Passing commands to a dialog function

Any command that is not found in the application or system command table is passed, unaltered in the command field, to the dialog. This occurs regardless of whether the command was typed in the command field or entered by use of a function key or the attention field.

You can force a command to be passed to the dialog, even if the command exists in the command table, by typing a greater-than symbol (>) in front of the command.

Any command in the command table that has an action of PASSTHRU is processed as though the command were not found in the table. It is passed in the command field to the dialog.

Commands can also be passed to the dialog using the SETVERB action. This action causes the dialog manager to separate the name from the command parameters, if any. The command is stored in variable ZVERB, which is in the shared pool. The left-justified command parameters are passed in the command field to the dialog.

Table 1. Examples of passing commands to the dialog
ZCTVERB	ZCTTRUNC	ZCTACT
QUERY	0	SETVERB

The verb QUERY is stored in variable ZVERB and the character string, such as DEPT 877 in the examples shown, is passed in the command field.

These actions produce the same results:

Typing QUERY DEPT 877 in the command field and pressing Enter.
Typing DEPT 877 in the command field and pressing a function key that has been equated to the character string QUERY.
Pressing a function key that has been equated to the character string QUERY DEPT 877.
Using the light pen or cursor-select key to select an attention field that contains the character string QUERY DEPT 877.

These system commands, distributed with the DM component, are defined as SETVERB action commands:

END     UP
RETURN  DOWN
RFIND   LEFT
RCHANGE RIGHT

The ZVERB variable can be used to distinguish between END and RETURN. The effect of END and RETURN on the DISPLAY service is the same because RETURN is used to simulate repeated END commands, until a primary option menu is reached.

RFIND and RCHANGE are used only by ISPF View, Browse, and Edit. Thus, these commands are not passed back to a user dialog in ZVERB.

The commands UP, DOWN, LEFT, and RIGHT are only active when a scrollable panel is displayed. Use of these commands from a nonscrollable panel results in a command is not active message.