AS400. That’s the system or program used where I work. I’ve not only never used it before, I’ve never heard of it either. I know QuickBooks and said I know how to use their system or program thing as well. Now I need to get informed and appearing like an old pro by Monday but, I can’t find instructions or short cuts or anything to help me . Any ideas?
I’m not familiar with this at all, neisha, but this AS400 help site might be of some use. Check Google – there are a lot of other online sites.
AS/400 is IBM’s 'Application Server 400, which of course runs ‘OS/400’ as its operating system.
What in particular do you need to know about them? They tend to be used to run corporate-wide dbases and ‘big’ apps. Not the sort of box you can power-cycle willy-nilly 
AS/400s run the gamut from ‘small’ application specific boxes, to huge enterprise wide systems, they can cost millions of dollars, depending on the setup. Not to mention that they’ve been around for a long time, and yours might be pretty dated. They can also be used as web or mail servers, rather than the ‘traditional’ AS/400 workload. It’s a very complex system unlike just about every other system out there.
Now, since you’re going to be just an end user (I hope), it will depend very much on the applicaton you’re expected to use. AS/400s can run a lot of different programs, and learning that program may not be such a big deal.
Right, I guess it’s the program I need to be up on. It start with a H and is used for accounting, etc. Any clues on what that might be?:rolleyes:
Sounds like you need an AS/400 course of study. If you don’t even know what an AS/400 is, you definitely need that. Depending on what programming language the program that you need to work with was written in, you probably need instruction in perhaps COBOL or AS/400 assembly language or perhaps another language. Good Luck!
It’s written in English. It’s an accounting type program that has payment information, vendor information, etc.
The store where I work uses AS/400 to track product and inventory. By logging into the corporate-wide network and inputting the SKU of the item in question, you can find out how many there are in stock at any store or warehouse in the entire chain, as well as what it is, what the cost to the company is, what the suggested retail price is, what each individual store is charging for it, and whether it’s an active product (still being shipped), inactive (not being shipped), clearanced, or store use only. I had no idea that the AS/400 system was such a … not-just-our-store type thing.
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- They are old computers, but there’s still a lot of them out there. If you look at the classifieds you’ll usually see lots of ads asking for AS-400 experience.
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- OTOH, many companies are dropping AS-400’s for PC’s, because the maintenance is expensive and PC’s can do a lot of what it used to take an AS-400 to do.
- I work at a software seller/programming company with midsized customers (50-800 people). Many companies now are going the all-PC route, and asking about Linux: “the dream” now is to be able to run the same OS distro/version on every computer, cutting admin costs. (As our current software is 2K/NT4/SQL only, there’s not a lot we can help with there…)
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There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of accounting type apps available for AS/400s. As a user, you need training in the application you’ll be running, not so much on the box itself, the operating system, or the programming languages. Unless you signed on as a system operator or a programmer, in which case you’re screwed.
Having said that, a little general familiarity with how things are usually done on AS/400s will help, and will hopefully decrease your frustration as you learn the new system.
Warning: Very long post ahead with some information gleaned from 15+ years of training people to use AS/400 (and other midrange system) applications.
A few things to keep in mind:
Traditionally, AS/400 accounting apps have been “green screen” applications. In other words, they use a straight text based interface and the keyboard for input. They are often not a graphical user interface like windows applications, and many times don’t use the mouse at all, or use one only in a limited way. This has changed in recent years, and there are graphic type interfaces, but most apps are probably still menu driven, keyboard only input. Most of the comments below are directed at accounting type green screen type (lots of data entry), not windows type apps.
You may be working on dedicated terminals, or on a PC. Most shops these days run PCs with one window on the PC being your AS/400 session, but many still run actual terminals. Terminals are similar to PCs, but have some differences. Terminals have the same basic typewriter keyboard (although there may be some very slight differences on some symbol keys) and a 10 key keypad, but usually have two rows of 12 function keys along the top. They also have some specialty keys, such as “Help”, “Print”, “Attention” and “System Request”. On a PC, these specialty key functions are usually mapped to “Alt + some key” or “Ctrl + some key”, etc. In most applications, you don’t worry too much about these specialty keys. Also most terminals don’t have a mouse at all.
In my experience, one of the things most PC users have the most trouble when they are new to AS/400s is just moving your cursor around the screen. Since AS/400 apps may or may not support your mouse, a PC user’s instinct to use the mouse to click on the next field may not work at all, and even if it does, it is frequently much slower than using the keyboard. Getting used to using the keyboard to navigate around is often the sign of an experienced user, and usually makes your job easier and quicker.
When using the AS/400 keyboard to move from one field on the screen to another, you can press one of several different keys: the Tab backtab keys, the + (plus sign) key on the keypad, the Field Exit key, and in some cases, the – (minus sign) key on the keypad. Any one of these keys can make your cursor jump to the next (or previously) available input field, but they can have slightly different actions. The Tab and Backtab keys will always take you to a valid input field, even if your cursor is currently not in any input field (i.e. you used the arrow keys or your mouse to put the cursor somewhere on the screen where you aren’t allowed to type). The Field Exit, +, and - minus keys will give an error if used when the cursor is not in a valid input field, and in the case of the – key, you can only use it where it has been specifically allowed, usually a numeric field capable of using a negative number (the minus key tries to put a negative sign on whatever number you key in).
In general, use the Field Exit or + key after you type in a field. This will clear out any remaining left over data in the field (if there is any) and move your cursor to the next available field. (In every application I’ve ever worked with, the Field Exit key and the + key have the identical function, one is just near the typewriter keys, and the other is on the keypad. This means the function is available no matter which section of the keyboard your hand is on.) Use the – key when you need negative numbers, and use the Tab and Backtab keys when you want to move through fields without clearing out existing entries.
