In DOS PC Support, there is an option in WSF to configure a Master Session Profile. The Master Session Profile contains the names of up to five display and printer sessions that you can start as a group.

When you convert to the Windows client of Client Access/400, you might want to retain the multiple-session capability. If you’re using the PC5250 emulator, it’s quite easy to create an equivalent to the WSF Master Session Profile.

Before you can create the multiple session batch file, you need to configure the display and printer sessions. You can then select the Multiple Sessions icon (Figure 1) from your PC5250 program group. That starts the Create/Modify Batch File program, shown in Figure 2.

This dialog is divided into two sections. On the left, you choose the sessions that you have already configured, using the drive, directory, and file name lists. The session description is shown to help you verify that you are selecting the session you want. The idea is to identify and select the session, then add it to the right side of the dialog in the Batch-File Entries list. You can drag and drop the session name, double click it, click it and use the Add command button, or type in the session profile. In the figure, I’ve added two display sessions and one printer session to the batch file list (the session names are cut off on the display, but you can scroll horizontally if needed). Unlike WSF, you can add more than five sessions to your batch file.

After adding sessions, use the File:Save As menu item. This creates a
.BCH file, which contains the list of sessions you selected. You can also choose to have an icon created for the multiple-session profile as you are saving it. A sample of the session icon is shown in Figure 3. This is put into a program group of your choosing, with the icon title being the name of the batch file.

When you double click the new batch sessions icon, the sessions that you included in the batch file are started, assuming that your CA/400 router is active. You can then work within each session, or deactivate a session as needed.

Figure 1: The Multiple Sessions Configuration Icon Figure 2: The Create/Modify Batch File Dialog Figure 3: The SESSIONS.BCH Icon for Multiple Sessions