Re: Looking for Advice/Suggestions

[Booth Martin <booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My current favorite flow is:

 * write an RPG service program that delivers the current data as a
   datastructure.
 * Use the IWS Wizard to deliver those data as properly formatted .json
   data.
 * Set up a web server in your IFS, with a landing page that displays a
   graph

You already get the data, so step 1 is easy.

I found that using the IWS Wizard is easy and reliable, however I will 
say it is not idiot-proof; the learning curve for me was painful and 
embarrassing.

You already know HTML & css well enough to write your own landing page 
on your.box, port 80.  The browser graph will be the stickler but by the 
time you get there you will have come across a solution you like.

So, yes, given some time to absorb it all, it should be a great way to 
wet your toes.


On 10/23/2019 8:44 AM, Kelley wrote:
> 	I'm not sure if this is the right list...
>
> 	I'm looking for advice/suggestions on how to change an RPG/green
> screen application to be accessible from a browser.
>
> 	Last week I was at the RPG/DB2 conference in Minneapolis. A great
> conference as usual. I was particularly interested in the open source
> sessions and I'd like to try some of the techniques I watched being
> done.
>
> 	The shop I work in has been a single person shop for a couple of
> years now (down from three people). All of our software was developed
> in-house over a period of many years. The code is mostly RPG400 and
> green screens. I write any new code using RPG Free and other newer
> techniques, however the applications are pretty stable so I don't
> write a lot of new code. My other responsibilities (PC's, networks,
> and so on) keep me from doing any refactoring.
>
> 	 The program I'd like to change is an RPG Free program that uses a
> green screen display to show current yield data to the manufacturing
> line (it displays a bar chart using control codes for different
> colors). It's displayed on a large screen TV that is visible in the
> plant. It refreshes every 15 seconds.
>
> 	I'd like to update this process and move the display of the data to a
> web browser so it can be visible to those without an IBM i client.
> This is not an area I have much experience in. The closest I've come
> is using CGIDEV to create a web page that displays sales data.
>
> 	My question is, where to start? I've spent some time on the web
> looking at various ways to do this, I think there are about a million.
> What's the best way to ease into this?
>
> 	To help narrow options down a bit, I know RPG, C and SQL. I've done
> some simple HTML and CSS. I'm familiar with linux. I built a simple
> inventory app a few years ago using a LAMP stack and PHP. I'm
> currently learning Python.
>
> 	Any and all suggestions are welcome.
>
> 	Thanks, Kelley.