Glink for Windows Features

Overview

 

Glink meets all your terminal emulation and communications needs in a single package. You can standardize on Glink across mainframe access types and other communication needs.

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Emulations

• Bull VIP7700, VIP7760, VIP7800, VIP8800, HDS, Questar DKU7107, DKU7211, DKU7102

• IBM 3270 with GDDM graphics, IBM 5250, IBM 3151

• VT52, VT100, VT220, VT340, VT420 with Regis graphics

• ANSI

• Prestel and Minitel

 

File transfers

• FTP

• Bull UFT (DGA required), MICROFIT, FTRAN, GKRM

• IBM IND$FILE

• Kermit, Xmodem, Ymodem/batch/G, Modem-7, Telink and Zmodem

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Integration with Windows apps

• Powerful script language

• .NET, COM+, OLE Automation

• UVTI, HLLAPI and EHLLAPI application programming interfaces

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Communication protocols

• Bull DSA over RFC1006 on TCP/IP

• G&R/Ggate

• TNVIP

• TN3270, TN3270E, TN5250

• Telnet

• Proprietary gateways (Atlantis, Eicon)

• Dial-up lines, direct or using Telephony

 

Security

• SSL/TLS for all TCP/IP protocols

• SSH for direct communication with the SSH Daemon

• SSH tunneling for all standard TCP/IP protocols, such as Telnet

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Look and feel

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The look and feel of Glink for Windows is completely configurable.

 

Either by the administrator or by the end user (unless locked by the administrator). You can customize the look and feel of Glink to emphasize your company profile, or to increase the efficiency of the user interface to the legacy applications on your mainframe.

 

Here you see an IBM 3270 emulation screen configured with wallpaper. You can vary wallpaper to emphasize the difference between your legacy applications, or use the same wallpaper for all applications to reinforce the cohesion of your legacy applications. The screen has been configured to use 3-dimensional display for the variable fields, avoiding the flat 'green screen' effect associated with legacy applications. It has been configured with a frame with its own wallpaper as background at the left and top margin of the emulation screen. The frame has been used to display a company logo in order to emphasize the company profile for the application users. It could be used to tie the presentation of the legacy applications more closely to the company web pages by adding images or graphics.

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Bull emulations

For the Bull legacy application environment Glink emulates VIP7700, VIP7760, VIP7800, VIP8800, HDS7 and Questar DKU7107, DKU7211 and DKU7102 terminals.

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Bull VIP and HDS emulations

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The VIP7800, VIP8800 and HDS7 emulations include both 132 columns and 72-line scroll mode.

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They include support for TSM8 local forms, enabling huge performance gains for TSM8 applications.

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For the programmers and systems people using command line Time-Sharing, Glink supports command recall (edit mode), and this is extended to apply in text mode, as well as the normal TX-Ret mode.

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Bull Questar DKU emulations

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Glink’s Questar DKU7107 and DKU7211 emulations include TCS local forms, enabling huge performance gains for applications using the local forms support of TDS.

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For the programmers and systems people using command line IOF, Glink supports VIP-style command recall (edit mode), and this is extended to apply in text mode for the DKU emulations.

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Glink has also the asynchronous DKU7102 emulation.

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IBM 3270

For the IBM 3270 legacy application environment Glink emulates: IBM3278-1(E) thru 3278-5(E), IBM3279-2(E) thru IBM3279-3(E), 3179G graphical capability, 3287-1 (printer)

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Look and feel

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You don’t need to work with IBM legacy application ‘black screen’ look and feel. The Glink SAA-compliant IBM3270 emulation can be configured with the Glink Professional Look and Feel, including 3D variable fields. Glink can convert text fields such as ‘PFnn’ into on-screen buttons that transmit the key sequence to the mainframe, or an arbitrary text can be a button that fires a macro that can execute any Glink function, even start a script.

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Line graphics

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The Glink IBM 3270 emulation supports graphics, used in various ways. The built-in alternate character set can be used to display line graphics. Glink supports the extra character set, and draws line graphics correctly.

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Vector graphics

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The most advanced IBM legacy applications use vector graphics. Glink Professional supplies all the commands needed to produce 3179G graphics including (but not limited to) use of 16 colors, text output, line drawing, shapes with fill effects and predefined markers. This enables Glink to display screens containing elaborate graphic images.

