RE: webfacing and competing products

> From: Chuck Lewis
>
> Steve wrote:
>
> >Nathan,
>
> >I think the problem with screen scraping is that the new end user
> >application is limited to the data provided by the host
> application that is
> >being scraped from.  The subfile record may only contain
> customer name and
> >not customer number.  Also, the subfile records may only contain
> a page of
> >the records that the user is interested in working with. ( how
> can the user
> >sort on order amount when the display buffer being scraped from only
> >contains 10 of the 100 orders of the customer? )  Whether the data is
> >scraped from a screen or from a pre dspf buffer, it still has the same
>
> That is an excellent point Steve, I hadn't even thought of that but should
> have. I remember "days long ago" being told to write subfiles that only
> loaded a partial data set to speed display time. Not so much an issue with
> the faster processors now, but a lot of code is no doubt that way !

Guys, this is a problem with the application, not the UI.  What you're
raising as an issue is the fact that changing the UI doesn't change the
business logic.

Correct!

The whole business justification of refacing is that your application has
the capabilities you need, and you're just changing the presentation.  If
you need additional function, you're going to have to write it, and it
should be written in your primary business application language, not in your
UI layer.

The nice thing about using any sort of refacing effort is that you can
actually write your business logic in RPG or COBOL, and then simply reface
it to create a nice interface (how nice, of course, depending on the tool
and the time you have).

But this issue that you can't somehow magically sort on order amount, well,
yeah, that's true, but you couldn't before.  Why do you expect a new UI to
do that for you?  Because a new UI also won't put customer signatures on the
screen if you don't have them in your database.  A new UI won't show sales
history if your database doesn't store it.  A new UI won't calculate profit
margins if you don't do it in your program.

Now, you COULD conceivably do some of this in your UI, but that's defeating
the purpose of the separation of UI and business logic.  Instead, you need
to be either enhancing your existing programs or writing brand new servers
to provide this information.  Then, your UI can use those servers to gather
the data it intends to present.

But to say that the UI is somehow deficient because it doesn't provide
capabilities that you didn't program is a little like saying your car is
inadequate because it doesn't work underwater.  If you want to drive
underwater buy a Humvee, not a Honda.

Joe