Re: [IBMiOSS] [EXTERNAL] Re: Ports and routes needed to replace very large numbers of green screens

Hi Kelly,

the elephant in the room here is architecture. The question of routes primarily comes from web/js apps such one you mention React.JS for example, that uses routes as a concept to manage state in the UI.

my strongest advice to your team would be keep the IO aspect separated properly (the best is REST services). My assumption in responses i have given you thus far assumed this understanding. i have been reengineering large scale applications into modern forms for 20 plus years. without exception i can say that if you don’t do this, you will end up with a monolithic mess - albeit in a modern language. by implementing a proper REST API layer for persisted data you give yourself many distinct advantages including:

the ability to isolate and scale bottlenecks during peak traction/usage periods
better security granularity
better reusability
the ability to transport UI cleanly and rapidly to any other device/platform/cloud
more maintainable application code
portability of data

the fundamental error in almost all IBMi centric tools and modernisation strategies(and most of the comments i have seen on IBMI forums over the years) is to advocate monolithic development with modern technologies. the Node.js world is very attractive in that it seems a natural successor to the self contained development environment to IBMi. i have been developing on Node.js for a number of years now, and i made this connection excitedly early on in that evolution. i also realised the fundamental flaw in it. the entire point of modern development is NOT just about easy ways to build modern UI’s, but about using modern architecture to allow real Agile development and continuous development by implementing layers correctly into loosely coupled components. monolithic development even in Node.JS using REACt for example won’t achieve this

as you and your team review your choices take careful note of this. Therefore the question of routes follows through the UI state and should have zero to do with the backend data component which is served up using stateless REST services.

writing add-ons and UI’s using modern technologies is a different game from building large scale enterprise applications across hundreds, if not thousands of screens programs. if you understand modern software architecture that supports Agile and continuous delivery, your selection of deployment options and tools will be significantly easier and more productive from the beginning.

Stuart

Stuart Milligan
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