Re: Alternate UI to RPG

[Davide Grandi <grndvd63m06f704u@xxxxxxxxx>]

IMHO : one of

- screen scraping (5250 => HTML), in some form
- CGI (Perotti, Rothman et al.)
- application "tampering"
- "fat client" (pc program - android app - ... + stored procedures or 
remote RPG call)

I worked with some homegrown tools and libraries (apart CGI), the choice 
is driven by the number of screen
and the time needed to "convert" a screen. And your budget, of course.
All these technologies have nearly 20 years, so I'm sure you will find 
all the reference you need
for a stable solution.

My best work on subject was an entire ERP screen scraped for 300 users, 
but I built it on top
an existing "screen scraper" written for another ERP. So I've got 
already user management, spools, query,
XML etc etc etc. It lasted 4 years ... until SAP got in.

I think AFAIK that the only open source screen scraper is, if still 
available, the Open Legacy one.
(as usual : open sourced and you know what you're doing, or buy some 
support thereafter).
The "milk run" with Open Legacy and Holger Scherer "public" AS/400 was ok
(login + wrkactjob + pgUp-pgDwn + F3 + logout).

Best regards and good luck !

    Davide Grandi

On 03/10/2018 10:12, Don Brown wrote:
> We have built a web portal to allow web integration for external clients
> and this is using php with xmlservice and it is working very nicely.
>
> Now we want to provide some of the internal functions currently only
> available in 5250 green screen.
>
> NOT looking for 3rd party solutions ... No vendors please.
>
> The application is large and we are looking at the 80/20 rule.  20% of the
> menu options are accessed 80% of the time.
>
> My question/enquiry is to people that have been down this path - somewhat
> regardless of whether they used PHP or nodeJS or Python or ???
>
> Did you modify the existing RPG to enable input from either 5250
> Interactive Green Screen AND Web or did you separate the screen logic to
> new programs or how did you retain the investment in the existing program
> logic.
>
> Would be interested in any comments
>
> Cheers
>
> Don Brown