Unleashing AS/400 Data on the Web with ProGen for the Web

Unleash AS/400 Data on the Web with: ProGen WebSmart^TM

Merging the Web with your AS/400 to create elegant and professional dynamic web applications has just become a lot easier and a lot less expensive then ever before. Wouldn't it be great if you could pull it all together with the existing development skill set at your organization, quickly and affordably?

Well you can, all you have to do is think smart, ProGen WebSmart! Read and see how easily:

Customers can log in to your AS/400 hosted web-site and place orders

Salespeople can log in anywhere to view the status of your inventory

Users can get dynamic, instant AS/400 reports simply by using a browser

Your business partners can access real time shared information

You can make AS/400 software updates available to branch offices via the Web…

and so much more.

Instead of thinking in terms of having a costly, heavy maintenance Internet presence for the general public that shows static pages, you should be thinking of how you can deliver dynamic information that is already present in abundance on your AS/400 to end users. You can make data available on an internal network (Intranet), or to the outside world (Internet), or to selected users outside your internal network (Extranet). Consider the web browser as a universally compatible ‘thin client’, with no licensing costs. Browsers run on Windows 95/98/NT, Windows 2000, Mac, Unix or NC clients, and behave relatively consistently in terms of data presentation and formatting.

Your IT staff no longer requires a great deal of knowledge to publish live AS/400 data to the web, ProGen WebSmart makes sure of that. The inset box shows a sample of the steps required to configure your AS/400 to serve dynamic web pages, using ProGen WebSmart sample applications.

What are Dynamic Web Pages?

When the web first came into prominence, most commercial sites were nothing more than electronic brochures. You could read about the company, its products, history, etc. but you couldn’t do much else. Now, commercial sites offer dynamic data, delivered from servers. For example, if Amazon gets a new book in stock from Stephen King, they simply update their server database. When customers search for titles by Stephen King, they see the new title. These pages are delivered using CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts or ASP (Active Server Pages, Microsoft’s answer to CGI), or by Java servlets.

Dynamic pages are pages that are constructed on-the-fly by a program, instead of being pre-written by hand (‘static’). A program on the server writes real-time generated HTML to the browser. The HTML can include data from any of the server’s accessible databases, interwoven with pre-defined elements, such as links to images, sound files, table definitions, or any HTML element that is supported by a browser.

What Kind of Applications Can I Run with Dynamic Web Pages?

With ProGen WebSmart you can produce almost any kind of application you can imagine using your AS/400 as a web server. For example, you could take any of your existing green-screen applications and web-enable them. Since many of your customers will have access to the Web, you could develop online applications for them that previously required manual intervention. Here are some ideas, with a brief set of features and functions for each one:

Order Entry

Allow customers to post new orders.

Allow customers to review and track existing orders.

Provide inventory status inquiry, so customers can see if a product is available.

Accept new customers via a registration program, subject to later review by sales personnel.

Sales Reporting

Allow field sales staff to review their sales, track performance, etc….

Allow management to produce real-time reports, based on selection criteria.

Reports by sales district, sales person, product, month, corporate division, etc….

Sales Staff Management

Allow field sales staff to set up appointments, review their calendars, co-ordinate meetings, book call backs, etc….

Web pages could be defined to show a graphical representation of each day, week or month, with a different format based on the user’s choice.

Message Board System

For either intra-company or Internet use.

Set up message boards for different topics or areas of interest.

Allow people to register to place postings on boards.

Automatically attach their e-mail address to postings.

Allow composition of new messages.

Allow reply to existing messages.

Allow review of entire subject thread.

Allow paging through messages one at a time, or a page at a time.

Personnel Information System for Hospitals

Allow search by Doctor name, specialty, etc….

Show list of doctors, including photographs, so nursing staff know who they are working with.

Show doctor’s on-call and availability schedule.

