Re: Tool to Modernize IBMi Screens into GUI

Web and green screens are too different for a conversion tool to do a good
job.

You can re use a lot of the logic from the old programs, but you need to
adjust to the fact that the web is "connectionless", so you must organize
your programs as receiving a request, do the job and finish.

On Sun, Dec 29, 2024 at 5:10 AM Daniel Gross <daniel@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi Suren,

honestly, I don't think that such a tool exists.

There are plenty of tools for UI modernization - and I think ProfoundUI
might be the most advanced, as they are switching out the DSPF with an own
driver. So they let you still use EXFMT on the RPG side, but don't simply
"screen scrape".

Also Profound has web service tools in their portfolio - which might be
useful. But as others already said, they have their own solution which
might not be yours.

If you really want to rewrite every DSPF program into a web service and
write an AngularJS front end for it, it might be the best idea to tackle
that yourself.

Depending on the amount of programs and their complexity you can do that
manually - or try to develop an own half-automatic conversion tool
yourself.

For that an RPG parser might be useful. Strumenta (from Italy) has one,
which is pretty good (https://strumenta.com/parser-for-rpg/) - you can
read more about the parser here (
https://tomassetti.me/how-to-use-the-rpg-parser/) - especially some
examples how it can be used.

My idea would be to parse your dialog programs, identify the display file
logic in the AST, and replacing it with appropriate logic for your web
service solution. Then drop those web services into a framework/server like
IceBreak (http://www.spacetec.com/icebreak) which runs natively on IBM i.
There are pretty good examples out there.

But I will not lie to you - going your own way will be a pretty long and
rough journey - but in the end you will get what you want. On the other
side, using a ready-made tool like ProfoundUI will get you results quite
quickly - but then it's their solution not yours.

Choose wisely - sometimes it's better to get results, sometimes it's
better to follow your vision - and only you can make that decision.

HTH and kind regards,
Daniel

Am 29.12.2024 um 02:47 schrieb Suren K <suren7437@xxxxxxxxx>:

Hi All,

I’m looking for a tool to help modernize our IBMi application screens

into

a GUI. Our plan is to use AngularJS for the front end, and we need to
convert all IBMi screen programs into APIs, which will be utilized for

the

GUI screens. The majority of the subfiles in the IBMi applications
are single-page with data queue approach.

Additionally, the web services for these APIs can either be deployed on

the

IBMi (via IWS, HTTP Server with CGI, etc.) or on a separate Windows

server

(such as Java Web Services) — either approach will work for us.

If anyone has suggestions for the best tools available in the market to
help convert the IBMi screen programs into APIs, I would appreciate your
input.
Regards,
Suren
--
This is the RPG programming on IBM i (RPG400-L) mailing list
To post a message email: RPG400-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: https://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/rpg400-l
or email: RPG400-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at https://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l.

Please contact support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for any subscription

related questions.

--
This is the RPG programming on IBM i (RPG400-L) mailing list
To post a message email: RPG400-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: https://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/rpg400-l
or email: RPG400-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at https://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l.

Please contact support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for any subscription related
questions.