Advanced Features

Advanced Features

3270Web AI Chat Mode

3270Web now includes an AI Chat side panel for conversational control of a live 3270 session. The assistant reads the current screen, proposes one action at a time, and waits for approval before it writes fields, presses keys, or starts chaos exploration unless Auto Mode is enabled.

See AI Chat Mode for sign-in, approvals, model selection, and chaos integration details.

API Mode

3270Connect can also run as an API server using the -api and -api-port flags:

• -api: Run 3270Connect as an API.
• -api-port: Specifies the port for the API (default is 8080).

To run 3270Connect in API mode, use the following command:

3270Connect -api -api-port 8080

Once the API is running, you can send HTTP requests to it to trigger workflows and retrieve information.

POST:

http://localhost:8080/api/execute

Body:

{
  "Host": "10.27.27.27",
  "Port": 3270,
  "CodePage": "cp037",
  "Token": "123456",
  "EveryStepDelay": { "Min": 0.1, "Max": 0.3 },
  "EndOfTaskDelay": { "Min": 30, "Max": 90 },
  "Steps": [
    {
      "Type": "Connect"
    },
    {
      "Type": "AsciiScreenGrab"
    },
    {
      "Type": "CheckValue",
      "Coordinates": {"Row": 1, "Column": 2, "Length": 11},
      "Text": "Some: VALUE"
    },
    {
      "Type": "FillString",
      "Coordinates": {"Row": 10, "Column": 44},
      "Text": "user1"
    },
    {
      "Type": "FillString",
      "Coordinates": {"Row": 11, "Column": 44},
      "Text": "mypass"
    },
    {
      "Type": "AsciiScreenGrab"
    },
    {
      "Type": "StepDelay",
      "StepDelay": { "Min": 1.0, "Max": 2.0 }
    },
    {
      "Type": "PressEnter"
    },
    {
      "Type": "AsciiScreenGrab"
    },
    {
      "Type": "Disconnect"
    }
  ]
}

The API responds with the rendered output in the JSON response body (it does not require an OutputFilePath).

• Token (optional): provide a one-time RSA token that will be injected wherever the workflow text contains {{token}}.
• CodePage (optional): host EBCDIC code page / character set for the session (for example cp037, cp285, or cp278/finnish). When omitted, the server falls back to the -codePage flag the API process was started with, and otherwise uses the emulator default. See Host Code Page and Character Set.

Note

The Start Process modal on the dashboard now includes a dedicated RSA Token field. Values supplied through the modal are forwarded to the API as the Token property, matching the -token flag used on the command line.

API Mode with Docker

3270Connect can also run as an API server using the -api and -api-port flags:

• -api: Run 3270Connect as an API.
• -api-port: Specifies the port for the API (default is 8080).

To run 3270Connect in API mode, use the following command:

Linux

docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 3270io/3270connect-linux:latest -api -api-port 8080

Windows

docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 3270io/3270connect-windows:latest -api -api-port 8080

3270Connect API Usage

Metrics & Monitoring

3270Connect can expose a Prometheus /metrics endpoint with histograms for connect and step timing, a counter partitioned by workflow outcome, and a live gauge of active workers. Enable it with -promListen :9091 and scrape with the sample config in Metrics & Monitoring.

Host Compatibility Profiler

Run 3270Connect -profile -profileHost <host> -profilePort <port> for a one-shot probe that writes a CompatibilityProfile JSON document. The document shares its schema with 3270Web's POST /profile endpoint, so the same JSON drops into 3270Web's chaos mind-map compare workflow for cross-environment diffing. See Host Compatibility Profiler and Compatibility Profile Schema.