System iNetwork

December 2008

December 11, 2008 1:42 PM

Reader's Choice: BCD's WebSmart Wise Pick for Company

Reader Susan DeFrance nominates BCD's WebSmart as her product of choice. The solution helps RPG and Cobol programmers rapidly create new IBM i web applications and modernize legacy ones, too.

DeFrance, a senior programmer analyst and project manager, says her company chose WebSmart to revitalize its dealer network after an exhaustive yearlong process. "Although we have critical, complicated legacy applications written in RPGILE for the AS400, it is the web-based projects that get the attention, accolades, and staff's eagerness," she notes.

"It was the decision of the decade for me. I'd been at it for a while and was down to three finalists (none of which I was crazy for). Then I found WebSmart on IBM's Roadmap and within hours of my first phone conversation, I had a working web program using our data. The tool provides a simple, yet robust, interface that generates RPG code with embedded HTML. With a shop of experienced and seasoned RPG coders, it was an exact fit for our company.

"The 25 years of experience I have at my back did not prepare me for this new world of web development where even the words 'server configuration' made my hairs stand up. But the WebSmart configuration was a breeze. I explained our environments, our change-management approach, and standardization principles to the support team. We worked together until I was satisfied that our ideologies would be upheld and they were satisfied that I understood what it was we were doing--and I did.

"WebSmart is chock full of snippets, pre-written functions, and nooks and crannies to hold our unique procedures. Knowledge transfer from one staff member to another and back seems to be unending since we are learning from the intuitive tool every time we use it.

"It's been a lot of fun to learn and to use WebSmart. Now that the move from emulator to real web programs for the portal has been complete for over a year, the competition is fierce for the WebSmart task on deck. And when it's completed it will give us that 'junior programmer grin'--you remember that feeling, don’t you?"

****Reader's Choice is a System iNEWS/System iNetwork feature that lets nonbiased readers (no vendor employees, please) offer feedback on products and services that have helped them. If you'd like to recommend a product that you've used to solve actual problems, save money, or simplify a process, we--and our readers--want to know about it. Put your recommendation of 500 words or less here or send it to Erin Bradford at erin.bradford@penton.com or post it on our LinkedIn page under the Discussions tab.****

--Vicki Hamende, application development and database editor

Posted by vhamende on December 11, 2008 at 1:42 PM | Comments (0)

Readers' Choices: LANSA Products Get Nods

The Visual LANSA IDE for IBM i is an open and flexible application development tool that helps users write code that runs free of the underlying operating system, database technology, or display style. LANSA Integrator offers the integration of application-to-application and business-to-business transactions through XML and Java services. With LANSA Integrator, you can exchange bi-directional XML and other data formats with your trading partners, regardless of platform. The product also features integration of user-written Java services with LANSA, C, RPG and Cobol applications.

Reader Scott Steinacher notes:

"We can’t afford to spend hours writing low-level code if an application generator can do it for us, especially in today's lean times. LANSA’s IDE comes with an editor, compiler, debugger, data dictionary, and page designer. And because it supports frameworks, it provides a structured, rapid-development environment for building web applications that run natively on the System i. We also run LANSA Integrator on our i570 to obtain, transform, and deliver data directly from/to any database on any platform, all without sockets-level coding. It's a really comprehensive, intuitive, and pragmatic development solution that can handle high-volume requirements." For more information, see this case study highlighting the use of LANSA solutions.

Reader Deb Kane also applauds LANSA Integrator and offers a nod to LANSA Client, which gives users GUI access to enterprise data on Windows, IBM i, UNIX and Linux servers. Her company has been using LANSA products since 1994. She reports:

"Visual LANSA’s productivity and multilingual facilities have helped us to rapidly deploy applications over the years to overseas offices and keep up with enormous operational expansion. We use LANSA Client for our end-user reporting, Code Start for our credit-card validation, and LANSA Integrator for XML transacting with suppliers for drop shipping. More recently, we’ve started to modernize our core system with RAMP.

"The flexibility of the LANSA repository has provided us with a key foundation for the continued relevance of our custom business systems, built 14 years ago. The ease of use of the LANSA development tools enables our application developers to quickly and efficiently create and maintain business functions in response to ever-changing business needs. We are looking forward to the information access and time-saving benefits that RAMP will provide to our business system users."

