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 Nexus
1.2 Wins Search400 Product of the Year Gold Award for Web-Enabling
Tools
BCD is proud to announce that our Nexus portal has won the Search400.com
Gold Award in the category of Web-Enabling tools. Here is an excerpt
from the Search400.com writeup:
"It's Nexus' performance that catches the eyes of our judges. It uses native ILE
objects on the back end, and it is deployed over the HTTP original or Apache servers.
Integral components of the OS/400 operating system support native ILE objects; in
contrast, Java objects require another layer of middleware to run. In addition, both
the original HTTP and Apache Web servers are highly efficient, requiring minimum
system resources to run. The result: maximum performance for the minimum hardware
and software infrastructure investment.
In contrast, Java server-based solutions, such as IBM's WebSphere
portal, rely on WebSphere Application Server (WAS) for their runtime
infrastructure. WAS is known for requiring lots of CPU power and
memory to run efficiently. Nexus, however, can run on the smallest
of iSeries computers without needing a hardware upgrade. BCD estimates
that sites using Nexus can save from $20,000 to $200,000 by avoiding
the kinds of hardware upgrades required to deploy a WebSphere portal.
As for value, you can't get much better than cost-free.... [read
the full text at www.bcdsoftware.com].
Nexus
2.0 Beta
We are currently preparing the release of Nexus 2.0. In addition
to several other structural and aesthetical enhancements, the flagship
feature of Nexus 2.0 is it's integration with Catapult to provide
instant access, via Nexus, to a newly created document repository.
The new Nexus portlet is designed to create a repository of entries.
This portlet allows the archiving and searching of spool-files
that Catapult had processed. You can also manually add any other
object on your PC to this repository. The document repository then
allows you to access each of these entries, as well as search within
them.
Other Nexus 2.0 features include:
• Support for all versions of Apache and O/S release
levels.
• Security/Login now supports hints and secret questions,
with updated look & feel to login screen.
• Redesigned interface for working with group pages.
Nexus now identifies user defined pages from those created for a group. This allows
users the flexibility of managing their own pages while ensuring that group page
content remains consistent for each user.
• Significant enhancements to how Portlets (previously
'wadgets') are managed, designed around the concept of a Porlet class and Portlet
instances. This provides increased functionality and flexibility in how a Portlet
is designed and ultimately functions on a page.
• Nexus calendar redesign.
• Several UI enhancements including enhanced creation
of HTML Include Portlet types.
For further details on the Nexus/Catapult integration and the document
repository, or any of the new features, please contact Technical
Support. If you are interested in participating in the Nexus 2.0
please fill in the Nexus
2 Beta Request Form, and our lead developer will contact you
to provide the links for the downloads.
How
to retrieve the Nexus login and session information in a WebSmart
program.
When you add a WebSmart program to your Nexus Portal (by adding
a link or creating a portlet) the program may want to use the Nexus
login information such as the UserID to subset the data displayed
to the user. A WebSmart program can retrieve the Nexus Login and
Session information such as the UserID, First Name, Last Name and
Site ID by retrieving the Nexus Smurf ID from the Nexus Access
cookie stored on your PC. To do this follow these steps or download
the pdw below:
| 1) |
Add the file XL_SMSLIB/SMSESSF to your WebSmart
program |
| 2) |
Add crtextstruct(sessds, SMSESSF, "Session info");
in the main function |
| 3) |
Retrieve the Nexus Cookie: pgmf_smurfid = getcookie("nexusaccess"); |
| 4) |
Get the Nexus Session information from the smurf:
sessds = getsmurf("sessds"); |
| 5) |
The fields from the SMSESSF file are now populated
with the Nexus Login and Session values. |
To test this you will need to download and compile the pdw available
from the link below to your AS/400. Once the program is compiled
just add a link to it into Nexus.
Click
Here to Download an Example PDW
Note: This does not necessarily mean that your program is now protected
by the Nexus login security. To learn how to use the Nexus security
to protect your programs click
here to review last months Nexus tip.
WebSmart
4 Upcoming Release
The final touches are being put on the WebSmart 4 documentation,
and the official release is planned for the week of February 25.
You can view the new features here.
As soon as it's available online (with PDF documentation) we'll
be posting a message to our technical mailing list so you can start
using the latest features! Hardcopy versions of the latest User
and Reference Guides will be available later on this month.
