WebFacing: Is this really Heaven?

["Patrick Goovaerts" <pgoovaerts@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, All web- and javaguru's.

My first impression of WebFacing (Brussels, may/june 2001) was:

"Looks good, but first see this in action.  Have seen some promissing
projects before..."

So, I went on learning WebDevelopment with all around it (WAS, HTML,
VAJAVA, STUDIO, JSP's, Servlets) which, for the obvious reasons, took a
long time.  Not all companies can afford to have 1 specialist for each
of the parts of web-development. Or am I wrong here?  We managed to
created some simple Client-Server apps, using Swing.  Also a simple
web-application (view of records from AS400 using DPC) and a more
intensive one which let a user create, delete, update, view, copy,...
records straight into our AS400 using JDBC and SQL.  Although the latter
is still in test and has to be fine-tuned.  And now, our 2002 present
from our ITC-manager arrived: V5R1M0 for the AS400 and an updated WDT400
V5.1 with WebFacing.

After installing the new releases, I could see this 'Masterpiece' in
action.  Yes, 'Masterpiece', I have no other words for 'WebFacing'!  I
took a running application which consist of 5 modules (about 10 panels)
and loaded it in WebFacing.  Convertion only show 2 serious problems
(indicators in dspf on 1 line) and placed the app in IBM WebSphere 3.5.2
Result: Complete web-application created in 15 minutes! (after cutting
of the time to overcome firsttime-usage problems).

With a basic knowledge of WebApplication Development one could create
WebApplications, based on running business-applications without changing
business code!  Yes! It's really true!

What are the Pitfall's?
Are there any?
Is there a dark side?
Am I wrong here?
Maybe I'm a little too over-excited, because of the stress of learning
and solving webdevelopment problems last year?

I want too here it from you guy's...


Patrick Goovaerts