Re: Pros and Cons of the various RPG-CGI methodologies

I've used both the CGIDEV2 (easy400) tool and Websmart (not free, but
generates the rpg for you and has a html screen designer).
Both work very well and understandable to someone with only a
rpg background and not the time/resources to go the java route.
Both tools come with complete working programs you can clone, and good
training materials. My personal view is to not start with the eRPG book &
code, but
to read the tutorial for cgidev2 and start there. If you have done any rpgiv
code, you can read the sample
programs, and create an app quickly. Addtl training materials from Rochester
Institute (by Brad Stone)are avail for the cgidev2.
Websmart is if you want to work with a pc desktop tool and not
want to deal with the rpg. It's very intuitive, and you don't have to deal
with
supporting Websphere (hey ibm-some of us don't have machines that can run
Websphere,
or the project time to "try it out"). I had my first working app up in a few
hours.
Have not used Scott's tool.
I would suggest you might summarize your data to make web inquiry/drilldown
perform well.
Once you have the summary files built, triggers can keep it in real-time.
jim franz

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <rick.baird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries" <web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 4:21 PM
Subject: RE: [WEB400] Pros and Cons of the various RPG-CGI methodologies


>
>
> Aaron,
>
> fair enough - This application would be mostly inquiry / reporting type
> stuff - enter parameters, display results, drill down to deeper levels,
> provide links to other applications, outside servers, etc.   Dashboard /
> Scorecard stuff.
>
> strait SQL (via net.data) is insufficient for much of it - the back end
> data is not organized properly for simple selects, joins, etc.   Most of
> the data will have to be gathered from muttiple places, re-arranged and
> re-formated before it's presentable - thus the need for CGI.
>
> what I'm looking for are ease of use stuff - I can do the HTML stuff, but
> how simple / hard is it to format template pages to be fed properly to the
> apis, how well does the substitution, row/column, looping schemes each one
> uses work in the real word, etc.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rick
> -----Original Message-----
> It would be easier, in my mind, to give examples of how things are harder
> or
> easier based on some business requirements.  What kind of an app are you
> looking at building?  Web Services? GUI web application?
>
> Aaron Bartell
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On
> Behalf Of rick.baird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 2:26 PM
> To: web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [WEB400] Pros and Cons of the various RPG-CGI methodologies
>
>
> hey all,
>
> I'd like to start a short discussion about the Pros and Cons of the
various
> shareware and/or open source RPG-CGI development libraries and other
> methodologies available.   Specifically, CGIDEV2, Scott Klement's HTTPAPI,
> Brad Stone's eRPG, and any other CGI helper that might be out there.
>
> I've done several small web projects using the IBM supplied apis, and I'm
> familiar with most of the concepts, and for my next project, I'd like it
to
> be a mixture of net.data and RPG-CGI - but I want to make my job easier
> this time around by using one or some of these products, but I don't have
> time to play around with each to see which I like best.
>
> What do these various packages do well?
> What could they be better at?
> How was the learning curve,
> Do they play well with websphere, net.data, other iseries web
technologies?
> Where can you store your html source?  IFS?  Source files? either?  If
IFS,
> must you use the C functions to read them?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rick
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> This is the Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries (WEB400) mailing list
> To post a message email: WEB400@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
> visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/web400
> or email: WEB400-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
> at http://archive.midrange.com/web400.
>
>