Scan Mainframe applications

When you design your Bot, you use the following types of Modules (see "Use Modules"):

• Modules provided in the RPA subset

• Modules you create by scanning

This chapter describes how to create Modules by scanning mainframe applications.

During the scan, you can select labels, text, or tables in your mainframe application. RPA Studio turns the selected element into a ModuleAttribute.

In the Steps that you create from the Module, you can then perform the following actions:

• Buffer, input or verify text

• Verify labels

• Buffer or verify the content of a table in the mainframe application

Perform the scan

To perform the scan, follow the steps below:

1. Open the HOST emulator.

2. Ensure that only a single session is active.

3. In RPA Studio, right-click a Bot or a folder and select Scan from the context menu, or click on Scan in the RPA menu.

4. In the subsequent dialog, click on Mainframe.

This opens the Host Scan window:

5. In the Host Scan window, select the control that you want to steer:

   • To select a label, click on Label.

   • To select a text box, click on TextBox.

     Alternatively, you can click on Search TextBoxes to automatically search for text boxes.

   • To select a table, click on Table.

6. In the Content Preview section, use your mouse to highlight what you want to steer.

   The HOST Scan turns the highlighted area into a ModuleAttribute and displays it at the bottom of the window. To change the default name, double-click it and enter a new name.

7. RPA Studio automatically creates the required properties. You can modify their values, if needed.

   Depending on the control type you selected, the following properties are available:

Property	Description
Height	Height of the control.
Width	Width of the control.
Column	On-screen position of the starting column of the control.
Row	On-screen position of the starting row of the control.

8. The following properties can only be set on table controls:

Property	Description
ColStartList	Comma-separated list for the first character of every column of the table, relative to the control coordinates. This property always starts with 1.
HeaderHeight	Specifies the height of the header. The default value is 0.
RowHeight	Specifies the row height. The default value is 1.
NoScroll	Specifies whether the table spans over multiple screens or not. The default value is False.
ScrollForwardKey	Specifies the key to scroll the table forward. The default value is {F8}.
ScrollBackwardKey	Specifies the key to scroll the table backwards. The default value is {F7}.
HeaderRow	Specifies whether the table has a header or not. The default value is -1.

9. If you specify a table control, you can fill out the table-specific properties with the following buttons:

   • Click Area and highlight the area that is your table.

   • To define column separators, click Columns. Then click where you want the header to end. To remove a column, click on the column separator.

   • To define the header, click Header. Then click where you want the header to end.

10. Click the Finish Screen to save the selected controls as a new Module.

11. To return to RPA Studio, click Close.

Refresh the content preview

To refresh the current content preview, click Refresh.