Re: XML for bi-directional data transfer

Ray,

I can't agree with anything Steve has said below re XML, other than his
complaint re his solution's price & upgrade options, IMHO XML is just great.
Forget EDI & FTP unless there are special reasons for same (i.e. very high
volume data to be transmitted or EDI is already in place & working well).

We use a tool (won't mention it now as the list rants about the fact that
MDC are a reseller & I just might be plugging it) which costs less than $25k
and it's just magic for 2 way XML. If you contact me privately on
mike@mdc.ie I can give you a link to test how it works and see the sort of
real time responses we are getting.

Mike Dunnion
www.mdc.ie



-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Landess <steve_landess@hotmail.com>
To: midrange-l@midrange.com <midrange-l@midrange.com>
Date: 07 September 2002 05:11
Subject: Re: XML for bi-directional data transfer


>Ray, why XML?
>
>I don't want to get off on a rant here,
>
>BUT
>
>I am currently working on a large-scale systems integration project that
>uses XML to transport ALL data between an AS/400, a front-end system
written
>in VB using a SQL Server 2000 database, and a downstream Oracle
>manufacturing system.
>
>We are using a well-known EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) vendor's
>XML solution (costing over $1M for the SOFTWARE alone, not including the
>many W2K servers required to run the scripts).  At the central site, we
have
>an EAI administrator, a full-time EAI developer, and a number of other
>people busy trying to keep this system running.  Each remote site has their
>own EAI developer and/or administrator.
>
>It is slow, breaks down easily, and is generally cantakerous.  It has a
>tendency to start throwing off errors when service packs are applied.  The
>GUI front-end for editing the EAI scripts sometimes takes 5-10 minutes to
>load up a script (on a Pentium 4 1.7 Ghz system), and often crashes before
>you have a chance to edit and save the script.
>
>In some situations, I see XML as the EDI of the new millenium.
>
>I remember back in 1990 when the client I was working for came to me one
day
>with a letter from Caterpillar that read "If you aren't EDI-capable by
>October (this was in July), we will discontinue using you as a supplier".
I
>learned EDI, did a software search, recommended and bought a translator
>(Premenos) and got the first document (a PO) ready to use before the
>deadline.
>
>When I called their EDI administrator to schedule a test, he said "We're
not
>ready to do EDI with you yet!"  They had sent us a form letter!
>
>Everybody seems hot to jump on the XML bandwagon, but I would caution you
to
>determine if it is a prudent thing to do.  Our EAI developer has a printout
>of the first XML sales order document that we received into the system.
>Printed on 8.5 x 11 paper, taped together, it is probably 15 feet long and
>probably contains 256k of data vs probably 40 -50k of space that ordinary
>file data would take.
>
>If you have found a way to use XML that doesn't have any of these problems,
>then it may work for you.
>
>JMHO
>
>P.S.  The EAI vendor recently announced that they have a new version of
>their software that uses Java as the scripting language, but if I
understand
>correctly we will have to rewrite all of our scripts - they apparently
don't
>have a tool to convert them.
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Ray Nainy" <ray_456@hotmail.com>
>To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
>Sent: Friday, September 06, 2002 9:13 PM
>Subject: XML for bi-directional data transfer
>
>
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>> I'm looking for some suggestions on using XML for bi-directional data
>> transfer between AS/400 and SQL server. Is this better than FTP?
>> Any help/information in this regard is greatly appreciated.
>>
>> :)
>>
>>
>>
>> _________________________________________________________________
>> Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing
>list
>> To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
>> visit: http://lists.midrange.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/midrange-l
>> or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@midrange.com
>> Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
>> at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
>>
>_______________________________________________
>This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
>To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
>visit: http://lists.midrange.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/midrange-l
>or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@midrange.com
>Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
>at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
>
>