| |
 WebSmart Training Course in Sidney, BC
A
WebSmart Fundamentals class will be held the week of January 22-25, at the BCD development group's headquarters in Sidney, BC (Canada). If you are interested in attending this class, or another later in the spring, please fill out the Training Request form at our website and we'll provide you with additional details on our training classes.
Course Content
The WebSmart Fundamentals class is a comprehensive course that will give you a working knowledge of all the 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, SQL, WebSmart’s Change Management interface and the new interactive debugger integrated into the WebSmart IDE.
Course Location
The ocean side Town of Sidney, BC is a 5-minute drive from Victoria International Airport (YYJ). In Sidney and the nearby City of Victoria you'll find a broad range of dining and entertainment options.
Additional Information
For more information on the training class, or about visiting the Victoria area, visit our training information page, or contact Tech Support by email or phone [250-655-1766].
Getting Your iSeries Business To The Web Is Now A Lot Easier - Modernize with Integrated Solutions
A System i Network Webcast Sponsored by BCD Jan 23, 1:00 PM
Your iSeries provides a complete integrated solution at the hardware and operating system levels. But what about your business applications and workflow needs? The challenge facing many IT environments is to present users with a consistent and secure user interface with integrated information from web applications, enterprise content and workflow/personal productivity applications. Wayne Madden, publisher and editor–in–chief of System iNEWS, will discuss the various approaches to integration using the browser as the user interface to deliver all your applications, legacy and new, on the web.
Modernizing applications involves creating better user interfaces that take advantage of browsers and web-based technology. True modernization also involves tight integration with existing services, such as a managed application framework, distributed access to existing spool files and reports and enterprise content management. During the second half of this presentation you will hear from Duncan Kenzie, CTO of BCD Software. Duncan will explain how products in BCD’s application modernization family can address these needs.
Duncan will cover the following:
- Why WebSmart is the best choice in the short and long-term for deploying existing or new applications on the web.
- How Nexus web portal provides you a secure, structured application framework and user experience that is browser-based and System i-centric.
- How you can unlock existing System i and network information easily and securely by publishing spool files, reports and documents in Nexus’ web-based Enterprise Content Manager
- How Clover lets you give both developers and end-users the power to create real-time web-based reports, queries, charts and graphs and spreadsheets.
This unique webcast is offered as part of the System i Core Decisions Web Conference.
For more information, and to register for this webcast, visit the SystemiNetwork website .
WebSmart Feature Profile: Using the RDW Facilities
In the December tech update we wrote about the different techniques you can employ in WebSmart to leverage your legacy code. This month we want to follow up on that general discussion by focusing in on RDW, WebSmart's RPG and DDS to Web Conversion tools.
| BCD's Kevin Cronin wins COMMON's Best Traditional LAB Award for WebSmart, again! | The WebSmart Lab as presented by Kevin Cronin has once again won COMMON's Best Traditional Lab Award. Only one award is given per conference.
As reported by System i News January 2007 |
 |
You can use RDW to help incorporate discrete units of RPG business and programming logic into your WebSmart programs, or to migrate entire programs into WebSmart where you can modify them to make them work in a Web environment. RDW takes RPG or RPGLE source code and instantly converts it to PML, the language used within the WebSmart IDE for developing web applications. In addition, you can take the DDS source code for the associated display file of interactive programs and convert it to HTML, CSS and JavaScript. This provides you with a web-based equivalent of your green-screen look and feel, which you can use as a starting point for your new application.
You can integrate converted PML and HTML into new or existing WebSmart definitions. If you are just getting started with WebSmart, you can use this technique to import routines with key business logic. To do this, go through the conversion wizard in an open definition and then copy the converted code into the WebSmart definition you are actually building. RDW is not a screen-scraper. You only need to do a conversion once, at development time. After doing this, you permanently incorporate the converted code in your applications. It becomes part of the compiled objects that run when the application is deployed.
The following sections contain an illustrated overview of how you can convert an RPG source member and use a portion of the converted code in a new Web program.
