External utilities

One of the major reasons why iSeries 5250 legacy applications look older than they actually are, is their inability to take advantage of rather recent features widely used on other platforms.

Just to give an example, the OS/400 Integrated File System (IFS) offers the ability to store on directories any type of file supported on PC's, to retrieve and display such files whenever needed. This would allow for instance to maintain on the iSeries catalogs of documents, pictures, musics, and so on. Supporting such a range of archives, could open opportunities for new iSeries developments and for extending existing applications. What it takes, in this case, is the ability to develop programs dealing with IFS directories and files. However, as a matter of fact, RPG programmers are widely missing such a technology, mainly because such a teaching is not given and because code examples cannot be easily found.

A second example could be that of end users who need, for their jobs, to make computations or projections by exporting business data into EXCEL spreadsheets. Is there any way a traditional RPG programmer could provide that under the appropriate security umbrella?

The next example could be that of a manager needing to present a diagram or a graphic of company monthly sales. Though data could be available on some iSeries database, (s)he would have ask her/his assistant to perform such a clerical work. Why not providing tools, within the iSeries applications, for fulfilling immediately any such needs at the time they arise?

iWEB, by moving legacy applications into the WEB world, and by providing support to IFS extensions is a move towards a modern application perspective.

We also believe that providing iWEB users with some further tooling may significantly help in implementing modern looking iSeries applications. This is why we have decided to equip iWEB Runtime with three significant utilities:

For detail documentation of these utilities, please refer to manual The Boosting Triad, http://www.iweb-demo.com/glgmanuals/en/triad/pages/main.html.
 

 

5.1 - iExcel

This utility copies an iSeries database file to a .xls Excel spreadsheet. Field column headings and text definitions are used to make up spreadsheet column headings. The utility is invoked through a command, that one may imbed in RPG or CL programs. iWEB Runtime provides techniques to dynamically invoke the command and to display the .xls file in a new window.

 

 

5.2 - iGraph

This utility generates and displays 3D bar, line and pie graphs featuring zoom and rotation. The utility is invoked through a command, that one may imbed in RPG or CL programs. iWEB Runtime provides techniques to dynamically invoke the command and to display the resulting graph in a new page.

 

 

5.3 - iExplore

 

iExplore is a WEB navigator for the IFS, very similar to Windows Explorer. It allows to display the contents of directories, maintain directories, display / copy / move / delete files, change object ownership, upload files from the client to the IFS.
iExplore is independent from any iWEB converted application. It must run in an HTTP instance, is subject to instance access restrictions, and requires logging through an existing user profile.
It could be used to maintain / control application documents, texts, images to be loaded on the IFS.