Welcome to exteNd Composer and 5250 User Interface
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About exteNd Composer’s 5250 Component
Much like the XML Map component, the 5250 component is designed to map,
transform, and transfer data between two different XML templates (i.e., request
and response XML documents). However, it is specialized to make a TN5250
connection to an AS/400 application, process the data using elements from a
DOM to a terminal session, and then map the results of the terminal session to an
output DOM. You can then act upon the output DOM in any way that makes sense
for your integration application. In essence, you’re able to capture data from, or
push data to, a legacy system without ever having to alter the legacy system itself.
A 5250 component can perform simple data manipulations, such as mapping and
transferring data from an XML document into an AS/400 transaction, or perform
“screen scraping” of a 5250 transaction, putting the harvested data into an XML
document. It can also perform sophisticated operations, such as mapping and
manipulating screens that contain repeating rows and screens where more than
one screen of data is required to satisfy the request. These are termed multi-row
and multi-screen transactions within exteNd Composer. The 5250 component has
all the functionality of the XML Map component and can process XSL, send mail,
and post and receive XML documents using the HTTP protocol.
The following illustration shows how a 5250 component uses a TN5250
connection to interact with data on AS/400.
Figure 1-3