LYNX-DEV Mainframes, 3270 and Lynx FORMs

[Kevin Ternes]

Here's a problem that I don't think we'll be able to solve but I want to
give it one last try.  First, here's an overview of what we are doing:

We have Internet/intranet web services already set up and a bunch of PC
Netscape users.  We also have a bunch of users who access a mainframe
via 3270 terminals and that's all they have.  So, the mainframe has a
commercial application set up for them called A-Net which is basically a
telnet client which provides the users a means to access UNIX shell
accounts.  The users' shell is the rsh (the restricted POSIX shell) and
their /etc/profile launches Lynx.

Everything appears to work great except for FORM textboxes.  The first
time a user accesses a FORM, he can enter anything he wants and move in
and out of the text box and easily edit what he enters and then submit
the FORM.  However, if the user uses back to return to the FORM (to do
something like refine a query), he cannot edit the string in the textbox
that he entered before submitting.  He can _add_ to what is in the text
box, but he cannot delete anything or change it.

For instance, if the first query was "one AND two", then after going
back he could change it to "one AND two AND three"  but he cannot change
it to "one OR two" or "one AND three".  If you know how 3270s work, it
sort of makes sense that this could happen.

One idea I had was to put a META tag on the search page so that the
browser does not cache the form.  Another idea would be to tell the user
that they have to select the RESET button if they want to change the
textbox.  Neither way is really satisfying since it means that the user
has to re-enter the whole query in addition to the text in other
textboxes and re-configure all the checkboxes...

Any other ideas?

Thanks.

-jkt

-- 
J. Kevin Ternes
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