Re: Run a program on iSeries from the web

I was thinking about the possibility of using Scott Klement's HTTPapi
for this, but before I did anything, I wanted to get ideas and opinions
from everyone. 

Thanks Walden!

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Walden H. Leverich
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 8:01 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: Run a program on iSeries from the web

Shannon,

to have a web app (browser) run a command on iSeries.

You say "web app" and then say "browser". Who/What is actually trying to
run the command? The end-user out there some where running IE or
Firefox, or tomcat doing something on bahalf of the end-user?  

The Tomcat server that front ends the web app uses 
java servlets and is on a PC outside the dmz. (i think).

"Outside" the DMZ? Or "in" the DMZ? I would imagine that it's in the DMZ
and not outside it. Unless it's hosted at a hosting facility, in which
case it's less like a DMZ and more like a embassy, it's in their
country, but it's on your soil. <G>

However, the iseries can ping the outside world so communication is

possible.

Not necessarily. Just because you can ping out, doesn't mean something
outside can connect in. eg, I can ping www.midrange.com from my pc all
day long, but there's no way David can ping my pc, even if I told him my
IP (10.100.10.52) Network Address Translation (NAT) is often used to
allow multiple internal boxes outbound access w/out allowing the
reverse.

Or is there a better way? 

Um... This screams for web services! Simply implement a web service on
your iSeries that does what you need it to. Then the developers on the
webapp can simple consume your webservice. Inter-machine calls is what
webservices was designed to do! You may have to make some adjustments on
the firewall to allow the PC running tomcat to access your iSeries, but
that's trivial enough, and relatively secure since you'd only be mapping
traffic from the tomcat PC to your iSeries on a specific port to a
specific port. 

-Walden