provided keyboard shortcuts using the Alt key for only the main menu items, such as File, Edit, View, Communication, Actions and Help. With this new enhancement added in Host On-Demand V11, keyboard shortcuts using Alt key combinations are provided to invoke the submenu items under the above-mentioned main menu items. The appropriate key to use in combination with the Alt key will be highlighted by an underline. This enhancement will apply to the menu items available in 3270, 5250, VT display sessions and in FTP sessions.

Host On-Demand Authentication with LDAP and RACF on System z

Host On-Demand V11 can now leverage the "native authentication" feature available on z/OS to authenticate Host On-Demand users.

Application Data Directory for Host On-Demand Data

Starting from Host On-Demand V11, the Administrator can configure Host On-Demand to store the cached client and user data in the Application Data directory of Windows clients. Normally on Windows clients, Host On-Demand stores the data under the "Documents and Settings\lt;user name>\" directory. However, if the Application Data directory support is enabled, Host On-Demand will use the "Documents and Settings\lt;user name>\Application Data\IBM\HostOnDemand\" directory for storing both the cached client and user preferences. A new HTML parameter has been added to support this feature

Allow Special alpha characters entering into "Numeric" Only Field for 3270 Display Sessions.

This new enhancement allows you to enter special alpha characters on numeric only field on 3270 sessions. This is helpful where a 3270 application can accept special characters and numeric values to process user requests. This is not enabled by default. A new HTML parameter has been added to support this feature

Make 3270InputAreaIndication as a user configurable option

In earlier versions of Host On-demand, 3270InputAreaIndication was configurable through an HTML parameter. With this new enhancement, Host On-Demand V11 users and administrators can set this parameter while configuring the Host On-Demand session. By default, no values are selected. You can select 1 out of 10 available options.

APL keyboard support

By default, Host On-Demand V11 provides APL keyboard support. Prior to this, APL keyboard support was provided by running customized applet in Host On-demand. In this case, you need to write the applet that contains your mapping for APL keys. With this new enhancement, you no longer need to do this. The APL support in Host On-demand is similar to what is provided with IBM Personal Communications. APL keyboard can be enabled or disabled by pressing Ctrl+F8. APL support is meant only for 3270 sessions.

FIPS Mode

In earlier versions of Host On-demand, FIPS mode authentication can be disabled through a HTML parameter. Starting Host On-Demand V11, A GUI option is provided to enable or disable the FIPS mode for each session. By default FIPS mode is enabled for all the sessions.

Export or Import color configuration information

With this new enhancement, Users can export the Host On-Demand session color remap definitions to either the current session or a file on your local system. Similarly, color remap configuration data can be imported from a file to the Host On-Demand session. Color Remap GUI panel provides both Import and Export buttons. Clicking on each button launches a file selection panel that can be used to import and export color remap configuration data.

DBCS support for CustomTable

In earlier versions of Host On-demand, the CustomTable parameter applied to the single-byte character set (SBCS) only. With this latest version of Host On-Demand, the CustomTable also applies to the double-byte character set (DBCS) except for File upload and File download.

Disable Host On-Demand Menu bar

This new enhancement to the Host On-Demand menu options enables you to disable the entire Host On-Demand menu. A new HTML parameter has been added to support this feature.

Extend Save HTML parameter

This new enhancement in Host On-Demand V11 allows you to specify or modify the default Host On-demand cached client install path and the location for saving user preferences. A new HTML parameter has been added to support this feature


Trademarks

Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both.

Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.