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 WebSmart, Catapult, Nexus all named APEX Award Finalists
BCD is excited to let you know that three of our industry leading iSeries software products - WebSmart, Catapult and Nexus, have all been named APEX Award Finalists in five key Readers' Choice and Editors Choice categories in Penton Media's iSeries NEWS Magazine.
The annual iSeries NEWS Apex Awards recognize the industry leaders who have developed the best iSeries - AS/400 products. An independent panel of judges featuring product editors, editors and industry professionals, determine the Editors' Choice Award recipients. Industry professionals vote to determine the Readers' Choice Award winners.
The editors' panel at iSeries NEWS that determines the Editors' Choice Award has voted:
• ProGen WebSmart in the Application Development Systems category, and
• Catapult in the Document Management category.
iSeries industry professionals that determine the Readers' Choice Award winners have voted:
• ProGen WebSmart in the Application Development Systems category
• Catapult in the Document Management category, and
• Nexus, BCD's Web Portal solution, in the Security category.
Winners will be announced May 2nd at Spring COMMON 2004 in San Antonio, Texas.
BCD is hosting a booth at COMMON (as well as a couple of lab sessions; see below) and will be exhibiting these software solutions as well as others.
BCD @ Spring COMMON in San Antonio
If you will be attending the Spring COMMON Conference & Expo in San Antonio, Texas, please drop by BCD's booth (409) for a visit.
We are also hosting two labs. One is Web Development with ProGen WebSmart lab: 25LF: Monday, 2:00-4:45 pm, Room 214D (Two & 3/4 hrs). The other is Integrating Report Distribution With Your Web Development Strategy: 26CW: Monday, 3:30-4:45 pm, Room 007A (One & 1/4 hrs). You can view the lab or sign up at the Common Sessions page.
BCD will also be at the spring IBM eServer iSeries Technical Conference, June 14-16, 2004 in New Orleans. At the Tech Conference, you'll find us at booth 10.
We look forward to meeting you at either of these events.
Nexus 2 Feature Profile: Mocha Emulator
Among the many new features included in Nexus 2, one of the highlights is the integration of the Mochasoft Mocha ActiveX TN5250 emulator. A trial version of Mocha ActiveX TN5250 emulator is packaged with Nexus.
This means that when you log in to Nexus from any location on the web you can also pull up your emulator and access your iSeries while retaining your personal settings.
Here is an illustration of the Mocha Emulator in a Nexus window:
Each emulator instance (an instance is an iteration of a portlet class) allows customization to the emulator settings including color, fonts, key board maps, height width, host settings, etc, using the configuration options window below:
To continue running the emulator you would need to purchase a license from Mochasoft (www.mochasoft.dk). Mocha ActiveX TN5250 is a Windows 98/2000/NT application, which makes it possible for you to connect to an IBM host via TCP/IP with the TN5250 protocol and emulate a 5250 Information Display System (restricted to only run on Windows workstations). Some of the main features include:
• Supports for all standard 5250 emulation features.
• Small and fast. The CAB file is only 248 Kb.
• Alternate screen size (24x80 or 27x132).
• SSL (Secure Socket Layer).
• User defined functions keys.
• Hotspots (Fx and Fxx text on the 5250 screen can be used as buttons).
• Low cost : 350 USD for a Site License.
If you have any questions about Nexus or the Mocha Emulator, please contact technical support.
WebSmart 4 Developer's Survey
The development team is currently requesting feedback from WebSmart Developers through an online survey. If you are an active WebSmart
Developer and have not yet been invited to participate in the survey, please drop us a note or call tech support!
WebSmart 4 Feature Profile: Source Compare Utility
One of the very useful features embedded in WebSmart 4's Change Management is an interface for comparing source code between versions of a definition.
In order to use it, you need to be working with your definition within the Change Management environment. After opening a definition, you can make an archive of it (menu option Projects/Archive) at any point. Then make some further changes to the definition and save it.
To initiate the source comparison, select the Projects option from the Manage menu, then go to your list of definitions. Select the one you are working with, and right-click to choose the Archive option. WCM then presents a list of archives you have created for the definition. Right-click on the version you want to compare to and select either the 'Compare to Current' or 'Compare to Other' options.
The interface presented is similar to this:
From here you can cycle through the differences between the files. In this illustration, the utility has automatically located the first difference between the files, the change date.
If you are not yet working with your definitions within WebSmart Change Management, this might be the incentive you needed to familiarizing yourself with this powerful new area of the product! If you have any questions about how it works, or need a quick walk-through of WCM to get started, please give our support team a call, or drop us a note.
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Million Dollar Round Table
The Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) is The Premier Association of Financial Professionals.® Founded in 1927, MDRT provides its members with resources to improve their technical knowledge, sales and client service while maintaining a culture of high ethical standards.
