Terminal
- Send text
Declaration
<AMTERMINAL ACTIVITY="sendtext" SESSION="text" WAITFORDEFAULTPROMPT="text (options)" SCOPE="text (options)" PROMPTTIMEOUT="number" MEASURE="text (options)" PROTECTTEXT="YES/NO" TEXT="text or text (encrypted)" />
Description
Sends text to the terminal starting at the current cursor position during an established Terminal session. This action can be set to wait until the terminal is ready to receive the next command before sending text.
Practical usage
Used to send text into an existing terminal session that was previously created by Terminal - Connect action. The terminal actions are used in leu of terminal emulation software. Using the terminal actions, legacy systems can be automated in the background without the use of 3rd party software.
Parameters
General
| Property | Type | Required | Default | Markup | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Text | Yes | (Empty) | TEXT="Smith" | The text to send to the terminal. For example, if the terminal prompt was requesting a last name, this parameter could be "Smith" (no quotes). |
| Session | Text | No | TerminalSession1 | SESSION="MyTermSession" | The session name to send this text to. This session name must have been previously created with a prior Terminal - Connect step. This allows several connections to be active simultaneously. If you are only using one connection at a time, you can leave this parameter set to the default value -TerminalSession1. |
| Wait for default prompt | Text (options) | No | Do not wait |
|
Specifies whether task execution should pause
before and/or after text is sent to the terminal and wait for
the appearance of the default prompt. Often, this option is needed
to cause the task to wait until the terminal is ready to receive
the next command before sending text. The available options are:
|
Additional notes
Terminal Function Keys
Function keys on a terminal may either generate short fixed sequences of characters or the characters they generate may be configured by sending special character sequences to the terminal. On a standard computer keyboard, the function keys may generate a fixed, single byte code, outside the normal ASCII range, which is translated into some other configurable sequence by the keyboard device driver or interpreted directly by the application. The following list contains function keys that this activity can use to send to the terminal by simply enclosing them with with {} (for example, {ENTER}).
| Function of Key | Key |
|---|---|
| Backspace | BS, BKSP, BACKSPACE |
| Nul | NUL |
| Start of heading | SOH |
| Start text character | STX |
| End of text | ETX |
| End of transmission | EOT |
| Enquire | ENQ |
| Acknowledge | ACK |
| Ring terminal bell (beep) | BEL |
| Backspace | BS |
| Horizontal tab | HT |
| Next line | NL |
| Vertical tabulation | VT |
| Form feed | FF |
| Carriage return | CR |
| Shift out | SO |
| Shift in | SI |
| Data link escape | DLE |
| Device control 1 | DC1 |
| Device control 2 | DC2 |
| Device control 3 | DC3 |
| Device control 4 | DC4 |
| Negative acknowledge | NAK |
| Synchronous idle | SYN |
| End transmission block | ETB |
| Cancel | CAN |
| End of medium | EM |
| Substitute | SUB |
| Escape | ESC |
| File separator | FS |
| Group separator | GS |
| Record separator | RS |
| Unit separator | US |
| Delete | DEL, DELETE |
| Down arrow key | DOWN |
| End key | END |
| Space key | SPACE |
| Enter key | ENTER |
| Help | HELP |
| Home key | HOME |
| Insert key | INSERT |
| Left arrow key | LEFT |
| Numlock key | NUMLOCK |
| Page down key | PGDN |
| Page up key | PGUP |
| Print screen key | PRTSC |
| Right arrow key | RIGHT |
| Tab key | TAB |
| Up arrow key | UP |
| Input function keys | F1 to F24 |
| 0 to 9 keys | NUMPAD0 to NUMPAD9 |
| * key | NUMPAD* |
| + key | NUMPAD+ |
| Separator | NUMPADSEP |
| - key | NUMPAD- |
| . key | NUMPAD. |
| / key | NUMPAD/ |
TN Terminal keys
The following table lists extra keys for TN Terminals:
| Function of Key | Key |
|---|---|
| Page left | PGLEFT |
| Page right | PGRIGHT |
| Attention | TN_KEY_ATTN |
| Backspace | TN_KEY_BACKSPACE |
| Back tab | TN_KEY_BACKTAB |
| Clear | TN_KEY_CLEAR |
| Select cursor | TN_KEY_CURSORSEL |
| Duplicate | TN_KEY_DUP |
| Enter | TN_KEY_ENTER |
| Erase a field to end of field | TN_KEY_ERASEEOF |
| Erase input | TN_KEY_ERASEINPUT |
| Mark | TN_KEY_MARK |
| New line | TN_KEY_NEWLINE |
| Program attention 1 | TN_KEY_PA1 |
| Program attention 2 | TN_KEY_PA2 |
| Program attention 3 | TN_KEY_PA3 |
| Reset | TN_KEY_RESET |
| SysRq key | TN_KEY_SYSREQ |
| Tab forward | TN_KEY_TABFORWARD |
| No op mode | TN_KEY_NOOP |
Examples
- Copy and paste the sample AML code below directly into the Task Builder Steps Panel.
- To successfully run the sample code, update parameters containing user credentials, files, file paths, or other information specific to the task to match your environment.
Example 1
This sample step sends the following text "This is the text to send" to terminal session "MyTermSess." It is set to wait before and after the default prompt appears.
<AMTERMINAL ACTIVITY="sendtext" SESSION="MyTermSess" WAITFORDEFAULTPROMPT="both" TEXT="This is the text to send" />Example 2
This sample task uses an assortment of terminal activities to automate a terminal logon process. Examining the step parameters and properties of this task may assist you in creating your own terminal emulation task.
<AMVARIABLE NAME="theUsername" VALUE="Username" />
<AMVARIABLE NAME="thePassword" VALUE="password"></AMVARIABLE>
<AMTERMINAL HOST="linux.networkautomation.com" SESSION="TerminalSession1" SHOWTERMINALWINDOW="YES" EMULATION="vt220" ENCRYPTIONALGORITHMS="Any" AUTHENTICATIONMETHOD="Any" />
<AMTERMINAL ACTIVITY="waitfor" SESSION="TerminalSession1" TEXT="login" />
<AMTERMINAL ACTIVITY="sendtext" SESSION="TerminalSession1" TEXT="%theUsername% {ENTER}" />
<AMSHOWDIALOG MESSAGE="OK to proceed?"></AMSHOWDIALOG>
<AMTERMINAL ACTIVITY="waitfor" SESSION="TerminalSession1" TEXT="Password" />
<AMTERMINAL ACTIVITY="sendtext" SESSION="TerminalSession1" TEXT="%thePassword% {ENTER}" />
<AMSHOWDIALOG MESSAGE="OK to proceed?"></AMSHOWDIALOG>
<AMTERMINAL ACTIVITY="disconnect" SESSION="TerminalSession1" />