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Applications

The Applications section of the sidebar lists the applications you can launch from Portal: web applications and IBM i applications. IT chooses the applications, arranges them in folders, and decides who sees each one.

You need application access in the workspace (portal:apps). The section is shown only when at least one application is available to you. Administrators set up the catalog as described in Portal Setup and IBM i Portal Applications.

Find an application​

The section lists your Favorites first, then All applications, with IT's folders as groups you can open and close. Search… at the top of the sidebar also finds applications by their description.

Favorites: click the star on an application's row, or Add favorite on an open application. Click again (Remove favorite) to take it off. Favorites are kept for each workspace.

To keep an application on Home, use Pin to dashboard name (for example Pin to My Dashboard) on the open application, or the pin icon on its row. See Home and Dashboards.

Launch an application​

Click the application in the sidebar, or Open application ↗ on its Home tile. It opens in a tab inside Portal. Each launch opens a new tab, except for applications IT has set to open only once: those switch to the tab that is already open.

IBM i applications sign in with your personal IBM i login. Save it first in Profile Settings → IBM i Connections (see Personal Settings). Otherwise the launch stops with Save your login in Profile → IBM i Connections before launching this application. If IBM i rejects the login, update it there and launch again. Portal also warns you when your IBM i password expires soon.

You can have up to 12 IBM i applications open at once, and launch up to 20 a minute.

Close an application​

Click × on the application's tab. An IBM i application that is still busy isn't closed: This application is busy. Finish or cancel its work before closing it. When the IBM i program ends by itself, its tab closes.

An IBM i application also ends:

  • after 20 minutes without activity in Portal or the application (your administrator may set another time);
  • after about 2 minutes without contact from the Portal page, for example when the computer sleeps;
  • 8 hours after it was launched;
  • when your sign-in ends;
  • when you save, replace or remove your IBM i login for its connection, or IBM i rejects that login: every IBM i application you have open on that connection ends at once.

Portal then says why, for example Application idle timeout. Relaunch the application., and you launch it again.

While applications are open, leaving or reloading the page asks you to confirm. After a reload, the applications that were open start again as new sessions. Switching workspace closes them, after you confirm.

The Assistant​

Beside a running IBM i application, Assistant opens a panel where you can ask about the screen you are on, or send a request to IT. Click Assistant again, or ×, to close it; the maximize button gives it the whole window, and Escape restores it.

  1. Optionally, point at what you mean: click Select on screen, then click or drag across items on the application's screen and choose ✓ to finish (or ✕ to cancel). Your selection is listed in the panel; remove an item with its ×, or click Clear. You can select up to 20 items.
  2. Type a question, or pick a suggestion such as What is this screen for?, What can I do next on this screen? or, with a selection, Explain the selected items.
  3. Click Ask AI, or press Ctrl+Enter.

The Assistant reads the text on the current screen, the items you selected, and the application's name and description. It only explains: it can't click, type or change anything in the application. It may ask you a question back with choices; answering needs data access in the workspace. See Interactive Replies.

The conversation lasts only as long as the application's tab. Closing the tab, reloading the page or switching workspace ends it, and it isn't saved under Ask.

The Assistant needs an AI account that IT sets up for the server. Without one it says Ask AI needs a Claude account for Ask CoderFlow. Ask IT to configure one in Settings.

Request for IT​

If you can send requests to IT, the Assistant has Request for IT:

  • Type what you need, then click Request for IT; or
  • after an answer, click Draft request for IT to have the Assistant write a request, edit it, then click Request for IT.

You review the request before it is sent. It includes the screen's text, your selection and your conversation with the Assistant. See My Requests. After you send it, the conversation links to the new request.

Ask CoderFlow​

Ask CoderFlow reads, in the Full edition, the applications you can open in a Portal workspace, with your favorites. It can link you to an application in Applications, to its favorite star, or to the application whose Assistant has Request for IT. Launching stays your own click in Portal: Ask never starts an application or receives its sign-on, and it doesn't use the Assistant for you.