Playing a macro

The Play macro window appears:

• When you click Actions > Play Macro.
• When you click the Play Macro icon on the main toolbar.

Macro Location:
Select a macro location from the Macro Location list. Depending on how your administrator has configured the session, possible macro locations include Current Session, Personal Library, Server Library and any user-defined libraries.When macros are placed in a library, rather than in the Current Session, they can be easily shared by multiple users and/or sessions. See Sharing and reusing component definitions for more information.

User-defined Locations:
You can use the Add... button to define up to three additional locations. When you add a fourth user location, the least-recently-used location is automatically removed. You can also explicitly delete user locations with the Delete button.

Macro List:
To select a macro to work with, click the name of that macro in the Macro List.

• OK

  When you click OK,

  • The Play macro window closes.
  • Host On-Demand plays the macro whose name you selected in the Macro List.

• Parameters (optional):

  If the macro whose name you have selected in the Macro List requires or permits a parameter list, follow these steps to play the macro with a parameter list:

  1. Type the parameter list into the Parameters (optional) input field of the Play macro window.
     • For information on how to specify a parameter list see Specifying a parameter list for a macro.
  2. Click OK to close the Play macro window and play the macro.

  The parameter list that you type into the Parameters (optional) field of the Play macro window is not saved as part of the macro itself. However, the parameter list is saved temporarily in the Parameters (optional) field. The Parameters (optional) field always displays the most recent parameter list typed into either of the following two windows:

  • The Available macros window (see the table below).
  • The Play macro window (see the table below).
  Because the parameter list is saved temporarily in this way, you can play the same macro over and over again without having to re-type the parameter list, until you modify the parameter list in one of these windows, or until you re-start the session.

  To save a parameter list permanently, you must specify the parameter list in one of the following two windows:

  • In the Macro window of the Add Button window (see the table below). The parameter list is saved as part of the customized button that you create.
  • In the Start Options window of the session configuration window (see the table below). The parameter list is saved as part of the session configuration. The macro is started automatically when the session starts.

  For more information see Locations where you can specify a parameter list for a macro.

  For a more detailed treatment of parameter lists for macros see Passing a parameter list to a macro in the Macro Programming Guide (primarily for session administrators and macro writers).

• Properties

  To view a macro's properties, right-click the name of the macro that you selected in the Macro List, then click Properties. A window appears that lists the macro name, description, author, creation date, and macro location. You cannot edit macro properties from this window. To edit macro properties, you must use the Macro Editor.

Customizing the "Play Macro" and "Record Macro" panels

The lockMacroSaveLocations and RemovecurrentSessionOption HTML parameters allow you to customize the Play or Record Macro panel.

Using the HTML parameter lockMacroSaveLocations allows the administrator to add macro locations to that particular Host On-Demand client. This HTML parameter takes input as a string. The value for this parameter is the location/path that appears in the Macro Location. If the administrator decides to add more than one location or path, it is a list of locations separated by semicolon. Also, if both path name and Path have to be specified, the path name should appear first and the path should be separated by a '*' character.

Using the HTML parameter RemovecurrentSessionOption allows the administrator to exclude the "CurrentSession" option appearing in the MacroLocation list. Possible values are true or false. The default value is true. If the value is set to true, "currentSession" appears in the macro Locations list. If the value is set to false, the current Session does not appear in the macro Location.

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