In addition to the features that we have been profiling in previous
technical updates, there are a few recent additions, including
the ability to resequence your HTML segments, and a new right-click
file/segment tab to allow quicker navigation.
If you have any questions about the upgrade process, or any of
the new features, please contact Technical
Support.
WebSmart
4 Advanced Training
The official release of WebSmart 4 is just around the corner (expected
release date of Feb 25th) and the best way to learn about all the
new features is to attend a course. BCD will be hosting a combined Advanced
WebSmart and WebSmart 4 training course on March 22 - 25. Space
is limited so sign up today and be the first to learn about WebSmart
Change Management, the new Template Wizard, sending HTML emails
and many other new features and functions(for a complete list click
here). The course is intended for experienced users of WebSmart
and would cover some of these advanced topics: WebSmart security,
using SQL in WebSmart, building a search indexes, IFS and image(graphing)
functions, advanced HTML and CSS, extending the PML and customizing
templates.
If you would be interested in attending this class, or another
like it, please fill out the Training
Request Form posted at our web site, or email Marcel
Sarrasin, the training coordinator.
WebSmart
Example Programs
Below are descriptions of the WebSmart Example Programs that are
new this month. Click on the links to see the demos, and additional
details on how you can implement these features in your own programs.
Example
56 - Placing the cursor in a specific input capable box(also
known as setting the focus) by using the onLoad event in the body
tag. This is perfect for a login screen and having the cursor already
in the User Name box.
Example
57 - Using JavaScript instead of a program field to display
the current date. This is necessary if you are using PML includes
and want the current date to appear in the include header.
Example
58 - Using the openstrmf function to check if an object exists
on the IFS. In your subfile you may display an image of an item
and if the image file is not found on the IFS you want to display
text saying image not found instead of having the red image which
appears when an image isn't found.
Example
59 - This program invokes some JavaScript that opens up Windows
Explorer from your WebSmart program.
For further details on any of the WebSmart examples, or if you
have any questions on how to implement the techniques they illustrate,
please contact Technical
Support.
Catapult
5.0 Upcoming Release and Beta
The Catapult 5.0 beta was first announce in the January technical
update. Since then, we have also decided to include a few more
important features in this release. These are:
• New Console feature to group GrabRules within logical
folders or by GrabRule number. GrabRules can now be grouped logically be function,
user, etc. You can drag GrabRules between folders, or update the folder using the
GrabRule wizard.
• Added GrabRule Process Sequence. This will allow spool
file Requests to be generated in a priority sequence rather than by GrabRule number
sequence.
In addition, there are many other new features included in this
release, some of which were profiled in last
month's Technical Update. One of the most significant new features
is Catapult's integration with the Nexus Document Repository. If
you have Nexus installed (available for free from BCD; contact
the sales office for details), you can now use Catapult to
automatically populate the Nexus Document Repository. This means
that as reports are generated on the iSeries, they can be immediately
processed by Catapult, converted to an appropriate format, and
filed in a document repository. This document repository is in
turn both accessible and searchable with Nexus.
If you are interested in participating in the Version 5.0 beta,
please fill in the Catapult
5 Beta Request Form, and our lead developer will contact you
to provide the links for the downloads, as soon as it's ready for
distribution.
ProGen
Plus 8 Training
BCD is looking at the possibility of hosting a ProGen Plus 8 training
course in the coming months and we would like to know if you are
interested in attending. This is a great course for programmers
who are new to ProGen Plus and also learn about some of the features
that are available in version 8 such as HTML reports.
If you would be interested in attending this class, or another
like it, please fill out the Training
Request Form posted at our web site, or email Marcel
Sarrasin, the training coordinator.
ProGen
Plus supports free-form RPG
ProGen Plus has always given programmers a lot of flexibility by
allowing them to add their own RPG code which also includes free-form
RPG . RPG code can be added at anytime: during the design process
by adding custom logic in the templates, during program creation
by adding user code with the new USRSRC function or by modifying
the generated RPG.
Summary
List of Recent Updates
Docu-Mint 6.0
Due to our upgrade to V5R1M0, these updates require V4R4M0 as a
minimum operating system release level.
- DN60R009 -
Addresses an issue with program analysis where data files in
the programs where not being resolved if they were not in the
library list. (495616)
Please visit the Docu-Mint
Updates page for further information on the available updates.
© 2004 ExcelSystems Software
Development, Inc.
ProGen Plus and ProGen WebSmart are Trademarks in the US and
Canada.
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