User Defined Fields

User defined fields are areas you define in a screen to allow handlers to write information to and from that screen. In short, they allow handlers to interact with the screens. The Host tools in handlers can bind variables in the handlers to user defined fields in the host profile. This allows handlers to write information to and from the screen.

User defined fields are listed in the Screen Definition window.

Note: You must create user defined fields, as opposed to screen fields that Interaction Host Recorder creates automatically when a screen is opened. Create, edit, and delete user defined fields by right-clicking in the User Defined Fields area and choosing the appropriate command from the menu that appears.

The following list contains links to detailed descriptions of the types of user defined fields that you can create:

• Absolute Position
  Absolute position defines a field at a specific set of coordinates. Typically these are useful when you can accurately predict the contents of a screen, such as a menu screen.

• Relative Position
  Relative position uses the current cursor position as a starting point. While you can perform the same operation with Absolute coordinates, Relative Position allows you to offset the field from the cursor. This is useful if you cannot predict the contents of the screen, but you know that the cursor is always at the input field when the screen has loaded.

• Ordinal
  Ordinal protected and unprotected target a specific field in a series of fields. For example, if you know that a screen always has three unprotected fields, you could specify the first, second, or third unprotected field as a user defined field.

• Anchor String
  Anchor strings allow you to define a field based on the location of a certain word or character in the screen.

• String Delimited
  String delimited user defined fields are bounded by two strings that you specify. This method is useful when you don't know how long the string will be, but you can define a textual start and end point.