Nexus Q&A and help

Nexus Terminal consists of a terminal emulator, a printer emulator and a ftp client.
It has support for both normal telnet and secure connections, based on SSH and SSL, recording, scripting and HLLAPI.

Nexus FTP - 2.10
Nexus Printer - 5.52
- Session setup, Printer setup and Mainframe setup
Nexus Terminal - 6.54
- Session setup, fonts, cursor, mouse and scripting
Please contact Nexus Integration if you have some tips or advice to this page

Nexus Terminal session configurations are kept/saved in files with the extension .nmt. The file name is the same as the session name. The session file consists of all needed information to establish the terminal connection. Host name, port, emulation type, translation tables, color, font, etc, are all included in that file. The session files are stored in the Nexus installation directory or in $APPDATA\NexusIT, $USERPROFILE\NexusIT or $HOMEPATH\NexusIT. A session can be opened from the file menu or from the setup dialog. It can also be used as a parameter to the executable program of Nexus Terminal (nmt.exe), like: "C:\Program File\NexusIT\nmt.exe" "C:\Program File\NexusIT\mainf.nmt"

Session files are created, changed, opened and removed in the session setup dialog. The basic part of the session is host name (IP address), port, communication protocol (telnet, SSH or SSL), emulation type (3270, 5250 or VT/ANSI), terminal name and type, translation table are set in this dialog. Other parts of the session, like font, color, and file transfer setup are kept in separate setup dialog. There is also a setup dialog called Miscellaneous, which includes minor changes to the default setup.
If the check box called Remove Session button is check, then the remove button will be available to remove session files, which is not needed any more.
SSH (Secure Shell) and SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is configured in the Security Setup dialog.
The Telnet command Timing Mark is used as a "keep alive" mechanism by some hosts to keep the telnet connection open. If it's checked, then it will send positive reply to a request, else it will send a negative reply. If Socket keep alive is checked, then socket (TCP/IP) keep alive will be set on the connection. Routers in between your PC and the host/server can disable this option. If Telnet keep alive is checked, then a telnet command called "No operation" is sent each 20 second. Please keep these three options unchecked as a default setup.

The security setup dialog is used with both SSH and SSL setup. Options which are not related to the selected mode will be disabled. SSL certificates must be OpenSSL/pem formatted and SSH private keys must be OpenSSH formatted. The ssh utility ssh-keygen can be used or the included private/public key generator (opened from the Create Key button).

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Nexus Terminal supports both bitmap and TrueType, Ansi and OEM fonts, but the TrueType fonts must support a fixed scaled size.

The cursor can be a rectangle or underscore, with blinking on or off. The shape and blinking is set in the Display Setup dialog. It has two different colors, which can be set in the Color Setup dialog. It's the cursor background and the text color. The Display Setup dialog includes also the Hotspot and Rule line setup. A hotspot consist of a text string, and a corresponding operation, which can be an attention key or a script file. If no script files has been created, only the attention keys are available for the hotspot text. The hotspot control can also be enabled and disables from the view menu. The hotspot text color is changed and a new cursor is displayed when the cursor is moved over a hotspot text area. And the hotspot operation is selected with the left mouse button.

The left mouse button is default configures to, move the cursor (3270/5250 emulation) and to select a screen area/text. The other mouse buttons must be configured in the Mouse Setup dialog. If no operation has been configured for the right mouse button, then it will show a popup menu when it's pressed. But it can be configured to do operations like, copy to clipboard, print, select all and several other operations.
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Each script function is documented in the help file included. This section will include some tips on how to use them.

A nexus script file consists of one or more script functions. It's a normal text file, which can be edited by a text editor like Notepad. The script functions are executed one at the time. The script engine will normally execute the next script function as soon as it has finished the current script function, so flow control is very important. The script function WaitFor is used to delay the execution of the next script function until some state has been changed. After the script function FunctionKey (ENTER) has been executed, the keyboard is locked, until some response has been received from the remote host. The script function WaitFor (UNLOCK) will delay the execution of the next script function until the lock switch has been turned off.

This script file will open a session, do the logon and type the string "abc" into the second screen image:

OpenSession ("C:\Program Files\NexusIT\ibm.nmt")
WaitFor (CONNECT)
WaitFor (UNLOCK)
# The cursor is now in the user name input field
TypeString ("name")
FunctionKey (TAB)
TypeString ("password")
FunctionKey (ENTER)
WaitFor (UNLOCK)
TypeString ("abc")
# End of script

Other flow control functions are: WaitForText, WaitForTimer and WaitForCursorPos.

