RE: 5250-to-HTML servlet? -- JAVA400-L

Joe,

I'm guessing here, but I would have thought that since IBM have enabled
Webfacing to run without the interactive tax on the new hardware, that the
suppliers of similar products (such as Seagull, Jacada, and even Pluta
Brothers) would (should?) be hammering on IBM's door very hard, to ensure
that their products can take advantage of the same way of running (however
it's technically achieved).

I also think it would be a very bad move by IBM if they denied this to the
ISV's. After all, their whole strategy is based on migrating 5250
applications to the web, by whatever means necessary. And it's not as if
they would lose sales revenue - they give webfacing away for free anyway.

Does anyone know how IBM are doing this technically?

Chris.

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Pluta [mailto:joepluta@PlutaBrothers.com]
Sent: 23 January 2003 06:21
To: Java Programming on and around the iSeries / AS400
Subject: RE: 5250-to-HTML servlet?


> From: jamesl@hb.quik.com
>
> Has anything been done in the way of a Java servlet to translate between a
> 5250 data stream and an HTML form?

There are any number of screen-scraping solutions that will do this sort of
thing, including the IBM HATS tool.  The problem is that these tools will in
the end be affordable to only the high end of the market; that is, the small
percentage of folks who can afford the interactive tax.

That's because all screen scrapers (or, as they like to bill themselves,
"non-intrusive" legacy interfaces) have the same common failing: they
require interactive CPW.  And since IBM has just reduced your interactive
tax choice to "all" or "none", unless you're willing to budget the full
interactive cost, you can't use a screen scraper.  So, the price of a screen
scraper is the cost of the product PLUS the cost of the full interactive
feature.

Instead, you now have only two choices: WebFacing or an "intrusive" solution
like PSC/400 (my product).  Unlike the screen scrapers, PSC/400 completely
removes the interactive requirements for an application, thus allowing you
to run on a Standard Edition iSeries rather than an Enterprise Edition.

The price differential pays for the cost of the product, and then some.

And of course, you can still run the programs from the green screen if you
so desire, that's nothing special.  Or you can run it in 5250 emulation mode
in a browser, which requiers no retraining.  Or you can customize the front
end to be completely "weblike".

All without a single interactive cycle.

Joe

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