Re: iSeries Toolkit at SourceForge

Tom,

I started the project about a month ago. I did
this after using open source projects as the basis
for our Web projects. IBM has stated that open
source is something they support, but they are slow
at integrating AS/400 specific code and experience
out into the open source world. One person can't
speed things up too much, so I am hoping to gather
some more support in this endeavor.

A lot of the open source tools available seem to fit
the needs of iSeries and AS/400 shops. Some of those
projects provide functionality that is similar to
that supplied by commercial AS/400 products. Cocoon
allows you to publish documents (usually XML) to just
about any platform or format you might want. That
includes hand-held, phones, PDF, TCL, XML, XHTML, and
HTML. Mostly it is content generation (which RPG is
good at, and configuration).

I wrote a short article that describes Cocoon and
an RPG invoicing program that are available on
the site. That example demonstrates the generation of
PDF format invoiced delivered over the Web from an
RPG program. The existing example uses the Unix file
APIs in an RPGIV program to generate the invoice,
which is transformed to PDF and delivered over the
Web by Cocoon.

The other one you mentioned, Ant is a Java-centric
build utility. Even though it is skewed toward Java,
it is a great way to build complex RPG programs. I
have only completed a real rough first cut at native
Ant support on the iSeries. At this point I don't have
any AS/400 specific tasks defined. The main advantage
Ant has over other options is that it is XML based,
and runs on any platform. That means that you can
use Ant in Code/400 and IBM's follow on for Code/400
as well as on the AS/400.

David Morris


>>> Tdaly@sddsystems.com 12/14/01 12:27 PM >>>
Hey this sounds interesting.  How long has this been going on?  I just
went
out there and read the summary.  What is Ant?  Cocoon?

I agree with your statement that doing your XML experiment in Java would
cut
out about 90% of shops.  Some places (like here) forbid it.  What needs
to
happen IMO is for Java to be brought into / merged into the 'native'
environment as just another language.  Right now it's its own world.
Like
EPM.  I have the same idea about PASE although I have no direct
experience
with it.  Separate environments.  Native has all this nice object
security/adopt authority, work management, etc. going on.

Tom

  -----Original Message-----
 From: David Morris [mailto:David.Morris@plumcreek.com]
 Subject: Re: More RPG/Java Questions

|  I am doing this as an experiment. I would attempting to
 |  create a simple interface for RPG programmers to use
 |  when they need to create an XML document. Right up your
 |  eRpg alley actually. I want to shelter the RPG programmer
 |  from the JDOM API.
 |
 |  Yes it could be a Java App, but that cuts out about 90%
 |  of AS/400 shops. I think there are a lot more V5R1 shops
 |  than there are shops with Java programmers. I intend to
 |  publish all of this as open source at:
 |
 |  http://iseries-toolkit.sourceforge.net
 |
 |  The long range goal is to give strict RPG shops access to
 |  the powerful publishing capabilities of Cocoon and other
 |  Java based products.
 |
 |  David Morris