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IBM 5250

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For the IBM 5250 legacy application environment Glink emulates: 3179-2, 3180-2, 3196-A1, 3477-FC, 3477-FG, 3477-FC, 3477-FG, 5251-11, 5291-1, 5292-2, 5555-B01, 5555-C01, 3812-1 (printer), 5553-B01 (printer)

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Look and feel

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The Glink Professional IBM 5250 emulation can also be enhanced using the Glink ‘Look and Feel’. Here the traditional IBM legacy application ‘black screen’ has been enhanced using the Glink 3D effect for variable fields. An emulation keyboard toolbar has been added at the bottom of the screen. Glink can be used to run all normal ‘data processing’ style legacy applications on an AS400 system.

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VT/ANSI emulations

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Glink is widely used outside of the traditional legacy application environment.

VTnnn/ANSI 3.64

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For the UNIX/Linux environment Glink provides a choice of ANSI 3.64 or VTnnn emulation. Glink is chosen wherever the users need more than just emulation. Telecommunications companies are discovering that Glink is the ideal tool for remote control of equipment across TCP/IP networks, because Glink's powerful script language enables them to automate many routine tasks.

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VTnnn with Regis graphics

 

The VTnnn emulation supports VT52, VT102, VT220, VT340 and VT420, including Regis graphics commands. It can be used with most industry standard mainframes as well as with DEC mainframes.

 

Communication protocols

Glink supports a wide range of communications interfaces.

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• In the Unix/Linux and General TCP/IP environment: Telnet, Rlogin, SSH and 'raw' TCP/IP

• In the IBM environment: TN3270/TN3270E and TN5250/TN5250E

• In the Bull TCP/IP environment: TNVIP, G&R/Direct GCOS Access and G&R/Ggate

• In the Bull X.25 environment: Eicon, Atlantis and Cirel

• In the asynchronous modem environment: Windows Telephony, Windows Serial Port

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Telnet, Rlogin, SSH, TN3270E, TN5250E, TNVIP

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The Glink Telnet client is qualified with a wide range of Telnet servers and gives excellent performance for Unix, Linux and general communications work.

For communication with IBM and Bull mainframes Glink supports TN3270/TN3270E, TN5250/TN5250E and TNVIP. These are Telnet dialects. They are basically Telnet with options that help overcome some of the disadvantages of using the protocol, best suited to dumb echo mode terminals, to control an intelligent block mode terminal device.

All the Telnet protocols can be secured with a choice of Secure Socket Layer or Secure Shell encryption and authentication to ensure privacy for your mainframe connections.

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G&R/Ggate DSA gateway

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For the high performance, high availability Bull environment Glink Professional Edition supports the G&R/DSA gateway protocol, connecting Glink to Bull mainframes via one or more G&R/Ggate gateways, optionally with load balancing and license sharing provided by G&R/Gproxy. The connections between your workstations and Ggate can be secured with a choice of the Secure Socket Layer or Secure Shell encryption and authentication protocols.G&R DSA gateway protocol is by far the most efficient TCP/IP protocol for accessing Bull GCOS8, GCOS7 or GCOS6 mainframes. It maps directly into DSA, the GCOS internal protocol used by TP8, TSS, IOF, TDS and all other interactive GCOS applications, making G&R/Ggate the fastest and most efficient GCOS gateway on the market. Ggate runs on UNIX, Linux and Windows server platforms making it uniquely scalable and adaptable in any network scenario.

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Record breaking connectivity: 
UNIX: 15.000 simultaneous sessions, 2.600 transactions a second 
Windows: 5.000 simultaneous sessions, 400 transactions a second

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Ggate is a standard feature of GNSP on GCOS8, and can be installed on GCOS7 Diane models. It offers far higher throughput than TNVIP or Telnet, and it is much more reliable as regards support of application-application dialog. Glink scripts, UVTI, OLE Automation and COM+ or .NET applications all work consistently when used with Ggate communications.

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G&R/Direct GCOS Access (DGA)

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For the Bull environment Glink Professional Edition supports the G&R/Direct GCOS Access (DGA) protocol, connecting Glink directly to Bull mainframes without the need for a front-end or gateway.

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A need for load balancing, backup and recovery or for secure connections might lead you to select G&R/Ggate, but if you want to make your connections in native Bull internal protocol, direct from your workstation across the TCP/IP network to the RFC1006 port on the mainframe, without involving any front-end or gateway at all, then Direct GCOS Access is what you need.

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G&R/Direct GCOS Access turns your workstation into a fully functional Bull network node in its own right. It supports DSA200 for GCOS7 systems, DSA300 for GCOS6 systems and GCOS8 Time Sharing, and CXI for GCOS8 TP8 systems.