Million Dollar Round Table contracted ExcelSystems Software Development Inc. to build a web application that allows their members to login, view their member information and request a membership form for the current year. To do this, ESDI used WebSmart programs to facilitate the member login and allows the member to request an email or to generate the PDF instantly. If they chose to generate the PDF instantly, the program redirects the browser to the created file. The WebSmart programs calls a CL program on the iSeries that in turn calls an RPGLE program to create a simple spool file with the member information.
The CL program then executes one of two Catapult rules based on the user's preference (email or view) using the ZRUNRULE command. Catapult executes the rule which changes the font in the spool file using imbedded, Catapult specific, font control in the report itself and generates a bar code. Catapult then overlays this information with 3 JPG images representing the 3 pages of the application form and immediately generates the PDF (click here to see a sample of this). In addition, we took advantage of Catapult's ability to include an HTML email header for the message, and include a secondary attachment.
One of the advantages of using ESDI for your consulting projects is that, as in this case, we are able to add new features to our software products to accomodate your needs. To complete this project, we added features in Catapult to facilitate the imbedded font support, bar coding and the ability to add additional static files as attachments.
For further information about how this application was developed, or details on our consulting services, please contact Kevin Cronin.
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ESDI Welcomes New Staff Members
ExcelSystems Software Development, Inc. (BCD Development and Support) is happy to welcome several new staff members to our team. These include three new Technical Support Reps and one new developer.
Our new developer is Richard Morgan. Richard will be moving to Victoria from Burlington, Ontario. It is fortunate that Richard is not going to be on the phone too much, as he originally comes from Wales, and the entire interview was conducted with the aid of handsignals and drawings. Richard received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Information Systems in Wales, and brings to ESDI his experience working with C++ and Delphi.
Nick McLaughlin-Pouliot is the first of our Tech Support Analysts, and has a degree from the University of British Columbia, and a diploma from CDI, another local college. Nick also has experience as a web developer and network administrator.
Marc Alonzo also joined our support team in mid-April. Marc recently moved to Victoria from Jacksonville, FL where he received his Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Computer Science from the University of Jacksonville.
Our most recent addition to the support team is Kristofor Wilson. Kristofor is originally from Calgary where he received his Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Computer Science.
Our new support team members are currently receiving training in all the products in our software suite, and if you are in contact with support, you will have the opportunity to begin working with them during the months ahead. We appreciate your understanding as we bring everyone up to speed, and until we do so, please remember that if at any time you feel that your issue hasn't been properly understood, you can request to speak with another of the more senior support representatives.
Finally, we would also like to note that Austen Kenzie will be departing soon for the United Arab Emirates where he plans to spend some time doing mission work with his wife. We wish Austen and his family well on their trip, and thank him for his dedicated service in the support trenches for the last two years.
Summary List of Recent Updates
WebSmart 4.02
Build 7418 - 2004/04/16 - Allow PML in excess of 100k.
W402003P.EXE - 2004/04/16 - Includes all previous enhancements and fixes plus Changes to sendmailex to work with more mail servers, a fix to the posturl function to issue correct error on timeout, and the compile time library list reference now works outside of WCM.
Please visit the WebSmart Updates page for further information on the available updates.
ProGen Plus 8.01
- PG8R008 - 2004/04/29 - Corrected problem with retrieving the correct based-on work field for subtotals.
Please visit the ProGen Plus Updates page for further information on the available updates.
NEXUS 2.03
Nexus 2.03, release April 29, 2004, includes the following:
Enhancements
- An advanced search has been added to the WOW (Web Object Warehouse) allowing the use of key pairs.
- The WOW (Web Object Warehouse) now supports limited Key Pairs. Each Instance can have a customized list of key pairs.
- Some additional WOW (Web Object Warehouse) changes to improve the UI and performance
- A completely new UI for adding and maintaining To Do list entry.
- Added the ability to work with closed entries in the To Do List Portlet class.
- Added the option to display Due Dates in the To Do List.
- Added the "Create Document" function in the WOW (Web Object Warehouse).
- A variety of other WOW updates and enhancements.
- The distribution rules now allow the authorities be sequenced.
Fixes
- Fixed problems with cookies being truncated.
- Fixed problem with links opening in the same window.
- The Group Links Portlet class will now display both the group links followed by the current users personal links.
- Various improvements to the install.
- Corrected sorting and positioning for the WOW history logs.
- Improved site creation.
- A wide variety of improvements in validation and UI.
- Assorted other fixes.
© 2004 ExcelSystems Software Development, Inc.
ProGen Plus and ProGen WebSmart are Trademarks in the US and Canada.
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