The Nexus script engine has also support for while-loops and if-statements like:

While TextInImage ("MORE INFO")
# Other script functions
CaptureImage ()
FunctionKey (ENTER)
EndDo

If TextInImage ("END OF TEXT")
StopCapture ()
StartApplication ("notepad cap.txt")
EndIf

NumberItem (ABC)
# Number variable ABC set equal to zero While NumberItemLessThan (ABC, 10)
# Other script functions
IncNumberItem (ABC)
EndDo

If and while statements can not be nested, but the SetLabel and GoToLabel can be used to build while-loops within an other while loop like:

OpenTextFile ("C:\temp.txt")
# The text file is opened at this point, else the script would have be terminated
# Default text item separator is ",\t\n"
While ReadTextLine ()
SetLabel ("Next_Item")
# The script file is preprocessed, so this statement will not be added for each iteration
# GotoLabel statement can even be included before the corresponding SetLabel
If GetNextItem ()
# Next item successhully # do what you want with the text stored in TEXT_ITEM
GoToLabel ("Next_Item")
EndIf
# At this point the while loop will continue with the next line
EndDo
# All lines has been parsed, so close the text file
CloseTextFile ()

Nexus Terminal has support for script recording. It will generate a script file based on the user input.
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Nexus Printer session configurations are kept/saved in files with the extension .nmp. The file name is the same as the session name. The session file consists of all needed information to establish the printer connection.

	The basic part of the printer session is host name (IP address), port, communication protocol (telnet, SSL or LPD), emulation type (3270, 5250 or LPD) and translation table are set in this dialog. A print job received can be forwarded to either Windows spooling, an application or stored as a disk file. The host name is only used for telnet 3270 or 5250 printer emulation. Line Printer Daemon (LPD) will use the port number as listen port for connections from a remote printer. Windows spooling, application or disk file setup is configured in the Printer setup dialog. Printer session files can be stored or reopened from the Save and Open dialogs. All print jobs received will be stored in a temporary file until it's completed. It will then be forwarded to the selected output. Print jobs will normally be text-based files, but the 5250 emulation, has support for "preformatted" print jobs. These print jobs are customized by the remote system according to a specific printer type. This option is called "Request formatted printer data and setup".
	This dialog is used to configure normal print jobs, which is forwarded to Windows spooling, an application or just stored as a disk file. Set the name of application, which is going to be opened with the print job. The default application for a print job is notepad, but it can be changed to any application, which can be used to view the text file.. If the print job is forwarded to a disk file, then is can be appended to a single file, or stored as individual files in a specific directory. Most of the other printer setup options are for Windows spooling. The font weight is used to set the font size. The font aspect rate is used to set the thickness of the font.
	If you have selected 5250 print and setup option called Request formatted printer data and setup, then you will get this printer setup dialog. It's for print to a specific printer type. Please also check the OS400 command Create Device Description (CRTDEVPRT) for more information on some of the parameters and how to create printer device.The list box Printer model/type is a list of some of the printer type available. If you printer is not included, then you have to check CRTDEVPRT for a printer type compatible with the one you have.

The mainframe (z/OS) setup for telnet 3270 print is provided by John Baker.

These examples assume understanding the configuration of the z/OS mainframe telnet server for TN3270 processing. This is from the z/OS V1R5.0 Communications Server IP Configuration Reference and is a good reference.
The following example maps a group of printers to an IP Address range.

PRTGROUP PGROUP1
         TPRTTEST
         TPRTTSTA..TPRTTRPG..FFFFFFFA
         TPRTTST1..TPRTTST5..FFFFFFFN
ENDPRTGROUP
 
IPGROUP  IPGROUP1 192.168.0.2..192.168.0.15        ENDIPGROUP
 
PRTMAP   PGROUP1  IPGROUP1 SPECIFIC

Using SPECIFIC in the PRTMAP definition ensures that the same Printer LU will always be assigned to the workstation TN3270 print session. It requires the LU Name to be coded in the Host Print Setup and Enable Tn3270E must be checked. This method is useful where a group of workstations is in a DHCP scope but will require the same Printer LU each time a printer session is opened on the same workstation. For example, when the workstation obtains any address in the IP Group, and has specified the Printer LU in the Host Print Setup, that LU will be always be assigned as a printer to that workstation.

