How to Configure the 5250 Device Name in Reflection Desktop, Reflection 2014 or Reflection 2011

  • 7021504
  • 06-Jul-2007
  • 05-Jul-2018

Environment

Reflection Desktop (including Pro, or for IBM) 16.0 or higher
Reflection 2014
Reflection for IBM 2014
Reflection for IBM 2011
Reflection Standard Suite 2011

Situation

This technical note explains how to customize the TN5250 device name (also called display name) in Reflection IBM host sessions. (In display sessions, the device name is visible in the sign-on screen when you connect to your host.)

Resolution

This section details how to set the session device display name in your IBM session, before connecting to the host. If you choose not to configure the name, i5/OS automatically assigns a device name for the session named QPADEV<####>.

If you are connecting using a 5250 Telnet connection, you can configure Reflection to generate customized unique device names for sessions. For Telnet connections, this is configured in the device name field. Special characters can be included in the device name value to specify how the device name is displayed and incremented.

By default, Reflection automatically generate device names based on the value specified in the Device name field. To specify how the device name should be incremented and to configure the device name, follow these steps.

  1. In the Reflection Workspace, create a new 5250 terminal session document.
  2. Fill in the Host name/IP address field.
  3. Leave the Port number at the default, 23 (Telnet).
  4. Select or clear the Generate a device name check box.

This check box is selected by default, enabling Reflection to automatically generate a device name if the Device name field is blank. When this box is cleared, if no Device name is provided, or the provided name is in use, the session does not connect.

  1. In the Device name field, enter the session display name you want to use. The device name can be up to 10 characters long. If this box is left blank, the i5/OS creates a device to use for your session.
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Note: You can include any of the following characters as part of the value you enter for Device name. However, you can use only one string in combination with these characters. If you use separated strings, the second string is dropped. For example, %MyDevice= is valid. However, %My=Device is not valid, and will be treated by the system as if it were &My=.

    Character
    How this character is used
    *
    Replaced by "A", "B", "C", and so on for each new session. If the entire alphabet is used, the generated device names continue with "AA", "AB", "AC", and so on.
    %
    Replaced by "P" for printer sessions and "S" for display sessions.
    =
    Replaced by "1", "2", "3", and so on.
    &COMPN
    Replaced by the local workstation name, left-trimmed if the generated name exceeds 10 characters. This character cannot be used with "&USERN".
    &USERN
    Replaced by the local user name, left-trimmed if the generated name exceeds 10 characters. This character cannot be used with "&COMPN".
    +
    Use this character with "&USERN" or "&COMPN" to specify right-trimming instead of left-trimming. This can be placed anywhere in the string.

Examples:

    • Setting Device name to "%ABC=" generates the device name SABC1 for a display session. If this is rejected, Reflection will try SABC2, SABC3, and so on.
    • Setting Device name to "%123*" generates the device name S123A for the first display session, S123B for the second session, and so on.
    • Setting Device name to "&COMPN*" generates puternameA, puternameB, puternameC for the first three sessions when the computer name is "Computername".
    • Setting Device name to "%My=Device" generates SMy. Because only one string literal can be used at a time, the second string literal ("=Device) is ignored.
    • Setting Device name to "+&USERN*" generates josephsmiA, josephsmiB, josephsmiC for the first three sessions when the computer user name is "josephsmith".
  1. Click OK, then save your session.

Additional Information

Legacy KB ID

This document was originally published as Attachmate Technical Note 2220.