Control Terminal

Changes the properties of a currently established terminal session including window visibility or cursor position. Generally used to make the terminal window visible or hidden, or to clear the window or set the cursor position. Commonly used with the Get Terminal Text or Send Terminal Text actions to prepare the terminal window to receive text, or to clear it after text has been retrieved. The terminal actions are used in lieu of terminal emulation software. Using the terminal actions, legacy systems can be automated in the background without the use of third-party software.

Declaration

<AMCONTROLTERM SESSION="text" ACTION="SETCURSORPOSITION" CURSORROW="number" CURSORCOL="number" />

Example 1 - This step sets the cursor to position 2,3 in terminal "TermSess3".

<AMCONTROLTERM SESSION="TermSess3" ACTION="SETCURSORPOSITION" CURSORROW="2" CURSORCOL="3" />

Example 2 - A example that uses all available terminal actions. Examining the step parameters and properties of this task may assist you in creating your own terminal emulation task.

<AMVARIABLE NAME="thePassword">password</AMVARIABLE>

<AMCONNECTTERM EMULATION="VT220" HOST="linux.networkautomation.com" SHOWTERMINALWINDOW="YES" />

<AMWAITFORTERMTEXT TYPE="TEXT">login:</AMWAITFORTERMTEXT>

<AMSENDTERMTEXT>%theUsername%{ENTER}</AMSENDTERMTEXT>

<AMSHOWDIALOG>OK to proceed?</AMSHOWDIALOG>

<AMWAITFORTERMTEXT TYPE="TEXT">Password:</AMWAITFORTERMTEXT>

<AMSENDTERMTEXT>%thePassword%{ENTER}</AMSENDTERMTEXT>

<AMSHOWDIALOG>OK to proceed?</AMSHOWDIALOG>

<AMDISCONNECTTERM />

See Also: Disconnect Terminal, Send Terminal Text, Get Terminal Text, Wait Terminal, Control Terminal

General Tab

Property

Type

Required

Default

Markup

Description

Action

Text (options)

No

Show terminal window

ACTION="CLEARTERMINAL"

Specifies the action to perform on the terminal window. The available options are:

  • Show terminal window (default): Displays the terminal window.

  • Hide terminal window: Hides the terminal window.

  • Clear terminal window: Clears all text from the terminal window.

  • Set cursor position: Sets the position of the cursor in the terminal window. Specify position in Row and Column fields.

Cursor Row

Number

Yes if Action is Set cursor position

1

ROW="1"

Specifies the row number for the cursor position. This parameter is available only if the Action parameter is set to Set cursor position.

Cursor Column

Number

Yes if Action is Set cursor position

1

COLUMN="2"

Specifies the column number for the cursor position. This parameter is available only if the Action parameter is set to Set cursor position.

Session Name

Text

No

TermSess1

SESSION="TermSess2"

The session name that this action should correspond to. This session name must have been previously created with a prior Connect Terminal 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 -TermSess1.