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 WebSmart Training in Michigan (December 5-8).
A WebSmart public training class (Fundamentals of Web Development with WebSmart; overview below) has now been scheduled in Dowagiac (South-Western Michigan) the week of December 5-8. This class will be held at a client's location. They have agreed to make several seats available for others who wish to attend. If you have been holding off on taking a class until there was one available a little closer to home, this is your chance! We normally host our training classes on the West Coast. There is a limited number of seats available and the class is coming up soon, so contact BCD immediately to reserve your space.
The nearest airport to Dowagiac is South Bend, Indiana, but there are several other major airports within driving distance, including Chicago and Detroit International Airports.
Course Title: Fundamentals of Web Development with WebSmart
This is a comprehensive course that will give you a working knowledge of all the key areas you need to be familiar with in order to begin developing applications with WebSmart. The course begins with an introduction to HTML (page structure elements, tables, images and links), then continues on to creating simple WebSmart programs. As you familiarize yourself with the tool, you'll add more features to your application: passing parameters between programs, customizing file access, and then prompting users for input and validating what they enter. The class concludes with some exercises in securing applications, using SQL, and using WebSmart's Change Management interface.
The training material has recently been completely rewritten to integrate many new WebSmart 5 features.
If you are interested in attending this class, or would like additional information, please fill out our Training Request form. You can also contact Tech Support for further details.
Clover Beta Now Available for Download.
Over the last few months you've read about Clover many times in this tech update, and you have probably been wondering what all the hype is about. Well, now you can check it out for yourself.  The Clover Beta is now available upon by request; just contact the tech support office, or visit the beta request page at our web site and fill out the form. Drop us a quick note, and you'll be trying out the new templates within minutes!
What is Clover?
If you haven't yet heard about it, Clover is an optional component of the WebSmart suite. Clover allows developers and users to design reports and queries and deploy them in browsers. Clover is seamlessly integrated into WebSmart, so there is no special or separate install procedure. If you install the latest WebSmart components (WAS on the server, IDE on the client - versions 5.24 and higher) then you can use all the features of Clover.
Clover is designed to make it easy to write reports with subtotals, breaks, summaries or details, produce online bar graphs, and more. It works with your existing iSeries or i5 database files and provides SQL wizards to make constructing simple or complex relations between files intuitive.
For additional information, visit our web site where you'll find several screen shots of both the product and the reports it can generate, and a detailed list of features.
Nexus 3 Beta Available Soon.
The Nexus development team is finishing up work on the primary features of the upcoming release, and we are now accepting applications for the beta.
Nexus 3 includes exciting changes in several main areas, including the Enterprise Content Manager (ECM; previously the WOW), group management, a new skins feature, a long list of user interface additions and enhancements, and a greatly improved calendar.
Listen to Recently Recorded Webcasts:
The BCD web site lists all of our recent webcasts. Visit our site for further details on each of these recordings.
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Here is a summary list of some of the features included in the new release:
Enterprise Content Manager
Since the time of its inception the ECM has quickly risen to become one of the key Nexus features, and version 3 includes numerous features and enhancements. These changes have been driven both by the growing number of people using it and requesting additional functionality, and our own visions for the future of the product The changes include:
- The ability to navigate in both the viewing mode and editing mode using a tree interface.
- Dynamic display of folder contents.
- Symbolic links.
- Redesigned editing interface.
- Navigation with breadcrumbs.
- ECM quick search ability.
Completely rebuilt group management system.
Nexus is all about being able to easily manage and customize your site for many users. The group management has been revamped for version 3, to include the following changes:
- An entirely new group management interface.
- Support for group within group structures.
- Group inheritance allows for granular construction of subgroups.
- Support for controlling the other Nexus users that each member can access.
Skins
And no matter how many function-driven features you add to a product, everyone seems to also want software to look better too. So Version 3 also includes enhanced support for working with skins, with the following features:
- Support for editing skins though a visual interface.
- Consolidated style sheets based on one template.
- Ability to attach and retain custom changes for a skin.
- Support for each user selecting their own favorite skin.
The changes to other areas of the user interface and the various available portlet classes are too numerous to list, but watch our web site for a comprehensive overview of this new release!
Participate in the Nexus 3 Beta!
