Terminal - Send Text

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 Connect Terminal 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 third-party software.

General Parameters

Property	Type	Required	Default	Markup	Description
Text	Text	Yes	(Empty)	>Smith</AMSENDTERMTEXT>	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 Name	Text	No	TermSess1	SESSION="MyTermSession"	The session name to send this text 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.
Wait for default prompt	Text (options)	No	Do not wait	WAITFORDEFAULTPROMPT="BEFORE"	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: Do not wait (default): The task will not wait for the default prompt. Before sending text: The task will delay sending text until the default prompt appears. After sending text: The task will wait for the default prompt after sending text. The following step will not execute until the appearance of the default prompt. Before and after sending text: The task will delay sending text until the default prompt appears and wait again for the default prompt after sending text.

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 curly brackets {} (e.g., {ENTER})

Function of Key	Key
APL	Ctrl+F8
Attention	Esc
Alternate Cursor	Alt+F11
Backspace	Backspace
Back Tab	Shift+>
Back Tab Word	Alt+<
Break	Break
Change Format Toggle	Alt+F3
Change Screen	Ctrl+PageUp
Clear	Pause
Color Blue	Ctrl+Shift+F5
Color Field Inherit	Ctrl+Shift+F8
Color Green	Ctrl+Shift+F3
Color Pink	Ctrl+Shift+F2
Color Red	Ctrl+Shift+F1
Color Turquoise	Ctrl+Shift+F6
Color White	Ctrl+Shift+F7
Color Yellow	Ctrl+Shift+F4
Cursor Blink	Ctrl+F10
Cursor Down	V or 2(pad)
Cursor Left	- or 4(pad)
Cursor Right	-> or 6(pad)
Cursor Select	Ctrl+F9
Cursor Up	^ or 8(pad)
Delete Character	Delete or .(pad)
Delete Word	Ctrl+Delete or Ctrl+. (period on the number keypad)
Document Mode Toggle	Alt+F1
Dup	Shift+Insert2
Edit Copy	Ctrl+Insert
Edit Cut	Shift+Delete
Edit Paste	Shift+PageDown or Ctrl+Shift+Insert
Edit Undo	Alt+ Backspace
End Field	Pad End
Enter/Control	Shift+Ctrl
Erase EOF	End2
Erase Field	Shift+End2
Erase Input	Alt+End2
Fast Cursor Down	Alt+V or Alt+2 (on the number keypad))
Fast Cursor Up	Alt+^ or Alt+8 (on the number keypad)
Field Mark	Shift+Home2
Graphic Cursor	Alt+F12
Highlighting Field Inherit	Alt+3 (on the number keypad)
Highlighting Reverse	Alt+* (on the number keypad)
Highlighting Underscore	Alt+6 (on the number keypad)
Home	Home or 7 (on the number keypad)
Insert	Insert or 0 (on the number keypad)
Jump Next	Alt+PageUp
Mark Down	Shift+V
Mark Left	Shift+-
Mark Right	Shift+-
Mark Up	Shift+^
Move Mark Down	Ctrl+V or Ctrl+2 (on the number keypad)
Move Mark Left	Ctrl+- or Ctrl+4
Move Mark Right	Ctrl+-> or Ctrl+6
Move Mark Up	Ctrl+^ or Ctrl+8
PA1	Alt+Insert2
PA2	Alt+Home2
PA3	Shift+PageUp2
Pause	Ctrl+F7
PF1 to PF12	F1 to F12
PF13 to PF24	Shift+F1 to F12
Play	Ctrl+F6
PS Field Inherit	Ctrl+Shift+0 (on the number keypad)
Print (Local Copy)	Not assigned
Quit (Device Cancel)	Alt+Left Ctrl
Record	Ctrl+F5
Reset/Control	Left Ctrl
Response Time Monitor	Ctrl+F11
Rule	Ctrl+Home
Sys Request	Shift+Esc
Tab Field	>| or Shift+>| (on the number keypad)
Tab Word	Alt+>
Test	Ctrl+PageDown
Transparency Field Inherit	Ctrl+Shift+8 (on the number keypad)
Transparency Opaque	Ctrl+Shift+/ (on the number keypad)
Word Wrap Toggle	Alt+F2

Sample 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.

<AMSENDTERMTEXT SESSION="MyTermSess" 
WAITFORDEFAULTPROMPT="BOTH">This is the text to send.
</AMSENDTERMTEXT>

Sample 2 - A sample task 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 />