Question & Answer
Question
Can I make my signon display only use 10 characters for password at QPWDLVL 2 or 3?
Cause
Some customers that use handheld displays want to use a 10 character password instead of 128 characters because it works better with the small screens on their handheld devices.
Answer
Before a signon screen is displayed, many checks are done against the fields in the display. If any of those checks fail, it will instead use the default QDSIGNON2 display. Some customers use a modified signon display so they can fit the signon display on the small screens of their handheld scanning devices. These devices do not have the room for 128 character fields required by a typical signon display at QPWDLVL 2 or 3.
Below is the default QDSIGNON2 display file (found in QSYS/QAWTSSRC).
Below is the default QDSIGNON2 display file (found in QSYS/QAWTSSRC).
A R SIGNON
A CLEAR
A BLINK
A 01 23' Sign On '
A DSPATR(HI)
A 02 48'System . . . . . :'
A SYSNAME 8 O 02 70
A 03 48'Subsystem . . . . :'
A SBSNAME 10 O 03 70
A 04 48'Display . . . . . :'
A DEVNAME 10 O 04 70
A 06 17'User . . . . . . . . . . . . . .'
A USERID 10 B 06 53
A 01 07 17'Password . . . . . . . . . . . .'
A 01 PASSWRD 128 I 07 53CHECK(LC)
A DSPATR(ND)
A 10 17'Program/procedure . . . . . . . .'
A PROGRAM 10 B 10 53CHECK(LC)
A 11 17'Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . .'
A MENU 10 B 11 53CHECK(LC)
A 12 17'Current library . . . . . . . . .'
A CURLIB 10 B 12 53CHECK(LC)
A 02 QSNERROR 80 O 24 01DSPATR(HI)
A COPYRIGHT 40 O 24 40DSPATR(HI)
A UBUFFER 128 H
*
Below is a modification you can make so that you can use a 10 character password at QPWDLVL 2 or 3.
A R SIGNON
A CLEAR
A BLINK
A 01 23' SIGN ON '
A DSPATR(HI)
A 02 48'SYSTEM . . . . . :'
A SYSNAME 8 O 02 70
A 03 48'SUBSYSTEM . . . . :'
A SBSNAME 10 O 03 70
A 04 48'DISPLAY . . . . . :'
A DEVNAME 10 O 04 70
A 06 17'USER . . . . . . . . . . . . . .'
A USERID 10 B 06 53
A 01 07 17'PASSWORD . . . . . . . . . . . .'
A 01 NEWPASS 10 I 07 53CHECK(LC)
A DSPATR(ND)
A N01 NEWPASS2 118 I 15 53CHECK(LC)
A DSPATR(ND)
A 08 17'PROGRAM/PROCEDURE . . . . . . . .'
A PROGRAM 10 I 08 53CHECK(LC)
A 09 17'MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . .'
A MENU 10 B 09 53CHECK(LC)
A 10 17'CURRENT LIBRARY . . . . . . . . .'
A CURLIB 10 B 10 53CHECK(LC)
A 02 QSNERROR 80 O 24 01DSPATR(HI)
A COPYRIGHT 40 O 24 40DSPATR(HI)
A PASSWRD 128 H
Here are the modifications made:
-
- Change the PASSWRD field name to NEWPASS and change the length to 10.
- Add a new field NEWPASS2. Have it not used by using the N01 indicator. Make the length 118, and place it in an unused portion of the screen.
- Change the UBUFFER field to PASSWRD. This won't be used, but it is required to have a PASSWRD field of 128 characters.
This will allow all the checks to complete successfully so the signon display will be used. If you are using a custom display, you will have different source than the default source shown above, just be sure to make the 3 changes listed.
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Document Information
Modified date:
25 July 2025
UID
nas8N1022326