Introduction to Automatic and Optional Children

Children are simply processes that are invoked from another process (the parent process). If they are invoked as a result of an option selection by the user, they are optional children. If they are invoked by APPX without user intervention, they are automatic children.

APPX does, however, impose certain restrictions on the types of processes that can invoke children. Optional children can only be invoked from interactive images in menu and input processes. Automatic children can be invoked from frames in job, input, output, update, and inquiry processes. See the Automatic and Optional Child Invocations section of Chapter 3-1: Overview of APPX Processes for more on invocation.