Re: XML to 5250

John,

Since the required flexibility is not available in DDS, it won't be in 5250
when you de-translate backwards..

My suggested approach - you write it in the lowest common denominator (green
screen - which you can do well) and you use a decent tool to webface it and
add the required flexibility (which I can do well)...

Trevor
www.looksoftware.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jon Paris" <Jon.Paris@partner400.com>
Subject: XML to 5250


> OK - I'm going to try this topic again and this time I have the time to
> explain a little more fully what I'm looking for and why.
>
> First I understand _what_ XML is and isn't - I understand that I need a
DTD
> or schema to define the form of the XML etc. etc. so let's not get into
that
> again.
>
> What I am trying to do is to build a new app with completely separated UI
> logic.  The same base app will be used for multiple customers.  The
overall
> application flow and the data passing back and forward to the UI is
> (relatively) stable from customer to customer _but_ some customers will
want
> to see the output on a browser, some on a 5250, etc.  Not only that - but
> the browser customers will all want different formats.  So will the 5250
> users - each one wants the data to look the way they want it.
>
> So - it seemed to me that defining the data in XML and using XSL to do the
> browser transforms was a reasonable approach to this.  What I wanted to do
> was apply the same principals to the 5250 users.  Since using conventional
> DDS based screens does not offer the required flexibility, the notion was
to
> generate the 5250 XSL (or some internal equivalent) by working with some
> kind of design tool to determine where on the screen each piece of the
data
> should be displayed etc. etc.  The XML would then be transformed into 5250
> datastream (and back) by the UI handler.
>
> As noted in the original post - I thought someone already had this but I
> can't find it and the links sent to me did not seem to offer this kind of
> facility.
>
> So - does this work?  If not - what is the alternative?
>
> Jon Paris
> Partner400