Nathan
It hadn't occurred to me that my input box was in fact a command line, but
your description is perfectly valid, as I can enter commands as well as
requests, although I hadn't mentioned this.
I don't think that I have ever seen a command line in a web application
either, but I implemented this about 26 years ago, as a logical and simple
way of getting access to all the resources available in an application. I
saw no reason to eliminate it when I Web enabled ERROS.
I think that further explanation is required.
When a user signs on, they are shown a menu with a list of the applications
to which they are authorised. If they are not authorised to an application,
it won't be in the list so they won't know that it exists.
The menu containing the list of applications authorised to the user is
stored and displayed in alphabetic sequence in the ERROS Neural Database -
they have internal identifiers so WRK.100 etc is not required. If there
were more applications than can fit on the screen, they can page down or
type the first few letters of the application they require with "*" - e.g.
"ord*" for orders. Each such record contains information about the user's
authorities and options within the application, but they are unware of these
and do not have the authority to change them.
When they select an application, they are shown an initial menu for that
application from which they can select an item - orders received or
whatever. Alternatively, if they know their way around any ERROS
application, they will know that in every ERROS application they can get to
almost any data with a single request in inquiry mode - as I mentioned, if
they type ".customer/ABC company/orders" they will go straight to a list of
the ABC company's orders in date sequence. The "." tells the system to look
in the index. ".*" would display the site (application) index in
alphabetical order. If they are unfamiliar with an application, they can do
this a step at a time.
If they hover over an "INDEX" button, always visible in inquiry mode, ERROS
will tell them what to do. They will also be told that, even when they have
made many requests and gone down, say, 100 invocation levels, typing ".."
will take them straight back to the application initial menu in 5250 mode or
its home page in Web mode (no URL is used for this). ERROS has a synonym
facility, so, if an item in the site index is "sales orders", a synonym
could be "orders received" and this would take the user straight to "sales
orders". The site index, like the initial menu, is also displayed and
stored in alphabetic sequence, so if a user types ".ord*", ERROS does a
SETLL on the index and reads all records whose name begins "ord". This is
very quick, using minimal resources. If there is only one such record,
ERROS reads that and then the next record, but, finding that that does not
fit the request, it will ignore it.
If a user wishes to go back to his list of applications, then, if after
typing ".." and pressing enter, he or she then presses F12 or F3, they will
be back to that list. They could of course press F3 or F12 multiple times.
I haven't implemented a menu bar at the top of screens. I could do this,
but it would take up valuable real estate on the screen and the user would
need to use a mouse to click on an item, whereas with the site index and the
initial menu, this is not necesary. As far as you can tell from my
description, what do you think? Of course, if it were a "selling" web site,
a menu bar with images could be used to highlight special offers, etc. so
may be I should allow the option. Alternatively, I do intend to implement a
"news" page displayed when a user starts an application, and special offers,
etc., could go here.
In my CGIDEV2 version, I have implemented an option for a top banner as so
many web sites have them, but that also takes up valuable space. My aim is
to avoid both vertical and horiontal slider bars as much as possible.
I mentioned that I use F12 instead of the browser back button to go back.
Again no mouse is required. I have also enabled F3 and that takes a user
back to the last "significant" data table, avoiding multiple F12s. As
ERROS is persistent, I couldn't use the back button.
One of my ideas is that the screen layout should change as little as
possible, either between applications or within an application. (I am
talking here about the general layout, not the details of a subfile, etc.)
However, I have allowed for changes to layouts where users require them.
You mention launching an application in a portal frame. I guess that ERROS
is a portal, since it allows access to all i5 applications. It happens that
I only operate ERROS based i5 applications, and these are all integrated
with no redundant data. However, it would be possible to use ERROS to
launch other i5 applications. I have never thought about launching
applications on other boxes, but I doubt that this would be so difficult to
implement.
I have not studied portals in any detail, so it maybe that I have missed
something. If so, please tell me.
Please don't hesitate to disagree with any of my ideas as you think
appropriate or to add further ideas.
In our efforts to promote the iSeries when IBM doesn't bother, I think that
it would be good if iSeries applications had their own, easily recognisable,
look and feel and that this should not be simply a clone of the standard
Windows interface. What I hope is that the interested contributors to
Midrange might do is come up with a standard for that that others might
follow. I call my screen layout the ERROS Standard Operator Interface
(SOI), but I am sure that it can be improved.
Rob
2009/1/31 Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxx>
From: Rob Dixon
'>Is anyone interested in trying to agree a design for an
improved, standard AS/400 Web/5250 interface?
You just delineated a number of good UI ideas. Your idea for a command
line intrigued me. Aside from the standard browser address bar, I don't
recall seeing command lines in Web applications. But I've thought about
it. I've always liked the IBM i command line.
Perhaps not a full command line. But with a menuing system, each menu item
might have a unique ID. WRK.100 (Work Request System), PRJ.100 (Project
Management System), DAY.100 (Daily Planner), TIM.100 (Time Entry &
Maintenance), CUS.100 (Customer Entry & Maintenance), etc. So what about a
prompt that launches an instance of an application in a portal frame by
entering, say WRK.100 - if the user is authorized to that menu item?
Nathan.
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