RE: WebSphere Development ToolSet and a beginner

> From: Peter Vidal
>
> ... are these the tools I need?  I there any better, easier and
> faster way to
> develop web solutions by combining CGI, HTML, JS and Net.Data?

Which tools you use are going to depend on what your goal is.  There are a
ton of questions, the three most basic ones being:

1. Do you need a "webby" interface, or is the 5250-style interface
sufficient?

2. Are you developing intranet, extranet or Internet applications?  (That
is, are your users local, on a WAN/VPN, or surfing in off the web?)

3. What are your skill sets, and are you willing to learn more?

With those question in mind, you can start to choose a solution.  For
example, if a 5250 style interface is sufficient and you're only talking
about LAN or WAN/VPN users, you can use CA Express or Mochasoft, and you're
done.

If, on the other hand, you need something really webby, you're down to about
four options:

1. Screen scrapers
2. The Microsoft Way
3. RPG-CGI
4. Servlets/JSP

Screenscrapers are proprietary toolsets that allow you to take existing
applications and put them on the web, with differing degrees of "look and
feel" and also different amounts of work involved.  There are deployment
issues as well.  Not only that, every application has to start life as a
5250 application and is subject to the interactive tax.

Walden can probably tell you more about the Microsoft Way, but in general
it's an ASP/IIS solution and works very nicely in shops that have lots of MS
skills such as Visual Basic.  If you think you're going to be assimiliated
into the MS Side, then this is an option to consider.

RPG-CGI is the tool of choice for legacy shops that refuse to learn Java.
I'm neutral on that particular issue; some shops simply don't have the time
or resources to learn Java (and all the other little tidbits that go with
web application serving, like WebSphere or Tomcat).  However, if you can
learn the nuances of JavaScript, you can probably learn Java without too
much difficulty.  The languages are pretty similar, especialy in basic
syntax.  If you go this route, though, there are several helper technologies
for RPG-CGI, like CGIDEV2 and Net.data, that you might want to learn.  Since
you're highly OS/400-specific with RPG-CGI anyway, I don't think it matters
if you lock yourself into one of those tools.

Servlets/JSP (also known as JSP Model 2) is the Cadillac of solutions, IMHO,
because while it costs a little more to get one, they'll last a lot longer.
Anything you learn when developing a Servlet/JSP solutions can be used in
other environments and on other platforms.  It allows you more flexibility
in your hardware decisions, and also has some pretty cool ramifications for
security (you can have your webserver running no a cheap box in your DMZ
with secure connections to your real production machine, stuff like that).
You can implement some of this with the other solutions, but JSP technology
makes it a lot easier.  The caveat, of course, is that you have to learn JSP
and servlets.

Finally, no matter what server architecture you choose, you'll have to learn
client-side technologies.  If you want a webby interface, these include
HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript at the very least, and you
may or may not need to learn XHTML and XML.

Just some food for thought.

Joe