Re: Integrated Web Services server

Mike Eovino wrote:

That's what I figured. We've installed the demo for Bridge. Not bad,
but I was hoping not bring PHP into the mix if I don't have to. Not
that I have anything against it (I do plenty of hobby coding in it),
but we've standardized on Java for our web development language.
We're doing fine with it, and we even have some of our old RPG
programmers learning it (what's that saying about new tricks?).

I've actually done just this same thing with HATS, going through one
of IBM's labs. Talk about going around your elbow. I think we've all
seen that WebFacing and HATS are flops. The output is ugly, the
performance is lousy, and you can spend more time customizing your
results than it would take to rewrite your business logic to make it
callable.

It's the same old problem... we have tons of business logic in our
5250 programs. An easy, high performing way to turn them into web
services would let my Java developers create good looking applications
while leveraging our current assets. I'm not even looking for a
freebie; I'd be willing to pay a reasonable price for a tool that
works well. So far, Zend Bridge is really the only thing that fits
the bill. I suppose that if I can learn PHP, anyone can (including my
Java developers).

While I am a strong advocate for various IBM products and technologies, I almost never recommend my own products because they serve very specific niches. However, once in a while a request comes through on the list that exactly fits one of my products. In this case, the PSC iQ product could be exactly what you're looking for, Mike.

PSC iQ coverts your 5250 programs to support a service architecture. The conversion is entirely programmatic and literally takes seconds. The converted program can then be run either from a green screen as normal, or in batch. In batch mode, instead of talking to the 5250 screen the programs communicate with a data queue. In the standard package, the DDS is then used to generate a JSP interface, either a pure green screen emulation in a browser or a true web-enabled browser GUI.

However, as you've found, no matter how much work goes into the conversion process, mechanical conversion of 5250 to GUI is at best adequate. That's why we also offer a third technique, in which you write a Java wrapper class to encapsulate your 5250 application stream. This adapter class is written as a classic event listener; your function is called whenever the original application expects data from the user. The application does, say, a set of writes to a subfile and then an EXFMT to the subfile control. Your handler gets control and can now access all the data in the subfile recorsd and the subfile control, and can then update fields programmatically and finally "press a key", emulating any function key or Enter or even Page Up and Page Down.

Your Java programmers can easily use this to wrapper not only single programs, but entire application sequences. You could, for example, script the entire process of adding a new customer, setting some default shipping information, and then entering an order, all through a single call to a Java adapter class. That adapter class can then easily be exposed using traditional Java code as a Web Service.

If you're interested in this sort of interface, please let me know.

Joe