Re: Passing Parms to CGI From CL.

["Terry Anderson" <terrya@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Scott,
Thanks for the explanation. However, when I changed my command to:

CHGVAR     VAR(&PCCOMMAND) VALUE('rundll32 +             
             url,FileProtocolHandler http://xx.xx.xxx.xx:+
             8014/citcgidevp/GETDIV2?division=' *TCAT +  
             &DIVISION *TCAT '&qstrat_rfq=' *TCAT +      
             &QLMRFQ# *TCAT '&qstrat_rfqitem=' *TCAT +   
             &QLMITEM#)    
                              
I get the following error: Value 'rundll32 u' for PCCMD exceeds 123
characters.    

I guess, in this instance, I'm stuck using the carat.     
                          

Terry Anderson
Programming Manager
Citation Corporation
Switchboard 1.251.867.5481 ext 212
Direct Line 1.251.809.2312
Fax 251.867.0525
Cell  1.251.363.4975



> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx 
> > [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Scott Klement
> > Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2008 11:51 AM
> > To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
> > Subject: Re: [WEB400] Passing Parms to CGI From CL.
> >
> >
> > Hi Terry,
> >
> > STRPCCMD issues a command to your 5250 emulator, telling the 
> > emulator 
> > (which is, after all, a Windows program) to run a command on the PC. 
> > The length of the command string that you can send to 
> > STRPCCMD is 123, 
> > because it sends the command to the PC in the form of a green screen 
> > field that's 128 chars long.  It uses 5 characters to pass 
> > options to 
> > the emulator, and the remaining 123 are the command.  The emulator 
> > understands (thanks to the 5 characters) that this is a command, and 
> > should be run instead of displaying it to the user -- but under the 
> > covers it's really just a screen with a 128 character field on it.
> >
> > So it's STRPCCMD that's limited to 123 characters.   Not the 
> > DOS "start" 
> > utility (which doesn't have any limit that I know of)
> >
> > When the emulator receives the command, it parses out the 
> > program name 
> > (by searching for the first space in the command string).  
> > It finds that 
> > program on disk -- and if it's a native  Windows program, it tells 
> > Windows to run it.  If it's not a native Windows program, 
> > it's assumed 
> > to be an MS-DOS program, so it opens a DOS prompt and runs 
> > the command 
> > from that prompt.
> >
> > The problem with the DOS prompt is that some characters have special 
> > meanings.   The ampersand, that's the & symbol, is one of 
> > the characters 
> > that has a special meaning.  Semi-colons, carets, quotes, 
> > spaces, and a 
> > bunch of other things have a special meanings as well.  You 
> > either need 
> > to escape these special characters, or you need to find a 
> > way to avoid 
> > sending the command string through a DOS prompt.
> >
> > Walden's answer works by escaping the special characters.  Putting a 
> > caret, i.e. the ^ symbol, before each ampersand tells MS-DOS not to 
> > treat them as special characters.
> >
> > Bob Roche's answer launches a Windows program named 
> > RunDLL32. Since this 
> > is a Windows program, it never goes to a DOS prompt, and therefore 
> > characters that are special in MS-DOS aren't an issue.
> >
> > Personally, I prefer the RUNDLL32 option because it doesn't open the 
> > stupid black MS-DOS window where the user can see it -- which I find 
> > ugly -- and also because I don't have to write code that 
> > searches for 
> > special characters and escapes them.
> >
> >
> > Terry Anderson wrote:
> > > Greetings List,
> > > I hope all of you had a merry Christmas and have a happy and 
> > > prosperous new year.
> > >
> > > Here is what I am trying to do. I have a CGIDEV2 program that adds 
> > > footnotes to an RFQ. Since several divisions will be using this 
> > > program, I need to send the division name as well as the 
> > RFQ number to 
> > > the CGI program.
> > >
> > > I have the following commands in my CL program:
> > >
> > > CHGVAR     VAR(&PCCOMMAND) VALUE('START
> > > http://xx.xx.xxx.xx:8014/citcgidevp/GETDIV2?division=' 
> > *TCAT &DIVISION 
> > > *TCAT '&qstrat_rfq=' *TCAT &QLMRFQ#)
> > >
> > > STRPCCMD   PCCMD(&PCCOMMAND) PAUSE(*NO)
> > >
> > > I can get this to work if I key it into the command line of the 
> > > browser but not when I call it from the CL.  Can some one 
> > tell me what 
> > > I am doing wrong? I saw an older post somewhere that said that the 
> > > START command was limited to 123 characters. Is that 
> > correct and if 
> > > so, how do you get around this limitation?
> > -- 
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