Genie Administrator

Owned by Brian May
Last updated: Aug 16, 2023 by Jessica Tomkins
8 min read

 

In addition to the Designer which operates inside the Genie Window, there is also a separate interface called the Genie Administrator, which allows global design and configuration changes.

To start the Genie Administrator, enter the following URL into your browser http://SystemiHostName:8080/profoundui/genieadmin.

The Administrator page consists of a menu on the left and multiple options in three tabs on the remainder of the page. These options change slightly depending on which menu item is chosen (Global configuration or a particular skin configuration). Skin configurations will override global configurations.

The screenshots below have been taken from Version 6 Fix Pack 8.0 or newer. 

 

Global and Skin Configuration Settings

Configurations are grouped into three tabs called General Settings, Subfile Settings, and Rendering Settings.

An important General Setting is the Enable Designer select box.  The designer is enabled by default but should be disabled for test and production environments.  You can also use the Administrator to change the default skin.


The Copy Skin and Delete Skin buttons allow you to maintain your skins.  A good skin to copy for customizing is the Gradient skin.  It is here that you can add your company logo or change the color scheme or layout.  For more information, see Genie Skins. 
Any changes made must be saved with the Save Configuration button.  There is also a convenient Genie Launch button so you can see the effect of your changes.

The Download Skin and Upload New Skin buttons allow you to share a skin or view a shared skin. The Download Skin is used to save a copy of the Genie skin as a zip file on your local device. The Upload Skin allows you to upload a skin to Genie and make edits to it. 

General Settings

  • Default Skin: Controls the skin Genie will use when none is otherwise specified. This defaults to "Hybrid". (This option only shows for the Global configuration.)

  • Enable Designer: Determines whether the Design Toolbar will be enabled. This defaults to true.

  • Adjust Columns: When set to true, Genie will use the field's attribute position when assigning its column number. This behavior is compatible with Profound UI versions prior to 3 and with the older stand-alone Genie versions. When set to false, Genie will assign the field's actual start position (as given in DDS) as the column number. The default value is false.

  • Connection Type: Determines the type of connection used to exchange 5250 streams with the server. WebFacing Server connections (Genie Accelerator) do not use interactive processing. However, the following features are not supported through the WebFacing Server: custom workstation ids, automated sign on, and assignment of client IP address to workstation device. The default is to use a Virtual Terminal connection. See here for more information.

  • Workstation Id Field: Upon successful sign on, Genie will store information about the 5250 session job for later use. Genie retrieves this information by detecting the session's workstation id on the sign on screen. This setting specifies the Genie field id on the sign on screen that will be used to retrieve the workstation id. This defaults to "D_4_69".

  • PC Command Mode: Which PC-side implementation to use for running PC commands for STRPCCMD and the "runPCCommand()" API. The PC Integration Applet requires that Java is installed on the PC and that the web browser supports the Java plug-in. The PC Command Listener and the Launcher require separate installations on the PC. By default, the applet is used.

  • Close Message: Additional message text to display in the confirmation prompt when "Confirm on Close" the user tries to end the session abnormally -- such as closing down the browser.

Subfile Settings

  • Detect Subfiles: Determines whether Genie should look for subfiles on each screen. The default value is true.

  • Detect Subfile Patterns: This flag tells Genie to look for a subfile by detecting a pattern of rows that are formatted in the same way. When a subfile is detected using this method, a grid widget is created over it. If the flag is not set to true, Genie looks for Option Headings, instead, in order to detect the subfile.

  • Detect Subfile End Plus:  By default when Detect Subfile Patterns is being used, Genie will ignore a + or space in the last column (and usually on the last row of the subfile) so this character will not break the pattern. A + is sometimes used to indicate there are more records available with a page down and when the last record of the subfile  is reached, the + is replace with a blank space.  If Genie did not operate this way, the row with the + (or space) would appear to have an extra character, this would be a different pattern to all the other subfile rows and this row would then not be recognized as part of the subfile. If however the last column of the subfile is in fact a 1A field, this field is a valid part of the pattern and cannot be ignored. In this case the Detect Subfile End Plus setting can be set to false and Genie will not ignore the last field and the subfile will be correctly recognized. The default for this setting is true.

  • Find Option Column: When "Detect Subfile Patterns" is selected, this flag is used to prevent false positives by only creating grids on subfiles where an Option Column exists.

