RE: webfacing and competing products

Interesting this comes up today.  I sat through a demo yesterday that kind of 
got my blood boiling.  Three of our programmers (me included) have the task of 
pumping data via FTP over to one of our companies that uses a SEQUEL server and 
.ASP, etc to put a pretty face on a ton of sales reports.  There is an entire 
IT staff behind the production of this tool and yes, most of it is "offshore".  
Was it impressive and a great tool, yep.  But I couldn't help but think "once 
again, why didn't we use CGI programming on the iSeries" for this?

There was a collective "ohhh" when the demonstrator announced that their system 
would have our data available approximately an hour after we send it to them.  
My thinking was "we have it available the minute it hits our box".

I've seen some nice examples of these web tools from members of this list.  I 
personally don't like the screen scrapers and things that just put a new look 
to a green screen.  I almost worked for a company that uses their iSeries and 
RPGIV to run the www.salliemae.com website.  I think it's a pretty impressive 
way to use the tools you already have.

 

-------Original Message-------
 
From: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 10:51:13 PM
To: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: webfacing and competing products
 
I am looking for comparisons of Webfacing and competing
products to put a "face" on existing green screen app.
Needs to be run on smaller iSeries, with no on-site 
technicians. Current code is rpgiii, all files are external,
all screens are DSPF, but a lot of programs still look like S36 inside.
Screens are very "busy". Would like to hear the good, bad & ugly.
If preferred, send comments offline.
jim franz