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FTP client

Glink has a powerful FTP client, qualified with legacy system FTP servers as well as UNIX/AIX/Linux FTP servers.

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The Glink FTP client automatically detects the type of FTP server to which it is connected, Legacy or Open system, and converts the FTP server directory format to the Windows directory format of your choice. Each directory window has its own toolbar.

Glink FTP supports drag and drop, or you can mark the desired file(s) in either directory and click the upload or download icon. File type is derived from the name extension, allowing transfer of multiple files in mixed ASCII and binary formats. The client supports directory download and compressed download.

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Remote files can be viewed and edited using a configurable viewer and editor. Remote files changed with the editor are uploaded if the changes are saved.

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Your FTP file transfers can be secured with a choice of the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Secure Shell (SSH) encryption and authentication protocols.

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Security

All Glink’s TCP/IP communications protocols support a choice of the Secure Socket Layer or Secure Shell encryption and authentication protocols

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This gives you security on your Telnet, Rlogin, TN3270/TN3270E, TN5250/TN5250E, TNVIP and Ggate connections to your legacy systems, and for FTP file transfers.

Secure Socket Layer (SSL/TLS)

Glink can be configured to use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL/TLS) included in Microsoft’s Secure Channel (SChannel) security package on all supported Windows releases to provide secure communications.

When using Glink, privacy is ensured by use of encryption on all Secure Socket connections. Additionally, X509 certificates from a trusted certificate authority can be used to authenticate the mainframe, the client or both.

You set SSL/TLS for any Glink TCP/IP interface by checking the ‘Use secure sockets’ radio button in the ‘Security’ pane of the Windows sockets configuration dialog box. This gives you encryption using default values.

In the advanced settings you can configure authentication of the server, both by validating its certificate and validating that the server name is correct.

You can also choose to override the Automatic selection of security protocol and key exchange protocol.

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Secure Shell (SSH)

Glink can be configured to use Secure Shell (SSH) Glink’s SSHD network interface is used for communication with a Secure Shell Daemon (SSHD) over a TCP/IP network. When you select the interface you open a secure channel to the SSHD server system, and are presented with a command line (shell).

Glink allows you to use the SSHD system to provide SSH tunneling for your other TCP/IP line interfaces; for example, Telnet connections to the SSH system, or via the SSH system to other systems. Glink allows you to do this by providing an SSH interface for all of the TCP/IP protocols. To use SSH with one of these you select the interface you want and check the radio button for SSH in the security group of the chosen interface’s configuration dialog box.

When using Glink, privacy is ensured by use of encryption on all Secure Shell connections. You must have an SSH logon name and password for the SSHD server to which you connect. In the advanced settings you must configure the Secure Shell Daemon server address, and you can configure your name and password. If you would like to use Public Key authentication of your Glink you can store your private key in the file system, in which case the SSHD password can be used for the passphrase needed to access it. You can also choose to override the Automatic selection of security protocol and key exchange protocol.

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Toolbar

All Glink features are available as functions that can be assigned to a button on the toolbar, a button on the keyboard toolbar or a keyboard shortcut.

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Additionally Glink has 1000 macros that you can define to give local or mainframe functionality, and these too can be assigned in the same way. Glink is unique in that macros can start Glink scripts, and thus any button on any toolbar or a keyboard shortcut can start a script and open a whole world of extra functionality for the user. This makes Glink ideal for enhancing access to your strategically important, even vital, legacy systems and increasing the productivity of your users. Here are some of the standard toolbar features.

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Keyboard mapping

The graphical user interface to keyboard mapping provides both an extremely fast way of checking on which key combination a function can be found, and a powerful tool for customizing the keyboard for an individual user, group of users, or specific legacy application.

The physical layout is obtained from the keyboard driver, and thus adjusts itself to the national keyboard you are using. In this case a Norwegian keyboard. Note the ÆØÅ, the composing keys for accented characters, and that the right Alt key is an Alt Gr shift that selects the alternate graphic on the key tops.

You can save your custom keyboard layouts with logical names, and load one on start-up, or as needed. Saved layouts can be shared with other users. A range of industry standard layouts is included for your convenience.

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Productivity

Glink provides you with simple and elegant ways of increasing productivity for users of legacy applications by allocating terminal functions, macros or scripts to the Menu line, Toolbar, Function bar, Keyboard bar or to hot-spot buttons generated automatically by the arrival of a configured text from the legacy application.