Choosing a Template
When you convert an interactive program you should start by choosing the WebSmart template that best emulates the function of the application you are converting. For example if your RPG program is a subfile list with maintenance panels you would want to select the 'Page at a Time Maint.tpl' template. If you have a flat panel display then 'A Simple Page.tpl' would be the best start for your application. By starting the conversion process within an existing definition, you’ll be prepared to easily copy and paste the key sections of your code to the new WebSmart program.
Loading a List of Members
To perform an RPG to PML conversion, begin by selecting the Convert RPG... option from the Tools menu in WebSmart. When you choose this option, WebSmart presents a dialog similar to this one:
In the illustration above, we began by typing a source file name and library (or selecting them from the dropdown list). Then we clicked the Load button to display a list of the members within the source file. To continue with the conversion process, double-click on any member in the list to select it.
When you do this WebSmart presents a series of messages displaying the progress of the download and conversion of the source member.
The Converted PML
When the source member has been converted, WebSmart presents it in the main IDE window in a separate tab. Each tab is identified by the tab type (PML, Converted PML and RPGLE) and the member name as shown below:
The next step is to find the sections of code that you want to capture (notice the list of subroutines shown at the bottom left), and then copy and paste those sections from your converted PML to the PML for your new Web application.
RDW is extensively discussed and illustrated in the WebSmart 6 User's Guide. You can find the guide on your system in the WebSmart directory, or you can also view it online. If you have any questions about RDW, you can also call our Technical Support team to discuss the best way for you to use the available options. You can reach us at (250) 655-1766 [07:30-17:00 PST], or by email.
Clover 1.5 Feature Profile: Query Templates
Clover is a little different from many of our products in that it's not only intended to be used by your development staff. Rather, while the familiar WebSmart IDE supports all the features that your programmers are accustomed to working with, the wizard stage of developing your programs has been expanded and enriched to allow non-technical users to create sophisticated Web programs without having to code a single line of HTML or PML.
And yet, there is only a certain level to which you can reduce the complexity of creating an application. For instance, as soon as you want to create a report over two or more files, even a relatively savvy user can run into difficulties attempting to locate the files that contain the information they need, or establish valid file relationships between those files. To address this potential hurdle, Clover allows your programming staff to create and save SQL statements that can then be used by others to create reports. This functionality is available via the Import/Export Query buttons, at the window displaying your report files.
Creating SQL Statements to Save
To create an SQL statement to use later, all you have to do is start by walking through the wizard process for a new program, adding the key elements that you think will be required by your users. For example, as a programmer you could create a report that includes the following features:
- Various files, with appropriate relationships.
- Calculated fields to compute information that isn't transparently included in the database.
- A prompt page and the necessary work fields to handle the information input by the user.
- Filters that compare prompt information with appropriate database or calculated fields.
- A subset of fields from various files.
- Subtotal fields.
- Appropriate sort orders and level breaks.
At the end of this process, you save your results as a file with an extension of .sql (the default) in a directory that your users can access.
Here is an illustration of the last step, saving the template:
In this example, the programmer has completed the report design (and hopefully tested it), and is now using the Export Query option from the report's list of files (the menu Attributes/SQL/Files). In the foreground window you can see several other SQL statements that have already been saved, and behind that, the attributes for our current report, which includes several files.
Using Saved SQL Statements
When you create and save an SQL statement, your users can later use that statement to create any type of Clover program. For example, you may build your template by walking through the Standard Program template's wizard steps, but most of the components you add are also valid to be used in a Flash Graph program. So when your users need to build a program, they just need to select the Clover template that best reflects the 'look' of their report (and the New Program window provides illustrations and simple descriptions of all the available Clover program styles) and proceed to the Add Files screen, where they'll cancel out of the process prompting them to add a new file, and instead they'll import an existing query, as shown here:
When they complete the step shown above, they'll have available to them everything you added to the initial program, and all that will remain will be for them to walk through the wizard steps making any changes they'd like to see before saving and compiling (for example, changing the order of the fields, or choosing a different subset).
Further Simplifying the Clover Development Environment
Your user's development environment can be further simplified by removing from their PC's WebSmart installation the templates they will never use (such as the set of standard WebSmart templates) and setting up default paths and program attributes (Tools/Options) for all their programs. With a little more effort you can also trim down the wizard options they'll have available to them on the screens they do see.