Personal Task Management System

(this is a demonstration application, provided with the software)

Allow registration of user, with their own User ID and password to log in.
Provide capability to e-mail them their password, if they forget it.
List tasks – either Open, Closed or both.
Allow adding, changing or deleting tasks.
Allow swapping a task from Open to closed
Allow prioritizing task.

Knowledge Base System

(this is a demonstration application, available at our web site)

http://esdi.excelsystems.com/webdemo/wdtsk3.pgm

Present list of products with knowledge base articles.
Allow user to select a product and review list of articles.
Allow user to select an article to read.

ProGen WebSmart does not force you into up front data modeling. It will let you use existing AS/400 DDS files and existing relationships. Because of that, you can begin developing programs and applications within the first hour. In addition, you can plug existing non-interactive AS/400 programs and routines directly into ProGen WebSmart created programs letting you extend legacy and third party applications.

Why Use Dynamic HTML and CGI versus Client-side Java?

You have probably heard a great deal about the promise of Java for web-based applications. Java is a great programming language – object-oriented, universally available, easier and safer to program in than C++. So why not write client-side Java code that runs your application instead of using HTML? First, the question is not entirely a fair one, because client-side Java programs communicate in a totally different manner than a browser does with CGI programs. A client-side Java program opens a socket and establishes a state conversation with a server-side program (the server program could be written in any language – RPG IV or Java, for example). This is like a traditional client/server application – both sides of the conversation know what state the other side is in at all times. For example, if the user clicks an Exit button in the client program, the server program can expect to get a message informing it to shutdown both sides of the conversation.

In contrast, a CGI application uses a CGI program as the server, and a browser as the client. The user invokes a function from the CGI program by typing a URL in the browser. The browser communicates with the web server on the host, which in turn invokes the requested CGI program. The program then writes any requested output, consisting of HTML constructed on-the-fly, to the browser. At this point, the CGI program ends, all contact with the browser is lost. The next time the user makes a request for a CGI program to perform some function, that program will have no idea what it did previously. This model of communication is called ‘stateless’ programming, and presents some unique challenges when it comes to writing CGI applications.

At first glance, it would appear that the Java approach is the better one. After all, the client program can keep track of what the server is doing, and vice versa. However, there are some significant downsides to using Java at present:

Java client-side programs present the User Interface differently on different Java Virtual Machines. For example, the Sun virtual machine leaves a smaller gap between the inside edge of a text box and the characters inside it than does the Microsoft virtual machine. This means you have to design your application to compensate for these differences, and test it on many different virtual machines.
Java programs take a significant amount of time to load. This can be a very frustrating experience for users who are used to sub-second response times. Sometimes, applets never end up loading at all.
Configuring Java applets to store on the AS/400 is complicated.
You need a programming staff that has the skills to program in Java.
You need a Java compiler or design tool.
Significant overhead required to maintain and manage all connections.

On the other hand, using server-side CGIs to deliver dynamic HTML pages has the following advantages:

Prototype pages can easily be written and mocked-up – in static HTML prior to building the dynamic delivery application.

Browsers are ubiquitous and free – Both major browsers, Internet Explorer and Netscape, behave very similarly when rendering pages (although Netscape tends to be a little less forgiving of HTML errors or omissions).

There is no client-side code to write, compile, download or run – the user simply receives a dynamically built stream of data that is translated into a page and delivered in the browser, in real-time.

Writing, testing and modifying HTML pages is simple.

Delivery of pages is very fast – The wait time associated with loading a Java applet is non-existent.

A common objection to CGI program is that the server-side programming can seem complex. ProGen WebSmart addresses this issue by doing the programming for you. We’ll discuss how this works in more detail later, in the section titled Where ProGen WebSmart comes in.

Why the AS/400 is a great Web Server

The AS/400 is shipped with a great Web Server, included free with the base OS/400 operating system software. It includes configuration options that provide OS/400 user-profile level security, so you can restrict access to only certain libraries or objects, just as securely as in a traditional green-screen environment. You can store and access traditional web objects in the IFS directory, including image files, static HTML pages, etc…. We’ve already shown you, in the inset on page 1, how to perform basic configuration to use the Web Server to deliver both static and dynamic pages.

