Overview of FOCREPLAY

FOCREPLAY is a tool that enables you to record your keystrokes when executing an interactive FOCUS application and play them back at some time in the future. You invoke the FOCREPLAY functions by allocating the DDNAMEs FOCREPLAY uses for recording and playing back a FOCUS session.

The recording function of FOCREPLAY is called input mode. In this mode, you are in charge of the keyboard. It produces two outputs:

To play back the script you invoke replay mode, which is activated by allocating a previously recorded script as the input to FOCREPLAY. Replay mode can be run in batch or interactively. During an interactive replay session, FOCREPLAY is in charge of the keyboard. It presents each line in the script and waits for a response from you in order to proceed. Replay mode produces an output file containing the replayed session.

You can then use any file comparison tool installed at your site to compare the original session's output to the replayed session's output.

One of the uses for this tool is to simplify acceptance testing of a new release of FOCUS. If you record an application's execution in your current release and then upgrade to a new release, you can play back the script and compare the resulting output file with the results of the original run to determine if the application produces the same output under the new release.

Reference: Usage Notes and Prerequisites for FOCREPLAY

FOCREPLAY was tested with IBM's PC3270 emulator. However, it should work with all 3270 emulators such as EXTRA, Reflections, and Hummingbird if they use standard 3270 job stream calls.
In order to judge the results of the comparison between the original output and the replay, you must understand any factors in the environment may be different and may affect the outcome. Some examples are expired fields, dates that have passed and are no longer valid, changes to any screen or menu, or the date and time of running the application.
You should carefully document the conditions for running the script so that you can replicate these conditions accurately when replaying it.
For example, assume your application contains a MODIFY or Maintain request that includes, updates, or deletes instances from a data source. In order to replay the session and get the same results, you need to run it against a copy of the data source as it was prior to the original run, and you need to run it against the transactions used in the original run.

You also must keep a record of the operating system release and service level, database engine release, and FOCUS release.
FOCREPLAY does not do the comparison between the original run and the replay. You can use any file comparison tool you have installed at your site, for example XCOMPARE on z/VM or ISPF 3.13 on z/OS.
FOCREPLAY cannot be used with any feature that requires allocations outside of FOCUS (for example, FOCCALC or HLI) or with any feature that starts a service (such as MSO). Output of operating system commands is not captured.

Reference: Troubleshooting FOCREPLAY Applications

Before calling in a problem, make sure you have accounted for acceptable differences in the comparison between two releases. For example, when you run your application the second time and you want to compare its output to that of your initial (base) execution of the application, dates, release levels, and operating system messages will be different from the base. Remove these acceptable differences from the comparison between the two runs.