General information about mapping routines in terminal flows

In a terminal flow, you can use mappings to manage data, as you do in nonterminal flows. Also, a terminal flow contains mappings that the host editor creates during flow recording to implement AID key actions, Input actions, Extract actions, or Insert actions.

Recall that a terminal flow is a flow that interacts directly with the application screens of a terminal application running on a remote z/OS® system (see Terminal flow).

In terminal flows a mapping routine can be associated with any of the following items:

An Assign node
An input terminal or an output terminal of an Invoke screen operation node.

You can access these mapping routines in two ways:

By making selections in the flow editor that cause the primary mapping file of the flow to be opened in the mapping editor (see Basic tasks with mapping routines in the flow editor).
By opening the mapping file directly with the mapping editor in the EST Project Explorer (see Opening a mapping file).

Note: A terminal flow can access only the mapping routines in its primary mapping file (see Mapping files).

Mapping routines in terminal flows are used for some of the same data-management tasks that you would use mapping routines for in nonterminal flows, including:

Retrieving the input parameters for the flow or setting the output parameters for the flow.
Transferring data from one variable to another.
Performing arithmetic, logical, and string operations on data and storing the result into a variable.

However, you cannot use mappings to manage the input parameters and the output parameters for an invocation, because a terminal flow cannot invoke other entities.

Also, a terminal flow contains mappings that the host editor creates during flow recording for each application screen, to implement the actions (AID key actions, Input actions, Extract actions, or Insert actions) that you specify for the application screen during flow recording (see Overview of creating an action and How actions are implemented in mappings: AID key, Input, Extract, and Insert).

The mappings created for AID key actions, Input actions, and Insert actions are stored into the mapping routine associated with the input terminal of the Invoke screen operation node corresponding to the application screen for which you created the actions.

The mappings created for Extract actions for the same application screen are stored into the mapping routine associated with the immediately preceding Invoke screen operation node or Assign node (see Implementation of Extract actions and Insert actions).