Re: 5250 to Web Interface / Application Modernization

Interesting, Can you point me at a web page fo pricing etc. details please.

'
As to the categories you list, I think you paint with too broad a brush. Here's a modified version of your list that matches my own experience better. I should also add that I find many shops to be in multiple areas of this list - not completely in one camp or another.

1. Maintain 5250 interfaces (Basically the "slow death" scenario.)

2. Maintain the 5250 paradigm via screen scrapers (Often a prelude to other options **)

3. Re-use existing 5250 apps via tools that implement open-access handlers. An OA solution is not limited to the 5250 paradigm and so does not really belong in the same category as screen scrapers. Not to say it isn't used as a sophisticated version of those but it is by no means limited to that design scenario.

4. Casual, modest web development via CGIDEV2. (This one is often a precursor to #3, #5, #6 or #7)

5. Migrate the UI to PHP/Python/Nod.js keeping the backend RPG/SQL

6. Migrate the UI to another platform and language environment (Java, PHP, .Net, Node.js, whatever), while retaining an IBM i database and stored procedure development. (Nothing "modest" about a lot of folks I've seen's usage of stored procedures.)

7. Rework the UI and keep it on IBM - otherwise the same as #5 or #6. Tools range from IceBreak to Lansa to CNX's Valence to Genexus to ...

** I say "prelude" because if there is one thing that screen scrapers can do it is to show people who have only 5250 experience what they do and do not want in their browser apps. In that statement I include end users as well as the programmers. With many people I have worked with neither the end user or the programmers really know the options. Going with a screen scraper breaks the ice and gives them a common basis for communication. It is also often the only thing that management will ante-up for without proof of the benefits. So don't deride scrapers - think of them as the "gateway drug" to real web apps! <grin>


Jon Paris

www.partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com

On Apr 8, 2019, at 5:17 PM, Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Pity you don't sell it or Open Source it. Powerful stuff.

We sell our web portal and developer toolkit. It's geared more for
organizations that want to do very broadly-scoped, new application
development on IBM i, say ERP class systems.

I've never been able to get a proper feel for the IBM i tools market. It
appears to me that IBM i shops fall into a few niches:

1. Maintain 5250 interfaces
2. Maintain the 5250 paradigm via screen scrapers and interfaces that
implement open-access handlers.
3. Casual, modest web development via CGIDEV2.
4. Migrate the UI to another platform and language environment (Java, PHP),
while retaining an IBM i database and modest stored procedure development.
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