****Reader's Choice is a System iNEWS/System iNetwork feature that lets nonbiased readers (no vendor employees, please) offer feedback on products and services that have helped them. If you'd like to recommend a product that you've used to solve actual problems, save money, or simplify a process, we--and our readers--want to know about it. Put your recommendation of 500 words or less here or send it to Erin Bradford at erin.bradford@penton.com or post it on our LinkedIn page under the Discussions tab.****

--Vicki Hamende, application development and database editor

Posted by vhamende on December 11, 2008 at 1:14 PM | Comments (0)

December 10, 2008 3:12 PM

mrc Accepting Challenges to Build Web Apps Overnight

Software tool developer mrc is now accepting challenges to build custom enterprise web applications in less than 24 hours. "The 24-Hour Challenge is simple and completely free of charge," says Sal Stangarone, mrc's senior product consultant. "Anyone can challenge us to build a fully functional web application (using their own data) with m-Power in 24 hours." m-Power is a development solution used for modernization and the rapid creation of custom web applications. You can use mrc's development tool suite on any platform that supports Java, including the IBM i, Linux, UNIX, and Windows. Examples of the types of applications participants might propose for the contest include business intelligence, report writing, executive dashboards, customer portals, e-commerce, and workflow/scheduling.

The challenge stems from mrc's belief that typical enterprise web application development is time-consuming and expensive, usually requiring outside consultants or outsourcing due to a lack of staff or programming knowledge. "Enterprise application development doesn't need to be time-consuming, difficult, or expensive," says Stangarone. "Give us some sample data and 24 hours, and we'll show you."

For more information, go to mrc-productivity.com/24hourchallenge.html, call 630-916-0662, or email sales@mrc-productivity.com.

--Vicki Hamende, application development and database editor

Posted by vhamende on December 10, 2008 at 3:12 PM | Comments (0)

December 3, 2008 12:05 PM

Readers' Choices: BCD Fans Offer Feedback

Six readers chimed in to offer a thumbs-up to BCD application development and modernization solutions.

Thomas Hughes swears by BCD's WebSmart, which helps RPG and Cobol programmers create new i system web applications and modernize legacy ones as well. He also appreciates the BCD tech support team. Here's part of his testimonial:

"I first started working with BCD's product WebSmart in late 2000. I was developing a website demo in JSP to present to my company's management team for approval on a project we wanted to accomplish in IT. I was using JSP to access our DB2/400 database. I spent two months designing pages, creating artwork (buttons, logos, splashes, etc...), writing code (JavaScript, JSP, html, etc...), and configuring Websphere 2.0. By chance I saw an ad in a trade publication for BCD's WebSMart product and decided to give the 30-day trial a test.

"After download, I configured the product, which took less than 15 minutes in comparison to the day and a half that WebSphere needed. Next, I attempted my first page. By using WebSmart templates, I was able to create a page with a table of DB2/400 production data in under 10 minutes. I am an RPG coder by trade and was astounded by this. Two hours later, I had created the page to look and perform like its counterpart in my JSP version. And three days
later, I had developed the whole site that took me almost two months to accomplish using other tools.

"Two jobs later, after bringing WebSmart in-house in both of those companies, my current employer utilizes WebSmart, WebSmart PHP, and Clover to generate income via the Internet in our online systems. We are also currently evaluating BCD's other products--Nexus and Presto."

Ellery Soifer offers more kudos for WebSmart:

"Under the heading of 'helped you solve actual business and IT issues' would be their [BCD's] understanding of how our company needed to scan and optically store product images, merge these images with existing iSeries data, and present them to our users in a search-engine type environment. The use of their WebSmart product along with their vast knowledge created an amazing functional company tool that is in constant use.

"And further, under the category of 'just made my job easier,' was the fact that commissioning their organization to kick-start the project gave me time to handle business emergencies (as is common in a one-man IT environment) and that owning the WebSmart product allows me to execute minor changes myself as our business environment evolves."

Reader Jeremy Bumgarner, who notes that BCD's tech support is "icing to the cake," says his employer purchased WebSmart in 2006 and has developed several robust, web-based systems with it:

"WebSmart takes care of the web-interactions for us, leaving us to develop logically sound, web-based solutions in record time. As a programmer who has provided web-based iSeries solutions before without a tool like WebSmart, I can fully appreciate the time savings this affords us.

"One of the features that I am most impressed with is data access on non-iSeries systems. JDBC data access is one of the newer features of WebSmart, and I absolutely love it. I get to treat the MSSQL tables just like the table exists on our iSeries. No special coding, it just works. I take care of business logic, WebSmart does the rest. As an IT person, 'it just works' is very comforting, and WebSmart does just that.