By doing this, the steps required in order for a user to be able to create a sophisticated Web report can be reduced to:
- Choosing the Clover template to use (from a limited subset)
- Typing a program name and description.
- Choosing the SQL template they want to use (from the default directory you set up).
- Picking the fields to include in the report (from the ones you make available)
- Saving the new program definition.
- Generating and compiling (two button clicks from the IDE).
- Running the report (Launch button).
As your users become more comfortable with your database and the Clover wizard, they can step further away from the default templates you provide for them. But by using your SQL templates as a starting point, they will always have a working baseline to start from.
If you have any questions about this feature, please contact Technical Support.
Why Upgrade to Catapult 6?
Because Catapult may be running a number of critical report distribution processes within your enterprise, you may be reticent to upgrade to the latest release, if only for the reason that any product upgrade adds an element of uncertainty to the continued, successful operation of existing processes. So, for the faint of heart, here are some reasons to overcome your fear, and upgrade to Catapult 6:
Support for Polling PC Directories
You've come to rely on Catapult for all it's features related to iSeries spool file formatting, distribution and emailing, but have you given any thought to how you could use it with PC files stored on your network? You can now create rules that poll network folders too. This opens up a whole new arena for using the software: previous to this, the only objects that could be mass-distributed with Catapult were reports that originated as spool files on your iSeries. Now you can also leverage Catapult's automatic emailing, printing and faxing options to distribute almost any kind of file on your PC.
Support for Securing Rules
As Catapult has grown more robust over the years, you can find yourself increasingly invested in complex grab rules that execute many steps to convert, parse and distribute reports. Now you can secure your rules (by user profile or user group) to ensure that no one unwittingly deletes or changes a rule affecting a key process in your organization.
CC & BCC Email Support
You use your email CC and BCC features every day, and when you get Catapult 6 you'll probably starting using them in many of your grab rules too. CC and BCC is supported for both individual addresses and distribution lists.
Extra-Robust Beta Period
Catapult 6, through no fault of its own, fell prey to BCD's documentation bottleneck in the late summer/early fall, and thus enjoyed a very protracted beta period (more than 6 months long). During this time a number of our veteran Catapult customers installed and ran version 6, and all significant issues encountered were addressed. Catapult 6 has also been in GA for a couple of months now, further buffering you from the possibility of getting hit by a new, early-release problem.
Pain-Free Upgrade
Many people have already upgraded to Catapult 6, and the consensus is that it has been their easiest Catapult upgrade ever. Just install the new iSeries software, then each time a user fires up a client component that connects to the server they are prompted to upgrade, and the latest PC components are downloaded from the iSeries and installed immediately.
Avoid Catapult Envy
And finally, for those of us who sit near the Technical Support team, a frequent refrain we hear wafting over our cubicle walls is "...unfortunately, you won't be able to do that until you install Catapult 6". So avoid Catapult envy, and install Catapult 6 now!
If you have any questions about your Catapult 6 upgrade, please give our Technical Support team a call today. You can reach us at (250) 655-1766 [07:30-17:00 PST].
New WebSmart Example Programs: Last Error Program Field, Notes Maintenance Pgm, Etc.
We have published a few new WebSmart example programs this month, adding to the more than 120 examples currently available:
- Example 127 - Email a Clover Report. This program shows how you can add functionality to your Clover reports to support emailing the report to an address you type into a field at the top of the page. This may seem like a simple matter, but if you reflect for a minute on the full impact of being able to easily email any report generated with Clover, the possibilities will open up! Look for a more in-depth profile of this feature in an upcoming newsletter.
- Example 126 - Record List Right-Click Options. Example 126 illustrates a technique that you can use to add right-click menu options to record lists. In this program we're also disabling the standard set of right-click options you'd normally get in your browser and overriding it with a new set of options.
If you have any questions about any of the examples posted, please drop a note to Technical Support.
Summary List of Recent Updates
There were no product updates prepared during the last few weeks.
© 2007 ExcelSystems Software Development, Inc.
ProGen WebSmart and ProGen Plus are Registered Trademarks in the US and Canada, and Trademarks in all other countries.
|
 |
|
