Is it me or do the links not work on this page?
http://www.icebreak.dk/technology.htm#
The examples look like ASP for RPG (in fixed format) - ouch! That puts me off a bit, as I am not a big fan of ASP or fixed format RPG. Is still an ASP approach or are the examples just out of date? Describing AJAX as "new technology" tends to make me think that it is just the wording and examples on the website just need a bit of an update.
-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of jim t
Sent: 29 December 2010 15:21
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: [WEB400] 5250 programmer to web programmer
We were in the same position you are. We have web teams that were developing
non-iseries apps for the web and the users looked at the iseries as old and
antiquated. I looked at several different apps and suggested we look into
Icebreak (
http://www.icebreak.dk/).
We looked into Icebreak because it uses RPG and/or CL to send/receive data from
the HTML/AJAX - this way the RPG & CL programmers had a small learning curve. At
the same time we compared at other methods (like CGIDEV, WebFacing, Zend and
more) but Icebreak's performance was much better - at least 10 times faster
response times. Icebreak comes with it's own web server instead of IBMs HTTP or
Apache server, so the configuration was simple and the web server also supported
SSL. Our decision didn't require the developers to learn PHP, JS or Java - all I
gave them was a couple of hours of HTML 101 instructions to get them started.
When we started to look into Icebreak software it was a capital expense. Before
we completed our testing phase Icebreak changed to a fee structure where you
only pay the annual maintenance, so this was easier to get our manangement to
buy into. During our testing phase we integrated AJAX, JS, CSS, SSL and iSeries
security for Signon & object authorities - with this setup we leaving nothing in
the browser's cache, have 2048 bit encryption and the webpage's source does not
show any business data. We also use the users JOBD to set the LIBL and we allow
the users to run existing QRYS that output to either HTML or XML - the XML is
then imported into excel as a pivot table. The webpage's output include images,
graphs (ExtJS), excel, PDF and of course HTML.
To go along with IceBreak we use TAATool commands to get the LIBL, WebReport/400
for creating the PDFs, DBU/RDB from Prodata to pull live data from non-iseries
servers and WDSC for development. These are not required it's just that we
already had them on the systems and it made the development & applications more
robust.
Finally I created a PF on the iSeries that controls what the users sees. When
the the user signs in the initial program checks to see what graphics are
shown on the page (we have multiple divisions), which RPG or CLP programs they
have in their menu bar, and if they have read/write/execute in each of the
programs that they can run. I also include this PF in all RPG apps as an
additional security measure.
If you visit
http://www.icebreak.dk/tutorials.htm then you could check out their
tutorials. If you then want to impress your boss you could download and install
a free license - I think it is a 30 day license. After installing you start the
admin portion of the server and configure a development server. Through the
admin function you can create sample apps that will access live data. Within
minutes you could have apps running (no business logic yet), but if given a week
you could convert a few existing 5250 apps to web based that include your
business logic. Part of our business case was that the PC Support staff didn't
have to install iSeries Access, we required fewer licenses of iSeries Access &
Rumba, that the apps could run from any PC and that the apps could run on smart
phones. During the demo to management they were impessed that the apps used SSL,
were personalized
Jim
----- Original Message ----
From: Buck <kc2hiz@xxxxxxxxx>
To: web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tue, December 21, 2010 4:10:17 PM
Subject: [WEB400] 5250 programmer to web programmer
This is not a thread about screen scraping.
This is not a thread on moving applications from 5250 to the web.
This is a thread to explore the questions of a 30+ year 5250 programmer
who wants to convince his boss to let him tackle web programming even
though the company has a web programming staff already and I have no
real world web experience.
Let me get it out of the way: my boss wants to screen scrape. He gets
to keep all of his RPG/5250 experts at 100% utilisation and he gets 'web
apps' in a short amount of time. I want to write web apps from scratch
rather than grey-screen our 5250 panels and call it 'web' because the
display device changed.
The inspiration for this post came from a Twitter conversation. I
mention that to note specifically that I'm not afraid of the web nor
modern web apps. I use Scott's socket wrapper API to send tweets from
an IBM i command line. With RPG programs, ha! I have Zend Server
running on my i (I'm testing WikiMedia, the PHP software that runs
Wikipedia) as well as an older install of Perl 5.8.7 (I'm keeping
internal documentation on TWiki, Perl software that does a darned good
job with corporate wikis IMO). All on our i. But these are no
substitute for a portfolio of web sites the boss can look at.
I always thought of the problem of web experience as a bootstrapping
issue. How do I get web experience if the business specifically gives
web experience to the web team? But my conversation with people whose
opinions I implicitly trust inexorably lead me to wonder if I'd done
enough to help myself. The idea is that you start with an open source
project on GitHub or SourceForge, add to it a little until you get
experience in the Ways Of The Web. Maybe start your own project.
I did look some time ago. But the state of most projects is such that
I'm not experienced enough with the language to be able to contribute.
That is, the mindset between my modal brain and the modeless web is too
great to bridge at the same time I'm learning a new language.
So. How did you do it? Did anyone do it? Go from a matching
record-comfy 5250 RPG programmer to AJAX-comfy web programmer by setting
up a home web site? What app did you use to get going and most
importantly, why?
I'm not afraid to learn. But at the same time, I've done HelloWorld in
like a dozen web languages and it hasn't really enabled me to be a
productive web programmer. There must be some middle ground, some
semi-guided trail that will help me move myself closer to the goal. And
the way I figure it, if there is such a path, someone here on this list
has walked it. I don't want to be carried, but I'd like a peek at a
couple of your post cards!
--buck
--
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.
--
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.
NOTICE: The information in this electronic mail transmission is intended by CoralTree Systems Ltd for the use of the named individuals or entity to which it is directed and may contain information that is privileged or otherwise confidential. If you have received this electronic mail transmission in error, please delete it from your system without copying or forwarding it, and notify the sender of the error by reply email or by telephone, so that the sender's address records can be corrected.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CoralTree Systems Limited
25 Barnes Wallis Road
Segensworth East, Fareham
PO15 5TT
Company Registration Number 5021022.
Registered Office:
12-14 Carlton Place
Southampton, UK
SO15 2EA
VAT Registration Number 834 1020 74.
midrange.com
