Re: Advice about moving to a Web-environment

I would also steer clear of Java (at first anyway) unless you have
someone with lots of experience to help out. The syntax of Java isn't
bad and isn't difficult to learn but there are a lot of things that
don't make sense and will make your life difficult unless you have a
working knowledge of Object Oriented Programming. There are a couple of
good books out there on the subject. I liked "Beginning Java Objects"
quite a bit but I'm not sure if this is available new anymore.

CGI in RPG is not that difficult to learn. There are several tool kits
available to make the job easier but I would recommend writing at least
one CGI program from scratch to really understand what's happening.

Which ever way you end up going (Java, CGI, PHP), there are some basics
that everyone involved in the projects will need to know: How the HTTP
protocol works (the fact that it's stateless throws a lot of new
developers) and HTML. You will also want a person or two to know how to
configure the HTTP server. If you are on V5R1 or V5R2, don't waste any
time learning the Original HTTP Server. You want to learn the newer
Apache 2.0 server. There is a book called "Professional Apache 2.0" that
is very, very good. Besides having information on how to configure the
server, there is a large amount of background information that you will
find useful.

Matt

-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Ewout N Boter
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 5:35 AM
To: web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [WEB400] Advice about moving to a Web-environment

I post this message because I would like to get some advice of other 
people who have made the transition from a traditional 
5250/RPG-environment to a Web/Java-environment. 

At our shop, we are only developing 5250-applications. We use ILE RPG in

the way ILE was intended for, i.e. we have created a lot of procedures
to 
encapsulate business rules, we use service programs, activation groups, 
etcetera. Thus, we have adopted some of the modern features of ILE RPG, 
but we are still stuck with 5250-applications. We now want to make the 
transition to GUI- and/or Web-applications, but we don't know how to 
proceed. We have bought some books about using Java on the iSeries, one
of 
us is doing a course on WebSphere Application Server, we have some 
thoughts about a Web-application we would like to build, but we are not 
feeling confident enough to really get going. Therefore, I would like to

know how other shops have made the step to modernization. I think that
we 
might learn a lot from the experience of others who have travelled along

the way we have ahead of us. Any response would be greatly appreciated.

Ewout