Another use of this configuration is to assign it to a remote access/dial up pool where each modem in the pool of modems obtains an IP Address from the range of addresses. The behavior is the same as the assignment of IP Addresses from a DHCP server. Incorporating TN3270 display sessions, the entire configuration would look as follows:

LUGROUP TGROUP1
         TERMTEST
         TERMTSTA..TERMTRPG..FFFFFFFA
         TERMTST1..TERMTST5..FFFFFFFN
ENDLUGROUP
 
PRTGROUP PGROUP1
         TPRTTEST
         TPRTTSTA..TPRTTRPG..FFFFFFFA
         TPRTTST1..TPRTTST5..FFFFFFFN
ENDPRTGROUP
 
IPGROUP  IPGROUP1 192.168.0.2..192.168.0.15        ENDIPGROUP
 
LUMAP    TGROUP1  IPGROUP1
PRTMAP   PGROUP1  IPGROUP1 SPECIFIC

This example maps a group of printers to a single IP Address.

PRTGROUP PGROUP2
         TPRTTEST
         TPRTTSTA..TPRTTRPG..FFFFFFFA
         TPRTTST1..TPRTTST5..FFFFFFFN
ENDPRTGROUP
 
PRTMAP   PGROUP2  192.168.0.16 SPECIFIC

In this example, you can turn a workstation into a mainframe print server by running multiple TN3270 printer clients on the same machine/IP Address and connecting each of them to a Windows printer. The number of active session is limited by the numbers of printers Windows will allow to be defined and any workstation resource limitations for running multiple instances of the TN3270 printer client (Memory, CPU). Another use for the above configuration is when Port Overload routing is configured for network traffic (See the white paper article called Port Address Translation).

In this example the mainframe will see multiple requests for the telnet port on IP Address 192.168.0.16, each port being associated with a different requesting workstation. Again, using SPECIFIC in the PRTMAP definition requires the LU Name to be coded in the Host Print Setup. Enable Tn3270E must be checked. Incorporating TN3270 display sessions, the entire configuration would look as follows:

LUGROUP TGROUP2
         TERMTEST
         TERMTSTA..TERMTRPG..FFFFFFFA
         TERMTST1..TERMTST5..FFFFFFFN
ENDLUGROUP
 
PRTGROUP PGROUP2
         TPRTTEST
         TPRTTSTA..TPRTTRPG..FFFFFFFA
         TPRTTST1..TPRTTST5..FFFFFFFN
ENDPRTGROUP
 
LUMAP    TGROUP2  192.168.0.16 
PRTMAP   PGROUP2  192.168.0.16 SPECIFIC

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	The local and the remote file information consist of a three sections each. It's a dropdown list of directories visited,which can be edited, a list of directories and a list of files in the current directory. The current directory is displayed in the dropdown list. The file selection part can be used to select only a subset of the files available in the current directory. The local and the remote file information have also a set of buttons, which can be used to change, create or remove a directory, and to delete or rename a file. The Open button, is used to open, start or view a selected file. The Long dir button on the remote side can be used to get a full directory/file listing. The Get button is used to transfer a remote file to the current local directory, and the Put button is used to do the opposite transfer. Multiple files can be selected for transfer. Just click (with the left mouse button) on transfer mode pane to set an other transfer mode. The Options dialog consist of other transfer related options. The Difference button is only available if an external program, which can be used to view the difference of two programs has been set. It's set and documented in the Options dialog. A single local and/or remote file can be selected. A remote file, which is selected for examination, will be downloaded to a temporary directory, before it's given as a parameter to the external program. The list box at the bottom is a status view of commands sent and the reply from the server. That information can be extended with some debug (low level) information, if it's needed. The status list can be cleared, opened in a viewer like notepad or copied to the clipboard with a click with left mouse button.
	The popup menu is opened with the CmdMenu button. The ftp command NOOP, (No Operation), can be used to reset a ftp protocol lock. The popup menu also includes several common quote commands for mainframe and OS400 systems.
	If store unique is set, then local files are sent with the ftp command STOU, else it will be sent with the STOR command. If receive unique is set and the file to be received exist, then a unique number will be added to the name. The Debug option can be used to get more detailed information of the ftp connection. The debug information will be added to the normal status list box. If this option is set, then the remote directory listing will be included in the status listing. Local or remote files will be deleted without any warnings if the confirm deletion option is not checked/set. Local or remote files selected can be opened with a double click (if configured). If the selected file is an executable file, then it will be started, else it will be opened with an appropriated viewer. Check the option if this functionality is wanted. Transfer modes supported are: Ascii, binary or L8. Remote directory listing is always done in ascii mode. Local or remote file selected with a double click can be ignored, opened or transferred.

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