Command Table Utility panel fields

The fields on the Command Table Utility panel function as follows:

Application ID: Contains the name of an application for which you want to define commands.
Show description field: Allows you to display the descriptions as well as the commands and definitions.

The command table for the named application is displayed on a Command Table editing panel (Figure 1). This panel can be scrolled up and down using the scroll commands.

Figure 1. Command table editing panel (ISPUCMD)

   File  Menu  Utilities  Help
 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
                                  Update TSTCMDS                Row 1 to 4 of 4

 Insert (I), delete (D), repeat (R) and edit (E) command entries.
 Enter END command to save changes or CANCEL to end without saving.

      Verb      T  Action
      SORT      0  SELECT PGM(PQRSORT) PARM(&ZPARM)
      PREPARE   4
      QUIT      2  ALIAS END
      EXPLAIN   4
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 Command ===>                                                  Scroll ===> PAGE
  F1=Help      F2=Split     F3=Exit      F7=Backward  F8=Forward   F9=Swap
 F10=Actions  F12=Cancel

The column headings on the panel are:

Verb

The command verb, which is the name of the command you are defining in the command table. A command verb must be 2 to 8 characters long, inclusive, and must begin with an alphabetic character. The content of this column is assigned to the ZCTVERB system variable.

T (truncation)

The minimum number of characters that you must enter to find a match with the command verb. If this number is zero or equal to the length of the command verb, you must enter the complete command verb. For example, in Figure 1 the PREPARE command has a truncation value of 4. Therefore, for the TST application used as the example in the figure, only the first four letters, PREP, must be entered to call this command. The content of this column is assigned to the ZCTTRUNC system variable.

Action

The actual coding of the action to be carried out when you enter the command. The action length must not be greater than 240 characters. The content of this column is assigned to the ZCTACT system variable.

To enter or edit the coding for the action:

Enter the E command table line command to display the Extended Command Entry panel (ISPUCMX).
Type the required coding in the Action lines.
Normally, any text you type in lowercase is translated to uppercase before it is saved.

To define some of the parameters in lowercase select the Allow mixed-case in Action field option on the Extended Command Entry panel. The case of the text you type is not translated and is saved as you input it.

Note that when you select the Allow mixed-case in Action field option:
1. The first word must be input in uppercase.
2. If you use &ZPARM to obtain parameters from the command line, the parameters may be translated to uppercase (regardless of the setting of the Allow mixed-case in Action field option).
Optionally, type a brief description of the purpose of the command in the Description lines.
Press PF3 to return to the Command Table Editing panel.

Note:

Do not use ACTIONS, CANCEL, CRETRIEV, CURSOR, EXIT, PRINT, PRINTG, PRINTHI, PRINTL, PRINTLHI, RESIZE, RETF, RETP, RETRIEVE, SPLIT, SPLITV, SWAP, WINDOW, or WS as keywords in the Action column. These keywords are intended only for use in the system command table distributed with ISPF. They are not intended for use in application command tables.
Take care with ACTIONs that use ZPARM, as the ISPF parser will add a matching parenthesis if one appears to be missing. Consider an entry of "SELECT CMD(%CMD &ZPARM) NEWAPPL(ISR)". If "(XYZ" is passed then the command will receive "(XYZ) NEWAPPL(ISR)" as a parameter.

The valid actions are:

SELECT: Causes the selected dialog (command, program, or selection panel) to be given control immediately. See z/OS ISPF Dialog Developer's Guide and Reference for more information about the SELECT statement and its keywords.
ALIAS: Allows one command verb to carry out the action defined for another. For example, in Figure 1, QUIT is an alias for END. Therefore, for the TST application used as the example in the figure, entering QUIT causes the same action to occur as entering END.
An ALIAS command must be defined before the command for which it is an ALIAS.
PASSTHRU: Causes the command to be passed through to the dialog as if it had not been found in the command table.
SETVERB: Causes the command to be passed through to the dialog, with the command verb stored separately from the operands.
NOP: Causes the command to be inoperative. An inactive command message is displayed.
Blank: Causes the command table entry to be ignored. ISPF continues to search for additional entries for the same command verb. If the command is not found in either the application command table or the system command table, an invalid command message is displayed.
xxxxx: A variable name, beginning with an ampersand (&), allows dynamic specification of the command action.
DESCRIPTION: An optional, brief description of the action the command verb is to perform. Since this column is offset three spaces under the Action column, the description length must not be greater than 80 characters. The content of this column is assigned to the ZCTDESC system variable.

For a new table, this panel initially contains dummy entries with all fields shown as underscores. The underscores are pad characters and need not be blanked out. However, any null entries where at least the verb contains all underscores are automatically deleted when the table is saved.