For further information about the Nexus Beta, please contact Technical Support, or directly visit the
Nexus 3 Beta Request Form. By participating in the beta, you'll get early access to all these new features (most of which have been up and running at our internal portal for several weeks), and be in an ideal position to request modifications or further enhancements to better suit your own usage of the product.
Nexus 3 Feature Overview: New Nexus Calendar
While Nexus includes many powerful portlets for accessing various kinds of information, many of us here at BCD have to confess that it's the corporate calendar portlet that we keep coming back to over and over again through the day. And if you're like us, you'll be pleased to see that in Nexus 3 the calendar has a host of new features and improvements that make it even more indispensable.
Three Month View
As you can see at right, one of the coolest new features is the inclusion of a three-month calendar view running down the left side, with highlighting on all days with events listed. You can use these month calendars to quickly jump to any day in the next 90 and review the appointments for that day.
Other Viewing Options
At the top left of the main calendar area are three quick links that allow you to toggle the calendar between month, week and day views. And along the top of the calendar are drop-downs you can use to choose which types of appointments you want to see.
Improved Appointment Addition
Also worth mentioning is that when you click on the option to add a new event, Nexus now pops up a new window to do this rather than reloading the calendar page itself.
And aside from these visible changes, there are several more enhancements to how the calendar works that we leave you to discover as you try it.
The Nexus 3 beta will be available soon; for further details contact Tech Support.
WebSmart Tech Tip: Customizing Functions
One of the more advanced features of WebSmart is the ability to customize the existing functions. We recently had a client who needed to use a variable as the parameter on a wrtseg() function. This was necessary because the segment name was being built based on user-input.
Below are the steps we went through to create the custom free format wrtseg() function to support this. You can use this example as a guideline for making your own custom functions.
In this example, we are creating a new function called wrtsegx. If you have any questions about how we did this, you can contact Kim for clarification.
- In WebSmart, choose Attributes, then Gen Opts. Set the target platform to iSeries ILE RPG Free Format Generator.
- Choose Tools, Options, Generator files. Edit the parser file.
- Copy the wrtseg function to the clipboard. It looks like this:
FUNC='wrtseg'
{
PROT='VOID wrtseg(SEGMENT &segment, ALPHA &getaux=FALSE { FALSE TRUE } )';
DIR='Lower(&segment)
Upper(&getaux)
if(&getaux = "") &getaux = "FALSE"
UnQuoted(&getaux) ';
SRC='
WrtSeg_(\'~&segment!\': ~&getaux!)';
RTYPE='VOID';
}
- Close the file parser.txt.
- Choose Tools, Options, Generator files. Edit the uparser file. If there is no uparser file, follow these steps to create one:
CRTSRCPF FILE(XL_WEBLIB/PW_USRC) RCDLEN(200) MBR(UPARSER) TEXT('user-written free format functions')
Once you have created the physical file you will need to change the member type of UPARSER to TXT. Now you can open up WebSmart and select TOOLS/OPTIONS/Generator Files. Uparser should be in the list. Select UPARSER and click EDIT FILE. You will now be able to edit the UPARSER file. This file gives you the ability to add WebSmart functions.
The first thing to add to uparser is this:
FUNCS='ALL'
{
}
All your user created functions must be inside the {} for FUNCS='ALL'.
- Paste the wrtseg code you copied in Step 3 after FUNCS='ALL' {
- Then make the following changes:
- Change: FUNC='wrtseg' to FUNC='wrtsegx'
- Change: VOID wrtseg(SEGMENT
to: VOID wrtsegx(ALPHA
- Change: WrtSeg_(\'~ &segment!\': ~&getaux!)';
to: WrtSeg_(~ &segment!: ~ &getaux!)';
- Finally, make sure you delete the \' before and after ~&segment!
When you're finished, it should look like this:
FUNC='wrtsegx'
{
PROT='VOID wrtsegx(ALPHA &segment, ALPHA &getaux=FALSE { FALSE TRUE } )';
DIR='Lower(&segment)
Upper(&getaux)
if(&getaux = "") &getaux = "FALSE"
UnQuoted(&getaux) ';
SRC='
WrtSeg_(~&segment!: ~&getaux!)';
RTYPE='VOID';
}
- Choose File, Save Uparser. Then Close Uparser.
