Interfacing with ATT/IBM Passport EHLLAPI

[vale73]

My company uses ATT Passport for Windows, which used to be IBM Passport for Windows, which used to be IBM/Advantis Passport which used to be...?

It's a proprietary 3270 emulator to tap into SNA resources on the ATT Global Network. The program boasts an EHLLAPI interface and comes with PCSHLL32.DLL, a commonly known EHLLAPI DLL.

However, it appears their version of this DLL is proprietary. IBM's emulator programming guides and sample VB app written to interface with PCSHLL32.DLL do not work. It indicates that the entry point 'hllapi' cannot be found.

ATT themselves aren't much help - the programming staff that created/maintained Passport has been long since removed (thanks offshoring). What I did learn from the remaining staff was, although a 32bit app, the EHLLAPI used by ATT Passport is still 16bit. This confuses me since the DLL is named for its 32bit counterpart.

I tried modifying IBM's sample VB app to use 16bit syntax instead of 32bit, and it still fails to interface with the dll.

I'm looking for someone who might have written a VB6 app that successfully interfaces with ATT Passport's EHLLAPI for screen-scraping or simple automated data entry.

Or IBM Passport, since I'm sure all they did was rename it when they bought that portion of IBM's business several years ago.

It's a longshot.. but I thought I'd at least ask.

Thanks much!

[pclement]

Well it doesn't look like PCSHLL32.DLL is a 16-bit DLL. There is even an example of how to use it from C# and VB.NET:

http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/ALL_EHLLAPI.asp
http://makeashorterlink.com/?O50131D5B

The 16-bit version is probably called PCSHLL.dll.

[vale73]

I agree. However, that's how ATT named it to install along with their program. Both the 16bit and 32bit syntax do not want to cooperate with ATT's version of this DLL - the entry point cannot be found.

Hence my request for someone who's worked specifically with ATT's bastardized version of the DLL, as commonplace procedures for working with the regular version of the DLL do not seem to work (i.e. the samples direct from IBM's programming guides from which this software originally spawned).

It may not be possible with VB and I just might have to look for other solutions. It's just frustrating that the program boasts an interface but doesn't give you much detail on how to use the interface.. and more industry-standard methods written for that DLL fail on their version of the DLL.

[jurubitamano]

HI.

I am experiencing the same problem. I need to write (using DELPHI) and application that interacts with emulator 3270 - I need to use PCSHLL32.DLL in delphi but I receive the same "not found" message of you.

Did you manage to find a solution for your problem?

[Munch]

Hello All,
Did anyone find a solution to this problem yet? I am faced with a challenge to write a scraper using AT&T Passport. I would love to install this on Unix/Linux, but I understand this works only on older version of Windows.

Does anyone know if it is even possible to create a scraper using Passport? Please let me know. Any help in any direction is greatly appreciated.

TIA.