RE: RPG for both WEB and Interactive Jobs

[boldt@xxxxxxxxxx]

Andy asked:
>I would like to begin developing some program which will be used to do the
>"business processing" of an application that could be used both as "eRPG"
to
>the web and as plain old fashioned interactive jobs.
>
>Basically what I want to do is separate the screen i/o so it can be either
>HTML or "green screen" and then have the same program process the
>information from the user and generate a response back to where ever the
use
>sent it from.
>
>Well that's what I would like to do.  But don't know where to begin with
>this.  Can anyone here suggest resources that I might read up on: Web
pages,
>IBM manuals, books, that can provide me with suggestions as to how I might
>set up this type of system.

then Aaron replied:
>You are looking the new Webfacing tool from IBM which is available in
V5R1.
>I have not tried it but have just been told what it does.  I don't even
have
>a link for you:-(


WebFacing could be used for such a purpose, but that tool should
only be used for "web-enabling" EXISTING applications.

For NEW code, you have the opportunity to do things right, right
from the start:  Implement your application with good solid
separation of business and display logic using an MVC design.

To find general information on how to structure your app, go to
your favorite web search tool and search on '"Model View
Controller" design'.  (AKA MVC.)  The general idea is that one
component handles the presentation of data (the "View"), another
component handles the business logic ("the Model"), and everything
is managed by the "Controller".  In many web-based applications,
the "View" is implemented by JSP's, and the "Controller" is a set
of Java servlets (*).  The "Model" can be implemented in any
language, and some people consider RPG a good choice for modelling
business logic.  In the "green screen" world, you'd add another
program (in RPG) that implements the "View" and "Controller" using
WORKSTN files.

Cheers!  Hans

(*) Some would argue that the "View" and "Controller" for a web
app should be implemented in RPG too.  You could do that if you
really wanted to.  The important thing is the separation of
responsibilities along the MVC lines.

Hans Boldt, ILE RPG Development, IBM Toronto Lab, boldt@ca.ibm.com

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