  • Grid Paging Bar: When "Detect Subfile Patterns" is selected and this flag is set to "true", the subfile grid widget will include a paging bar. When set to "false" a paging scrollbar will be used. The default value is "false".

  • Option Headings: Specifies a comma separated list of headings to look for to identify a subfile option column. This method of detecting subfiles is used only when the "Detect Subfile Patterns" option is not selected. The default value for this property is OPT,SEL.

  • Outline Subfiles: If a subfile is found using the Option Headings method, this flag determines whether an outline is drawn around the subfile area.

  • Subfile Outline Color: Sets the outline color when the "Outline Subfiles" option is used. This can be give either as a CSS color name, such as "red", or as a hex code, such as "#FF0000". The default color is "yellow".

  • Separate Subfile Lines: If a subfile is found using the Option Headings method, this flag determines whether a separator line is drawn between each subfile line.

  • Hide Subfile Options: If a subfile is found using the Option Headings method, this flag tells Genie to find and hide an option input box on each subfile line. Instead of using the input box, the user will be able to right-click the subfile to select the appropriate option.

  • Stripe Subfile Lines: Determines if the subfile rows are striped with alternate colors.

  • Odd Row Color: The color of the odd rows in a striped subfile.

  • Even Row Color: The color of the even rows in a striped subfile.

  • Row Highlight Color: Defines the color of the row when it is hovered over with the mouse.

  • Row Highlight Font Color: Defines the color of the text within the row when the row is hovered over with the mouse.

Rendering Settings

  • X Multiplier: Controls the horizontal spacing between fields. The field's column number is multiplied by this number to derive the pixel offset from the left edge of the 5250 area. The default is 8.

  • Y Multiplier: Controls the vertical spacing between fields. The field's row number is multiplied by this number to derive the pixel offset from the top edge of the 5250 area. The default is 23.

  • Input Padding: Extra width (in pixels) to assign to input fields. This can be used to adjust for input field border styling, variations in font rendering, etc. Defaults to 4 if not specified.

  • Alert Errors: When set to true, Genie presents green-screen errors in an alert box. When set to false, errors are displayed at the bottom of the screen only.

  • Detect Date Fields: When set to true, Genie looks for date fields on this screen and automatically attaches a calendar control to any field that it finds.

  • Default Date Format: Defines the default date format to be used in calendar controls.

  • Locale: Defines a locale that can be used to control various settings. Currently, only the text display for month and day names on the calendar widget is affected by this setting.

  • Detect Menus: When set to true, Genie will attempt to detect menu panels and transform the menu options into hyperlinks. The default value is true.

  • Enlarge Headings: When set to true, Genie looks for the screen heading and automatically increases its font size and adds a shadow.

  • Function Key Buttons: Determines whether function key labels, such as "F3=Exit", are transformed into buttons.

  • Hide Function Key Names: Tells Genie to look for function key labels and remove the function key name. For example, "F3=Exit" becomes "Exit". The user will be able to click on the field to send the appropriate function key to the server.

  • Prevent Auto Tab: If set to false, Genie overrides the browser's default behavior of the Tab key with its own automatic tabbing. If set to true, the browser's default behavior is used for tabbing. The default value is false.

  • Set Field Background Color: If set to true, Genie will set the background color of all fields to the match the main screen background color, preventing any underlying items from showing through. If set to false, all fields will be given a transparent background, allowing any underlying items to show through. The default value is false.

  • Use Fixed Font: If set to true, Genie will set the font for all screens to Monospace. If set to false, Genie will use the font specified in the style sheet for this skin. The default value is false.

  • Detect Window Border: If set to true, Genie will detect window border fields (such as a string of dots) and apply the browser's default monospace font to them. The default value is true.

  • Overtype Mode: Determines if the default keyboard cursor mode is overtype or insert. In overtype mode, the characters you type replace existing characters one by one. In insert mode, the characters you type move existing text to the right. The default value is true.

  • Highlight On Focus: Highlights text in input fields when focus is received. The default value is false.

  • Auto-size Font: When set to true, Genie will automatically adjust the font size and spacing when the size of the browser window changes.

  • Browser Auto Complete: When set to true, Genie will enable the browser to store previous form entries and suggest matches for the user as they type. The default value is false. The Auto Complete feature (also known as the Auto Fill feature in some browsers) must be enabled within browser settings. If this feature is enabled, Overtype Mode should be set to false.

  • Adjust Window Borders: When set to true, Genie will adjust the position and height of reverse image/space window borders in order to prevent gaps in the border. The default value is true.