"Additionally, management is in love with another feature of WebSmart--SmartCharts. With SmartCharts, I am able to build 3D charts and graphs on the iSeries and deliver them via the web. I am even able to make them clickable for data mining purposes. How cool is that--an on-the-fly generated 3D graph using our data."

Reader George McLaurine relies on BCD's ProgenPlus, which helps clients develop and maintain native ILE/RPG source code and take advantage of of RPG IV features such as longer field names, new op codes, built-in functions, and free-format or fixed-format coding.

McLaurine says: "For more than 35 years, on all the IBM platforms, I have been using RPG and its iterations. From cards to coding sheets to full screen SEU, through the System 3s, 32s, 34s, 36s, 38s and 400s, I've had an opportunity to see and work with many, many tools and techniques that enhance program development efficiency and accuracy. Nothing has come close to ProgenPlus for everyday use. In a very dynamic IT environment, the demand for online queries, reports, prompts, and data entry is a daily challenge.

"It would be hard to quantify the productivity gains of using this product, but I would put it well above the 1000% mark (yes, that's 1000%). Tasks requiring hours before are done in minutes now. Projects that took days are now done in hours. And since Progen Plus lends itself very well to modular programming, internally developed code and routines can be used over and over again.

"The ability to integrate my own routines with the Progen base code and to constructively modify the Progen program styles to best suit my company's needs is an unbeatable combination. It makes anyone a hero. And, because of the super increased productivity, it directly affects the bottom line of the folks for whom I work."

Warren Schultz speaks up for BCD's WebSmart PHP, Nexus, and Clover and rates BCD supprort as "second to none":

"Within the last year, our company has installed BCD Nexus, Clover, and WebSmart PHP software. In my experience, this company [BCD] offers some fine software, which is backed up by outstanding support. For enterprises thinking of offering more of a web-based presence, at least for your own employees, this suite of products is worth a look.

"Nexus allowed us to begin offering a basic intranet, fairly easy to administer and add content to. You can add authorized users by having them log on via their iSeries profile or by creating an all-new profile. You can assign users to groups and then allow them access to folders, menus, or links based upon group or individual authority. It is pretty simple to upload files, which users may then download. They make it very easy to set up convenient access to various internal applications (i.e., Clover or WebSmart PHP) and external websites. Since launching Nexus, we have also implemented Microsoft SharePoint. The latter has at least one advantage over Nexus. With SharePoint, you can upload documents (i.e., MS Word or Excel) which then can then be further modified. In contrast, with Nexus, each time the document was to change, one had to delete the copy out on the Nexus folder before uploading it again manually.

"WebSmart PHP is a very fine tool for developing PHP applications quickly. If your HTML skills are modest rather than great, and/or if your PHP knowledge is at a very basic level, then I would recommend doing what I did--I went to the five-day classroom course offered by BCD/Excel Systems. The instructor was excellent. WebSmart PHP offers quite an assortment of templates to quickly generate applications. I have used the tool to quickly develop some file lookups, file maintenance programs, inquiry type applications, etc.

"Clover has been another tool I have used quite a bit for developing some browser-based applications. I have used it quite a bit for some quickie inquiry/listing applications, including scenarios where a query is run to output to a spreadsheet. There are some quirks to learn along the way. If your SQL selects way too many records, this may pose some problems that you’ll need to address. Sometimes, when outputting to a spreadsheet, the execution may fail because the worksheet name is too long (easy to fix via small change to HTML). By and large, there is not that much need to tweak the code. If you have even a modest familiarity with SQL and HTML, you’ll be fairly proficient in short order."

Dennis Ruud is a Clover fan:

"We have found Clover to be a very useful tool in rapidly creating reports and getting them to the web. With Clover it's very easy to create a report and deploy it on our portal. I was able to create a report and display it as a bar graph in the first couple of hours we had the product. I also like the fact that we have unlimited users and developers. I know next to nothing about html and cgi programming, but Clover generates the html and cgi programs in a flash. Clover also lets you go in and tweak the html if you need to do that, making it very flexible. It's also possible to call RPG programs from a Clover report."

****Reader's Choice is a System iNEWS/System iNetwork feature that lets nonbiased readers (no vendor employees, please) offer feedback on products and services that have helped them. If you'd like to recommend a product that you've used to solve actual problems, save money, or simplify a process, we--and our readers--want to know about it. Put your recommendation of 500 words or less here or send it to Erin Bradford at erin.bradford@penton.com or post it on our LinkedIn page under the Discussions tab.****

--Vicki Hamende, application development and database editor

Posted by vhamende on December 3, 2008 at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)