Also, the Web Server is optimized to deliver dynamic pages fast. In fact, many of the performance issues related to running CGI scripts on Unix or NT boxes are just not there on the AS/400. For example, most CGIs on Unix are run using an interpretive script language, Perl. In contrast, on the AS/400, you can use compiled programs, in any high level language. In addition, server jobs are optimized on the AS/400. Normally, whenever a separate instance of a program is invoked by a user through a batch job, or communications job, a new job has to be created. In contrast, HTTP server jobs remain open, waiting to serve program execution requests from clients. This saves the initial startup costs, in time and resources, associated with instantiating (starting) a normal AS/400 job, and greatly increases the speed with which a web page can be delivered. You can configure your web server to have varying numbers of these open jobs available for incoming page requests. This allows you to scale your web site up or down, depending on the traffic volume to your site. You can also configure different instances of the web server, which allows you to control access to your system from browsers by entire groups of people. For example, one instance could server access from the Intranet, and require AS/400 user profile level authority, while another instance could provide access from the Internet, to a completely separate area on your server.

How Delivery of a Dynamic Web Page Works

When a user goes to a URL on your site, the web server decides if it’s supposed to return a static page or call a program. Generally, URLs look like this:

Static pages: http://192.168.0.128/home.html

Dynamic pages: http://192.168.0.128/wsdemo/mypgm.pgm

(you might have a virtual name, such as www.bigcompany.com, instead of an IP address).

When the web server receives the request for /wsdemo/mypgm.pgm, it resolves this address to a library and program name. You configure the web server to accept this request and perform the appropriate resolution. For example, this statement in the web server configuration:

Exec /wsdemo/* /QSYS.LIB/XL_WEBDEMO.LIB/*

would result in the Web server calling program MYPGM in library XL_WEBDEMO. This program would execute instructions including whatever any AS/400 data access it needs, then send a dynamically constructed page to the user’s browser.

Where ProGen WebSmart Comes In

You can hand-write CGI programs in any high-level language by using the CGI APIs that IBM provides. However, this can be a tedious process, fraught with errors, because translating information from and to the browser is not trivial. Also, the browser can only send alphameric data, so you need to create routines to convert numeric information back and forth to alphameric. Or, you can use ProGen WebSmart to build the programs for you, automatically.

ProGen WebSmart consists of a design tool, that runs on Windows 95/98/NT and Windows 2000, that allows you to drag and drop AS/400 database fields into HTML to construct a working CGI program, written in RPG IV, with no programming required on your part. In fact, you never need to look at the RPG IV generated source code, or know how to code in RPG IV. There is no complex data model to set up, and no work to do using ‘green-screens’. All the design work is done using the ProGen WebSmart PC design tool. Access to the AS/400 database is seamless. You can load file definitions from your AS/400 into a local PC repository that ProGen WebSmart maintains for you automatically. This allows you to design and develop complete applications or programs with full access to your file / field definitions without being connected to the AS/400. The design tool includes a Wizard that guides you through the process of creating a complete working CGI program.

The Wizard leads you through these steps:

Select a template for the program (there’s an infinite number of possibilities for templates).

Select AS/400 files to use.

Select fields to place on web page. It automatically integrates the fields with the template HTML.

Save, generate and compile. ProGen WebSmart generates the RPG IV code on the AS/400, and compiles it.

At compile time, the ProGen WebSmart Web Application Server component is bound to the program. The Web Application Server provides all the supporting functions for serving a dynamic page, such as data translation, establishing the appropriate job environment, error handling, etc….

To run the generated program, you can simply click the launch button in the design tool, or type in the URL at a web page. You can add links to static pages to call ProGen WebSmart programs, or links from other ProGen WebSmart programs.

