Re: WebFacing: Is this really Heaven? NO, it's hell!!!!

Hi Patrick.

We do WebFacing consulting.  We've taught this stuff
to IBMers and customers as well.

"Out of the box", basic WebFaced applications often
don't meet your user's requirements for a web
interface ESPECIALLY if the web users are new to the
app..

My experience is we can get response times of 1 to 2
seconds OVER dedicated Internet connections.  We even
got that on a 170 running Tomcat.  Unfortunately,
DIALUP users NEVER see good response times ...

We've run WebSphere v3.5, v4.0 and Tomcat v3.2.3.
They all work.  We've also customized the generated
apps to do other things....

I DO think they produce a good "base" application that
can be customized FAR cheaper than writing ANYTHING
else.  It is a great fit IF your web intends to reuse
a reasonable portion of your existing 5250 stuff.  The
"out of the box" WebFaced app really only works well
as an interface for existing users ( that DOES happen
on intranets alot ...).

IMHO....

Jim Mason



--- P.Goovaerts@Clipper.Be wrote:
> This is a multipart message in MIME format.
> --
> [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> Hi, again...
>
> Had to stick with my first impression!  It looks
> very nice, but again,
> unusable in practice !
>
> despite
> 1) IBM is saying WebFacing can be used to go on the
> Internet very fast
> with none or minor codechanges
> 2) IBM-ers telling us it is able to have
> responsetimes of 1second max.
> 3) Our system should have enough CPW (processor =
> 420 - interactive
> feature = 120)
> 4) IBM's helpdesk efforts to help us
> 5) Applying ptf's, cumpacks, servicepacks
> 6) loading SP5
> 7) neverending patience of myself (though it's
> running at the end after 2
> months)
>
> I feel bad to admitt that we cannot use WebFacing
> for WebAccess.  Yes,
> it's running on 'one' PC's in our Intranet
> Environment (response 3seconds
> max) but I thought it was written to go 'online on
> the Internet' very fast
> without changing any code????
> (btw, other PC's (Intel Celeron800) give response of
> 10secs max.)
> - We still have response between 20 to 25 seconds
> for each page to load...
> - We still get zStyles - errors...
> - We still don't know where the 'sign'
> command/object comes from, it gives
> an error in the joblogs of the WF-sessions after
> completing...
> - We even cannot export projects anymore!
> After applying SP5, we cannot export projects
> anymore.  Folders are
> generated, filenames are found but all with a length
> of zero bytes...
> When we copy the files manually from the 'PC drive'
> to WebSphere it works
> normally...
>
> I'm pretty sure we could have created some webapp's
> using Frontpage /
> Visual Café in stead of trying to use WebFacing...
> Then we could drink on
> some success in stead of going drunk because of the
> bad experiences...
>
> Patrick Goovaerts
> ICT/Clipper Support nv
> http://www.conti7.be
>
> "Patrick Goovaerts" <pgoovaerts@pandora.be> schreef
> in bericht
> news:a2788g$110i$1@news.boulder.ibm.com...
> > 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
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