ESL provides connectivity to the 3270 or 5250 host by using the facilities of a PC-based terminal emulation software package. ESL supports any emulator that provides the functions of the EHLLAPI (Extended High Level Language Application Program Interface, version 1.1 or higher) specification. Emulator vendors support HLLAPI in varying degrees and provide various extensions to HLLAPI. (For a list of tested emulators, please contact the ESL Help Desk for specific product and vendor information.)

The emulation software must run on the same platform as your ESL application, and must be configured so that HLLAPI support is available at runtime. To ensure a successful working connection, first install your compatible 3270/5250 Emulator/HLLAPI software. Then, configure it for one or more 3270/5250 terminal emulation sessions.

The following conditions must be met:

•Your emulator must be loaded into memory.

•Your emulator must support HLLAPI version 1.1 or higher.

•The HLLAPI software must be available to the environment.

•The appropriate DLL (provided by the emulator vendor) must be available to your system. Usually, this file is named PCSHLL32.DLL, by default.

•The Esl Syndetic and emulator directories must be included in the PATH environment variable.

•ESLCMSRV.INI must be in your path, normally the installation directory. (See Using 3270/5250 Support with ESL for more information.)

•The EMUTYPE environment variable must be set to the name of your emulator as listed in the ESLCMSRV.INI file in your EslSyndetic directory, or if the EMUTYPE variable is not set, then the default section will apply. (See Configuring the ESLCMSRV.INI file for more information.)

•WinTitle settings in the ESLCMSRV.INI file must match the title bar text of the emulator window, if the HLLAPI does not have a function that returns the handle of the current emulator window. (The Esl Fields utility can be used to copy the title bar text of the emulator into the appropriate WinTitle setting.)