Re: Modernizing Green Screen Was: Re: IBM HATS vs. ? -- MIDRANGE-L

James,

I have no idea what kind of support we might get from IBM in converting 5250 output to XML, but that idea reminded me of something that Niels Liisberg of Denmark shared on the Web400 list.

Niels wrote an ILE C service program that used IBM's virtual terminal interface to expose 5250 data streams as simple data structures, which could subsequently be formatted in any way a developer might chose. He then wrote an RPG utility that converted 5250 output to JSON formats - used by a JavaScript client - apparently written by one of his colleagues at System & Method.

It was good to see an ILE (server based) approach to screen scrapping, which performed a lot better than anything else I've seen.

-Nathan.

----- Original Message ----
From: James Perkins <jrperkinsjr@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 10:56:54 AM
Subject: Modernizing Green Screen Was: Re: IBM HATS vs. ?

I know we have all discussed this before, but I personally have strong
feelings on it. I didn't want steal a valid topic so I changed it.

Anyway....

Mike,
I know what you mean. I think there are VERY valid reasons to not completely
go away from the green screen. For simple data entry, there is nothing
faster. I do think in a lot of places data entry is becoming less of a task,
but I don't think it will ever just go away.

So, my proposal for this would probably need some help from IBM. I think the
it would be nice to have an XML data stream. So, basically it would send an
XML stream of your DDS. Maybe even replace the 5250 data stream or have an
option to indicate you want to use an XML data stream.

Simple example:
<screen01 id="scrn01">
<companyId type="integer">1</comp_id>
<customerId type="char">CUSTID</customerId>
</screen01>

I'm sure there is more needed than this. I think it would work though. You
could treat it as a web service and would have to pass the data back in the
same format. I would think the data going back would be the hardest to deal
with, but it should be doable. We already have the ALIAS keyword in DDS we
could use for the XML tags. Indicators would be changed boolean's, I have no
genius ideas to handle those.
--
James R. Perkins
http://twitter.com/the_jamezp

On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 09:20, Mike <koldark@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

What about the Zend Platform with the 5250 connector? What are people's
feedback on that? We would prefer to offer both green-screen and web
interface without major reworking of applications. We aren't afraid to have
to write the front-end.

On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 11:13 AM, James Perkins <jrperkinsjr@xxxxxxxxx

wrote:

Well, I voice my opinion here.

I don't really like any of the so called "Application Modernization"

tools.

They are not making anything modern, just screen scrapping old code and
making it look "pretty" and in most cases it looks like an old Windows
program.

The right way to do this is scrap the DDS and create something new. There
is
no good way to take a green screen and translate it into something that
looks like a nice GUI. Choose a nice framework, preferably web IMO, and
just
start from there.

I know it's a lot of work to do this and I know most places don't want to
pay for it, but you can't put a band-aid on it either. (I consider screen
scrapping a band-aid). It's not cheap or easy, but you will have to pay

for

it at some point. It might not be monetary it might be the loss of the

IBM

i
at your company.

Just my opinion.

--
James R. Perkins
http://twitter.com/the_jamezp

On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 07:33, <fbocch2595@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi Folks, I've heard that we've selected HATS for webfacing.? I'm not

sure

this is the right forum but...is that what you folk would choose for
webfacing?? I see it has been recommed by 400stuff.?

Your thoughts??

Thanks, Frank
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