IBM Screen Definition Facility II features

Panel and panel group editors

Use the panel editor to define the main components of a panel, including its format and data structure. The format describes how data is presented on a device; the data structure describes how data is communicated to and from the application. IBM® Screen Definition Facility II can distinguish between general panel characteristics and those specific to a target system. The panel group editor can define objects required by IBM CICS® BMS, IBM IMS™ MFS, CSP/AD and IBM GDDM-IMD runtime services.

Partition set editor

Define how the screen of an IBM 8775, IBM 3290 or IBM 3180 display device is split into a number of separately controlled areas.

AID table and control table editors

Map operator actions to values, which are then returned to the application, with the AID (attention identifier) table editor. You can use the control table editor to define a sequence of conditional operations and their associated control or branching functions.

Panels, panel groups and partition sets generation

Generate panels, panel groups and partition sets for use in the target system. You can generate these objects: CICS BMS macros and application data structures; IMS MFS utility control statements, application data structures (requires the optional MFS feature); ISPF panels and data structures; GDDM-IMD export data sets and CSP/AD export data sets or CSP/AD external source formats.

Application prototyping

Review the flow of panels, together with the eventual user of the application, before anyone writes a line of code. Incorporate early feedback into the design of the application before it is deployed.

Import utility

Import maps, map sets and partition sets defined with CICS BMS macros into an SDF-supported library. Import format sets defined with IMS MFS utility control; panels defined in the panel syntax of ISPF V2 or later; maps, map groups and AID tables defined by and exported from GDDM-IMD; maps/map groups defined by and exported from CSP/AD, CSP/AD external source format or by extended external source format; and maps/sets and partition sets defined and dumped with SDF and CICS.

Conversion utility

Convert SDF II objects defined for one target system to a format suitable for another target system.

Extraction utility

Extract information about a panel and its fields and pass that to a user exit, where further processing can be done.

Technical details

Software requirements

IBM Screen Definition Facility II runs in the following environments:

  • IBM MVS™/ESA, OS/390®, z/OS®
  • VM, VM/ESA, z/VM®
  • VSE/ESA

Hardware requirements

IBM Screen Definition Facility II runs in IBM Z® mainframes.

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