- Once you close WebSmart and start it again you will see your new function listed under the Functions tab in the upper left corner of your WebSmart window.
Here is a simple example of how you would use this in the PML.
myseg = getparm("myseg");
// Output page and list header
wrtsegx(myseg);
If you have any questions about this tip, please contact Kim in Tech Support.
BCD in the News
While we don't normally like to indulge in too much back-patting (it strains our elbows, which are better employed propping up our aging bodies as they lean over keyboards), our flurry of activity with our key products over the last few months (WebSmart, Clover, Catapult and Nexus) has generated a fair number of articles in various publications. So we thought we'd bring to your attention a few of the most recently published articles featuring our software or discussing our approach to development, just to keep you abreast of the marketplace buzz:
- In MC Press Online, Joe Pluta has published an article entitled Migration: Are There Alternatives to RPG?. Joe begins by admitting that there aren't many options if you want to stay on the iSeries, but for those who are committed to the platform, he recommends WebSmart and its PML as the one to try.
- MC Showcase Online has also published an article by Duncan Kenzie (ESDI) entitled Portals: Gateways to Whole New Worlds. In this article Duncan writes extensively about the advantages of using portals in your company, and profiles some of the options available for you to move in this direction.
- Alex Woodie has also written an article about Clover, published in IT Jungle: BCD Aims to Streamline Report Writing with Clover. Read Alex's article for a quick view of Clover.
- You can also visit Search400.com to read in Web app tool maker hits the big time about how BCD has signed a distribution agreement with IBM, to include WebSmart and Catapult in IBM's iSeries Try and Buy program.
If you have any questions about the articles, you can contact the authors (links available in the articles), or write us at excel@excelsystems.com.
WebSmart Case Study: VR Election Services
Our newest WebSmart case study takes a look at how the VR Election Services division of Voice Retrieval and Information Systems (Dallas, TX) is using WebSmart programs to automate elections using web-based systems that are back ended with RPG applications.
VRI needs to offer bullet-proof, secure and efficient balloting services to hundreds of thousands of voting members of credit and labor unions, pension and retirement system, and university alumni organizations. By using solid and secure technology, they eliminate human error from the elections processes. And because a large turnout is the key to election effectiveness, the balloting systems they use must always be very flexible and easy to use.
Since each VR Election Services client has different requirements, new web sites have to be built for each of them. Using WebSmart, these applications can now be built for the clients to test in just a couple of hours.
Read the entire case study to see how VRI is using the power and security of the iSeries, coupled with WebSmart's flexibility, to continually improve the election services they can offer to their customers.
Several other case studies are available for your perusal at the WebSmart page on BCD's site; look for them down the left margin of the page.
New WebSmart Example Programs: Customer Lookup using AJAX, Displaying an RSS Feed.
We've recently added a few new WebSmart example programs:
- Example 104 - This example illustrates how to download an RSS feed, parse the resulting RSS XML document, and display the results. RSS feeds are typically used by news agencies and the likes to provide web content, or summaries of web content, with links to fuller versions. The example program includes a particularly useful example: a download of the last week's worth of Dilbert.
- Example 103 - Example 103 demonstrates a cooler way to perform customer lookups, without having to refresh your browser page. This program shows you how to get supplementary information from a file when an input field is populated. The program uses AJAX to avoid the need for a browser refresh.
For further details on any of the WebSmart examples, or if you have any questions on how to implement the techniques they demonstrate, please contact Technical Support.
Summary List of Recent Updates
Nexus 2.53
Nexus 2.53 includes the following fixes and enhancements:
- An important new security update, extending the Nexus Pro portlet availability until May 31, 2006.
- Fix to the Group Links authority patch
- Limits WOW search results to 499.
- Nexus Pro extension,
- iSeries 'everyone' group duplication patch.
Please visit the Nexus Updates page for further information on the available updates.
ProGen Plus 8.04
These are the latest ProGen Plus updates:
PG8R050 - 2005/09/23 - Requires OS/400 V5R1 or later. Addresses issue with parameter mismatch on ZDLTPDF.
Please visit the ProGen Plus Updates page for further information on the available updates.
© 2005 ExcelSystems Software Development, Inc.
ProGen WebSmart and ProGen Plus are Registered Trademarks in the US and Canada, and Trademarks in all other countries.
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