>It would be helpful if he or Aaron Bartel would write an article about
the things you're showing here.
I actually have a "Tidbits of Goodies" article due in a couple days. I
will run this by the IBMSystemsMag staff to see if I can get some article
space to introduce the IBMSystemsMag readers to this.
>It has been a bit frustrating to me to read about stuff like this running
under PHP, J2EE, or .Net. Vendors keep saying that they can "modernize"
our legacy applications, but they're often really suggesting that we move
applications off the platform. It's good to hear of a native IBM i
innovation.
I fully agree! I am quite excited! I think the beauty of this all is
that Niels has released it under the Apache open source license. This is
good on multiple fronts and will hopefully encourage more adoption of such
an approach.
It would be good to get this into a public source repository so we can
start brainstorming ideas. With WDSC's iSeries Projects it will be fairly
easy to work with a CVS or SVN repository. Niels, I know that you are
working on a repository for stuff like this so I don't want to step on
your toes by creating another - though my preferred (and free) repository
one-stop-shop at assembla.com is no longer free so I am looking at moving
on from that. Should a sourceforge project be created for stuff like
this?
Oh man, this is quite exciting. How geek am I that I get excited about a
set of API's that takes text and transforms it, LOL! My wife just rolls
her eyes when I get excited about this stuff.
Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
Nathan Andelin wrote:
This is done by a new "IceCap Buildin" used like this:
When vtSaaTitleContains(pVts:'Sign On');
Niels,
Are you a mind reader? I was just thinking how nice a function like that would be. And you were busy doing it.
You not only implemented it, but also showed a good example of using it in a cool web service.
Is Jon Paris watching this thread? He explained Zend's 5250 bridge in a web-cast, if I recall correctly. It would be helpful if he or Aaron Bartel would write an article about the things you're showing here.
It has been a bit frustrating to me to read about stuff like this running under PHP, J2EE, or .Net. Vendors keep saying that they can "modernize" our legacy applications, but they're often really suggesting that we move applications off the platform. It's good to hear of a native IBM i innovation.
I really like the architecture:
Workstation Application <==> Virtual Terminal Interface <==> Workstation Extender <==> Web Client
It's fun to consider that the Web Client may be a browser on one hand, or an Excel spreadsheet on another. I really like that the Workstation Extender in your example is an RPG module. It keeps your core business logic under IBM i.
It will be interesting to see how your Virtual Terminal Interface evolves. You're probably just scratching the surface of possibilities. You're new procedure for reading the screen title is a good start.
I hear a lot of people asking IBM for a "native web interface". They ask for it, but they often have a hard time defining what they really mean by it. I'd suggest that they look at what you're doing.
Nathan.
midrange.com
