RE: Who's doing Web work on iSeries? (was: ASP on AS/400 Apache)

Ken,

As a matter of personal preference, and the main reason I don't care for
webfacing and such, is that I do not think that most 'traditional' RPG
screen and program designs translate well into HTML/CGI.  You have to think
differently when designing a web page with RPG than a Green Screen.

Let's take the traditional Green Screen Maintenance program.  24x80 is what
you are limited to, even with subfiles and popup windows (both of which I
use a lot in green screen).  If you have a selection list screen, an entry
screen(F6), a change screen(option2), a copy screen(option3), a delete
screen(option4), and a display screen(option5) screen.  Again, a fairly
typical green screen file maintenance type application.  Now, that's 6
screens, probably all in the same DSPF, so really 6 screen formats and a lot
of RPG code to navigate them, but you typically run them all through one
program.

The formula in HTML with CGI is 1 screen = 1 program.  At first this sounds
horrible, but you realize immediately you are not limited to 24x80 anymore!
You can scroll, have popups, open seperate windows, and all kinds of stuff.
But you have to think and design differently to make it all flow properly.
The other thing to remember as well is that unlike the green screen world
you are familiar with, some things can no longer be taken for granted.

A big number 1 on this list is that the System no longer knows who you are.
The request comes in, the page is built, the page is delivered, the server
forgets everything it ever knew about you.  There are no inherent sessions.
Every new request has to 're-educate' the server about who it is requesting
this data.

Which leads us to another thing... you are no longer writing code to produce
your output.  You are now writing code to write code to produce your output.
That throws a lot of people for a loop when they are first starting with
CGI.

Finally, take everything I say with a grain of salt.  There is a way or two
around everyone of these 'obstacles'.  You can make a single program handle
multiple screens, you can build a form of Session/persistence maintenance.
All I'm saying is that I personally think that your heartache will be
greatly reduced if you don't think of it as a 'migration', but instead
approach it as a redesign.  The bulk of your code can still be cut and
pasted into your new programs, but there will probably be a whole bunch of
small ones to replace those old large ones!

I'm just rambling now, so happy hunting and happy holidays!

Joel

-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Rhodes [mailto:kenr@palecek.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 4:38 PM
To: 'web400@midrange.com'
Subject: RE: [WEB400] Who's doing Web work on iSeries? (was: ASP on
AS/400 Apache)


We have just started getting our feet wet. Using NetData and IBM HTTP
Original. Mostly for auxiliary stuff, no core functions right now. Can
anyone point me to some good case studies about using the web features of
the 400? Something that shows migration from green screen to web would be
perfect.

Thanks,
Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: Bartell, Aaron L. (TC) [mailto:ALBartell@taylorcorp.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 1:25 PM
To: 'web400@midrange.com'
Subject: RE: [WEB400] Who's doing Web work on iSeries? (was: ASP on
AS/400 Apache)


I am doing web stuff.  I have recently written my first java servlet(running
on WAS) and before that I have written a couple different e-RPG
sites/apps(running on IBM HTTP Org).  I am liking java more and more all of
the time.  Some things are more cumbersome (learning all of the classes and
what they do), but once you have those under your belt it becomes a lot
easier.  It also takes awhile to develop a Java programmers mind set if you
are coming from a "procedural" background.  Dare I say it. . . yes I will. .
. there is very little code that I have seen outside of third party packages
that use OO concepts.  A lot of them just use modularity concepts which RPG
is very capable of doing with ILE (just not as pretty as java).

I am with Buck.  I just don't have time to post stuff on this list unless I
absolutely need to or I know how I can answer somebody's question to save
them a big headache.

Aaron Bartell

-----Original Message-----
From: Buck Calabro [mailto:Buck.Calabro@commsoft.net]
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 3:10 PM
To: web400@midrange.com
Subject: [WEB400] Who's doing Web work on iSeries? (was: ASP on AS/400
Apache)


>OK - how many people are depressed that there
>are only 4 posts a day on this board...

Actually, I'm up to _here_ in work, and only get to look at the mail during
a lull...

>Is ANYONE out there doing WEB/400 work?

We are evaluating WebFacing, as well as an OLEDB solution to give our green
screen Synon codebase a GUI face.  I got the HTTP server working (easily) to
serve static, CGI and Net.Data pages.
  --buck
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