Re: Web Enabling Applications

I may be in the minority here but I'd shy away from using CGIDEV2 for any sort of web development. I say minority on this list only. The percentage of all web developers that have used or heard of CGIDEV2 is probably less than .001%. We've found that RPG developers are hard to find. RPG developers that have web experience are even harder to find. If JSON is a requirement then I'd also be concerned about processing JSON data with RPG. There are plenty of libraries out there for JSON processing but I don't know if you'll find one for RPG.

You could stand up a Linux server running an Apache web server with PHP and connect to your SQL stored procedures on the i fairly easily. There are JSON functions built in to the PHP language. You did not mention Java so I assume that is not an option.

A big consideration for you is the expertise in your organization. That may help drive your decision. If you have access to a lot of RPG developers then CGIDEV2 may be worth a look but keep an eye on the future. That's my biggest hesitation with CGIDEV2.

Thanks,
Todd


-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Michael Ryan
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2012 11:55 AM
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: [WEB400] Web Enabling Applications

Ok...wide ranging topic I'm sure, but it's Friday. Here's what I'm looking for...opinions, solutions, ideas regarding web enabling (browser access) to i applications. A couple of points: The logic on the i will be written
(re-written) to be accessed by a procedure call. I'm pretty sure I want the returned data to be in JSON format. I'm obviously concerned about security and session state. This application would be for in-house users, not the public.

I'm thinking three main middleware paths - PHP, CGI, and vendor proprietary...others?

Some products/frameworks that I know of are easy CGIDEV2, Renaissance, Zend, powerEXT..others?

Feel free to contact me off list if desired. I look forward to the comments.

Thanks!

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