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Function bar and Keyboard bar

You use the graphical keyboard configuration interface to configure these optional button bars. By convention the Function bar is used for buttons that send control sequences to the application, while the Keyboard bar is used for buttons that have local editing or other functions, but this convention in no way restricts configuration of the two bars. You can assign any function to any button in either bar.

Menu setup

You use the graphical keyboard configuration interface to configure this unique feature for adding your own items to the menu line.

Hot-spot buttons triggered by legacy application text

Very often legacy applications will offer menus requiring selection of a function using a function key. You can convert a menu text such as ‘PF1’ to a hot spot button that transmits the sequence for PF1 simply by checking an option in Glink’s screen facelifting setup. You can go further and convert any arbitrary legacy application text to a hot spot button that executes a macro, and since any Glink macro can start a script you have a very powerful tool for increasing the productivity of users accessing your legacy applications.

Defining and storing macros

Macros are simple but very efficient accelerators in many situations. An easy and automatic way of obtaining a correct, working macro is to record your dialog with the legacy application. The macro can then be assigned to a keyboard sequence, Keyboard bar, Function bar or to a menu item.

Defining and storing scripts

The Glink script language is a very powerful tool for increasing the productivity of users accessing legacy applications. The language has a wide range of features that make Glink unique in the emulator market as regards script functionality. An easy and automatic way of obtaining a correct, working script is to record your dialog with the legacy application. You can accomplish many tasks using an automatically generated script. Your script can be assigned to a keyboard sequence, Keyboard bar, Function bar, or to a menu item.

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Script language

Glink’s comprehensive script language allows you to eliminate tedious repetitive tasks, or add user-friendly interfaces to legacy applications.

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Script functionality

Scripts can be used for pre-programming dialog, initiation of file transfers and initiation of other Windows applications. A script can be event driven, and can remain in the background until triggered by some event during the session, such as reception of a predefined string or keyboard action. A script can feed keystrokes into the emulator, display directly on the screen, send directly to the communications line and interact with the user using dialog boxes and menus. Scripts can be initiated by the user, the legacy application or by separate Windows applications using an OLE link. The script language includes mathematical and string manipulation functions, file-handling functions and file transfer handling functions, as well as the expected interaction functions for dialog with the legacy application.

Windows dialog boxes

A unique feature of Glink’s script language is direct support for Windows dialog boxes. Your script’s dialog with the user can include any feature of Windows dialog boxes, including push buttons, radio buttons, input fields, drop-down selection lists, list boxes and, of course, images. In the dialog box shown here the flags are push buttons, and cause the script to change language.

VBScript and JScript

Glink can launch Visual Basic or JScripts in exactly the same way as it launches Glink scripts. Glink passes its Glink.GlinkAPI and Glink.Auto objects to the ScriptControl, which can then use the interface to interact with the Glink session.

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OLE automation controller

The Glink script language has an OLE automation interface that allows it to act as an OLE automation controller and drive any OLE automation server using Visual Basic Application (VBA) syntax. Servers that can be driven in this way include Word, Excel and other Microsoft Office programs, as well as user-written applications that supply OLE automation services.

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APIs

Glink offers a wide range of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). 

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Glink has of course support for the traditional APIs, such as Bull-UVTI and IBM-HLLAPI and EHLLAPI. Additionally Glink offers an OLE automation server interface to OLE automation controllers, such as Microsoft Office applications, including Word and Excel, that support the Visual Basic Application language (VBA). For integration with advanced applications Glink offers both COM+ and .NET interfaces.

OLE automation server

The Glink.Auto object makes Glink into an OLE automation server. All Microsoft Office applications, including Word and Excel, that support the Visual Basic Application language (VBA) are able to act as OLE automation controllers and drive Glink as an OLE automation server. Your own VBScripts or JScripts launched from your applications or desktop can also use Glink.Auto. Note that Glink itself can launch your VBScripts or JScripts, and passes Glink.Auto to the ScriptControl, allowing your script to interact with the Glink session that launched it.

COM+ and .NET

Glink Professional Edition provides a COM+ component, Glink.GlinkAPI for development of workstation applications. The Enterprise Edition includes a Glink API for server-side development of .NET applications. All visual development tools (Visual Basic, Visual C, Visual Java) recognize the Glink COM+ and .NET component, and are able to display the interface to the developer. Each legacy application screen becomes addressable as a collection of field objects, or as a string. Your developers can deliver keystrokes and can set up event handlers that will call back the client application when the given event occurs (connect, disconnect, turn, reception of a specified string or keyboard sequence).

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