Scripting AnzioWin from the Host

Introduction

AnzioWin and Anzio Lite contain the ability to be controlled through host scripting. These are small shell scripts or program blocks that can issue and query Anzio from the host end of the connection. This document rdescribes how this works.

We have many examples on our web site and in various whitepapers. Check out our support pages at Anzio.Com

Issuing commands from the host

One of the big benefits of Anzio over other terminal emulation and telnet products is its ability to respond to host commands issued for Anzio.

Commands specifically for Anzio are sent through the Anzio session by bracketing the commands in a hex-1C (octal 34) and hex-1D (octal 35). Your host program or shell script simply needs to be able to display the string to the screen. Anzio will intercept the information and interpret it.

An example of this is included in the following piece of a script which simply plays a wave file and displays a message box to notify the user that he/she has encountered an error while running some script.

printf "\034receive quiet \035 "
printf "\034playsound c:\windows\msremind.wav \035"
printf "\034message Error on file grp343.dat on $HOSTNAME \035"
printf "\034receive quiet off \035"

PC file names from the host

Many host commands take arguments that may be difficult to handle directly on the UNIX and Linux operating systems (this is actually an issue with the shell or scripting language, not the operating system itself). A good example of this is handling back-slashes for PC file names within commands destined for AnzioWin from the host. A typical AnzioWin host command might look like the following BASH script:

# First set the default printer type and a file name including the year and date
echo -e '\034printer "pdf://c:\\\temp\\\${ANZ_DATE_YY}_${ANZ_DATE_MM}.pdf" \$035"
# Now print the job
# ...

In AnzioWin version 16.1 or higher you are able to replace the back-slashes with a single forward-slash and AnzioWin will handle it correctly on the PC end.

Likewise, on many UNIX / Linux operating systems, you can use the /usr/bin/ version of printf and separate the string into a different variable surrounded by single-quotes. This prevents back-slashes and other variables, such as dollar-signs, from being interpreted by the printf command. To do this, try something similar to the following:

/usr/bin/printf "\034%s\035" 'printer pdf://c:\temp\${ANZ_DATE_YY}.pdf'

For more information on assigning and using replacement variables as demonstrated in the above example, see other knowledgebase articles such as

File naming options in AnzioWin

Using Variables in AnzioWin

Available commands to pass AnzioWin

Below is a partial list of available commands that can be passed to Anzio from a host program. Note that some of these commands are not available in the Anzio Lite version. Also note that some may not be available except when your connection is serial or when it is TCP/IP.

These lists are not complete (see the manual for a complete listing). However, there is enough here to get you started. If you have questions about a specific command, email us.

Some examples

Initiating A Passthrough Print

If you are unfamiliar with how passthrough print works, we would suggest you read our short document of A Guide To Anzio Passthrough Printing before setting up scripts for this type of printing. Initiating a passthrough print job at the host end is as simple as sending the correct terminal codes (assuming that your terminfo file for the particular terminal type you are using has had the mc5 and mc4 codes defined). The script printpt.sh demonstrates this:   printpt.sh

        clear                                               
        printf "Rasmussen Software, Inc. Passthrough Print with AnzioWin\n"
        printf "  File To Print: $1 \n"         
        printf "\034receive quiet\035"                     
        tput mc5                                    
        cat $1                                         
        tput mc4                                       
        printf "\034receive quiet off\035"

For a more advanced approach, download our PassPrt script. This script takes into consideration missing TERM variables (terminal type) and when the terminal type being used does not have passthrough printing defined in the TERMCAP or TERMINFO file.

Sending Files Via A Simple Transfer

AnzioWin will allow for a simple file transfer. This method does no error checking or encoding of characters, and hence assumes that the file is normal text-only. The script getsmpl.sh and putsmpl.sh shows the file transfers in both directions:

    getsmpl.sh

        clear                                                              
        printf "Rasmussen Software, Inc. Simple ASCII Receive Thru AnzioWin \n"
        printf "  Transfer File: $1 from c:\\\temp \n"                          
        printf "\034log c:\\\temp \035 \n"
        printf "\034openi $1 \035"                                           
        printf "\034receive quiet off\035"                                   
        printf "\n "                                                           
        printf " Do Shft-Ctrl-F and enter 'transmit '  \n"                      
        printf " At the end of the transfer, press DELETE to continue.\n"     
        cat > $1                                                           
        printf "\034transmit off \035"                                       
        printf "\034closei\035"                                              

    putsmpl.sh

        clear                                                          
        printf "Rasmussen Software, Inc. Simple ASCII Send Thru AnzioWin\n"
        printf "  Transfer File: $1 into c:\\\temp \n"                      
        printf "\034log c:\\\temp \035 \n"                                  
        printf "\034receive quiet\035"                                   
        printf "\034openo/n $1 \035"                                     
        printf "\034capture\035"                                         
        cat $1                                                         
        printf "\034capture off\035"                                     
        printf "\034closeo \035" 

Transfer Files Via ZModem

File transfer via the ZModem protocol is handled similar to a simple file transfer. The scripts getzm.sh and putzm.sh show how it is done (the assumption is that sz and rz are available on your host):

    getzm.sh

        clear                                                       
        printf "Rasmussen Software, Inc. ZModem Receive thru AnzioWin\n"
        printf "     Transfer File: $1 from c:\\\temp \n"                
        printf "\034log c:\\\temp \035"                               
        printf "\034zsend -qa $1\035"                                 


    putzm.sh

        clear                                                    
        printf "Rasmussen Software, Inc. Zmodem Send Thru AnzioWin\n"
        printf "  Transfer File: $1 into c:\\\temp \n"                
        printf "\034log c:\\\temp \035"                            
        sz -a $1