SELECT action commands temporarily invoke a new dialog

A SELECT action command can be specified in a command table. The action is coded exactly the same as for the SELECT service. All SELECT keywords are valid, including NEWAPPL.

The selected dialog is started immediately when a SELECT action command is entered on the command line of any panel. This temporarily suspends the current dialog. When the selected dialog completes, the screen is refreshed and the suspended dialog resumes.

Table 1. Examples of SELECT action commands
ZCTVERB	ZCTTRUNC	ZCTACT
UPDATE	0	SELECT PGM(PQRUPDT) PARM(&ZPARM)
PREPARE	4	SELECT CMD(XPREP &ZPARM) NEWPOOL
MENU	4	SELECT PANEL(&ZPARM)

In the example, the ZCTTRUNC variable indicates that the UPDATE and MENU command names cannot be truncated. PREPARE, however, can be truncated to PREPAR, PREPA, or PREP. The functions and keywords in the ZCTACT field indicate the actions that the commands perform.

The ZPARM variable that appears in the SELECT keywords indicates that command parameters are to be substituted at that point. For example, if these commands were entered:

   ===> UPDATE BLDG DEPT NAME
   ===> PREPA LOG LISTING
   ===> MENU PQRMENU1

these SELECT actions would result:

   SELECT  PGM(PQRUPDT) PARM(BLDG DEPT NAME)
   SELECT  CMD(XPREP LOG LISTING) NEWPOOL
   SELECT  PANEL(PQRMENU1)

ZPARM, a dummy variable, is used only to substitute user-entered parameters into SELECT action commands. It is not stored in a variable pool and is not accessible to dialogs.

Note:

Take care with ACTIONs that use ZPARM, as the ISPF parser will add a matching parenthesis if one appears to be missing. Consider an entry of "SELECT CMD(%CMD &ZPARM) NEWAPPL(ISR)". If "(XYZ" is passed then the command will receive "(XYZ) NEWAPPL(ISR)" as a parameter.
Use of SELECT action commands can cause recursive entry into dialog functions, which the DM component allows. The dialog developer should either design functions for recursive use or display a message if a user attempts to reenter a nonrecursive function.

The ISPF DISPLAY and TBDISPL services can be used recursively. The current display environment is automatically saved whenever a SELECT action command is entered and is restored upon completion of the command.