Normally, when you have filled in all the applicable fields on the screen, you press either Enter or a Function key to tell the system to accept what you entered, and either move on to a new screen, or present any errors that may need to be corrected.
This process of using the Tab, Field Exit, or + keys to move around the screen, and then pressing Enter or a Function key to “process” the screen seems to confuse new users. However, it’s actually pretty similar (from a process standpoint) to the PC convention of using the Enter key, Tab keys or mouse to move around the screen, and then clicking OK or pressing Enter while on the Ok button to process the screen.
One last note on the Field Exit and Enter keys. On actual terminals, the Field Exit key is (usually) on the keyboard in the position that a PC user thinks of as the Enter key, and the actual Enter key is on the keyboard where a PC user expects to find the right-hand Ctrl key. When using a PC, the keyboard can be “mapped” to emulate and actual terminal keyboard, so that the PC Enter key does the function of the AS/400 Field Exit key or + key, and the right hand Ctrl key does the AS/400 Enter function. Having used terminals for many years before using PC became common, I prefer this arrangement. However, it confuses the crap out of PC users new to the 400. Alternately, the PC can be mapped so that when using the 400 application the PC Enter key works like the AS/400 Enter key, the + key on the keypad is used for Field Exit and +, and there sometimes is no dedicated Field Exit key, or it is assigned to the right hand Ctrl key. This isn’t quite as handy, but is much easier for PC folks to get used to, and means the Enter key is always the Enter key, on the 400 or not. In recent years, this is much more common than the terminal style keyboard mapping, so you probably won’t have much problem. But if they start talking about the PC Enter key, and the 400 Enter key and how they are different, this is why.
On a graphical app on a PC, functions such as “ok”, “next” or “previous” usually have a screen button that you click with the mouse or tab to and then press Enter. On the 400, you usually press a function key. For example, the F12 key is commonly used to “back up” to a previous screen, the F3 key is commonly used to end the current function, etc. Many programs follow IBM’s “standard function key usage, but many don’t. Learning which function keys your app uses will help you get around easily.
Some common function key (also called command keys) usages are:
F1 = Help (if implemented correctly, the help key can be your best friend) Remember that on a real terminal, there is a separate key labeled “Help” This usually performs the same function.
F3 = End the current function. If you entering Time cards in payroll, and are finished, F3 is often the way to end the time card entry function and choose some other function, like a time card edit list.
F4 = Lookup or Prompt. May show a list of possible choices that are valid for the field your cursor is in. Again, can be a very helpful key.
F5 = Refresh the screen.
F12 = Backup or return to the previous screen.
Enter Key = Read the screen and process it, or display any errors or omissions to be corrected. This is the equivalent to the PC’s OK or Next button.
Note that the above are just common usages. Your application program may follow these conventions or not, and there may be many other function keys used in your app. The AS/400 supports 24 function keys, plus some specialty keys. Also older apps tended to use F1 not as Help but as Ok, and the Enter key to Refresh or display errors.
Running a typical AS/400 app goes like this:
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Sign on to the system. If you’re on a PC, start the AS/400 Connection program by double clicking the icon. If you’re on a terminal, turn it on if it isn’t already. You should see a sign on screen. These usually have five things you can enter, but 99% of the time, you just enter your User ID and Password (these will be assigned to you). Enter your User ID and press the Field Exit or + key, then enter your password (for security reasons, you don’t see it as you type) and again press Field Exit or +. Then press the Enter key and after a second or two you should see your assigned starting Menu.
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Select an option from the menu. A menu can have options to call other menus, or options to call run programs. Menu options can be numbered up to 99, but there are usually only a dozen or so options on any given menu. To invoke a menu option, type that number for that option and press Enter. For example, a Payroll menu might show that option 4 is for Time Card Entry, option 5 is for a Time Card Edit, and option 6 is to Post Time Cards. To enter time cards, you type the number 4 and press the Enter key. You should see the Time Card Entry process. After finishing entering time cards, you can return to the menu and type the number 5 and press Enter to run an edit list, and so on.
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Enter or edit data. On the screen for the function you’ve chosen, you must enter new information, update existing information, delete bad or old information, etc. This part of the process is completely dependant on the application, and can look like almost anything. But remember the standard process of using Function keys to invoke different screens (new entry, update existing entry, list existing entries, go to the next screen, etc.) and using the cursor control key (Tab, Backtab, Field Exit, +, -, etc.) to move around any one screen. Often the available function keys are listed at the bottom of the screen, or available by pressing the help key. The help key will also frequently give explanations for the field your cursor is currently in. When in doubt, press Help. It can’t hurt, and may answer questions.
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When you finish the current function, end it to return to the Menu. From there you can select other functions to run, or other Menus with even more functions.
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When you finish for the day (or leave your terminal for a while), sign off. This will be one of the options on at least one of your menus (frequently option 90), or type the word “signoff” at the bottom of any menu (if you have been given command line capability).
That’s a very broad outline, and a quick primer for a PC user new to AS/400s. As with any system and application program, you can spend years learning them.
Good luck.
Ugly
Up until about six months ago, the library where I work ran everything off of AS/400: the catalog, payroll, accounting, and (gag) OfficeVision.
Whatever you end up using, count yourself lucky that at least it’s not OfficeVision. Bleh.
We’re migrating to 2K/SQL, and I’m actually going to be sad to see the old catalog go. It was a beast to learn, but once I got the hang of it, it moved fast as hell.