About the ProGen WebSmart Web Application Server

The Web Application Server (WAS) consists of a suite of functions embedded in service programs on the AS/400. The WAS differs from other servers, in that it is not constantly running. Instead, a copy of the WAS is bound by reference to each WebSmart generated program, and is only invoked when the program is called by the user via a browser. The WAS contains many of the functions that enable delivery of web pages, and many of the functions described by the WebSmart programming language, PML. For example, the WAS handles functions to publish edited numeric data, which has to be first translated to alphameric, and functions to parse parameters and their corresponding values from incoming URL requests. The WAS also contains performance optimization routines, to maximize the speed with which data is transmitted to a web page. Some of the other capabilities of the WAS include graphic creation and manipulation capabilties as well as search engine capabilities.

Periodically, the WAS is upgraded, either to add new functions to it, or to fix reported bugs. We have designed WebSmart so that you can always install upgraded versions of the WAS without affecting existing programs. If you need new features of the WAS in an existing program, you can open the program definition in the design tool and regenerate the program. Regenerating will cause the program to use the latest installed version of the Server located on your AS/400.

How ProGen WebSmart Templates Work

ProGen WebSmart templates are PC text files that contain all the information needed to construct a working ProGen WebSmart program using the design tool. The product is shipped with several pre-built templates, and more are made available routinely at our web site, www.excelsystems.com/progenwebsmart.htm

The template contains information that is used by the design Wizard. This information includes instructions on how the Wizard should behave, in order to guide you through the appropriate steps to construct a working program. For example, some templates are designed to produce a list of database records in a table. They contain instructions to prompt you for fields to select to appear in those lists.

The templates also contain preliminary HTML that is used for constructing the pages to be delivered by the generated program. The provision of preliminary HTML means you can start generating working dynamic pages immediately, without requiring any knowledge of coding HTML at all. As you become familiar with the software, and with HTML in general, you can start expanding your horizons, and adding more features to your pages.

The templates also contain the necessary instructions that get translated into RPG IV code in the generated server program, to control the logic of the program. These instructions are written in an easy to learn language, called PML. The section below titled What About Extending The Program Logic? explains PML in more detail.

How ProGen WebSmart Stores Your Design Work

The design process starts with the selection of a template, and finishes with the production of a text file that contains all your design work. This is referred to as a ProGen WebSmart Definition. The definition contains all the information required to construct a working CGI program using the WebSmart generator. It stores such items as the HTML segments, the program logic, information regarding database files, fields, program source file and object library, etc…. Because definitions are contained in standalone PC text files, you can easily share them with other users, or on other computers you may be working on. You can e-mail them, copy them to network drives, etc.

The two major components of a WebSmart definition are the HTML segments and the programming logic, which is written in PML. The next sections discuss these components in more detail.

How To Customize the HTML in ProGen WebSmart

While ProGen WebSmart takes you through the entire design process without you having to write a line of HTML or code, you will sometimes need to extend the functionality of the generated program – either its look and feel (the HTML) or its function. You can think of working with HTML in ProGen WebSmart as analogous to using SDA on the AS/400 to design display files. With SDA, you can place constants and set their colors, etc…. You can also place fields from database files. Comparably, ProGen WebSmart lets you write the HTML, or design it with the fully integrated WYSIWYG HTML design tool. (Or, you can write HTML using any one of a plethora of available products.) You integrate AS/400 data simply by dragging and dropping fields onto the HTML.

Here’s a snippet of HTML with AS/400 data integrated:

<td ><a href="ITMMNT50.pgm?TASK=inq&rrn=<field name=*WRKFLDS.rrn>">Display</a> <a href="ITMMNT50.pgm?TASK=beginchg&rrn=<field name=*WRKFLDS.rrn>">Change</a> <a href="ITMMNT50.pgm?TASK=del&rrn=<field name=*WRKFLDS.rrn>">Delete</a></td>

</TR>

The fragments marked <FIELD NAME= … > represent placeholders for the AS/400 data. At runtime, actual data from your file fields is written to these place holders. This snippet shows a row in a table (comparable to a subfile) for an Item Maintenance program. The edit code on IIUNTP and edit word on the date field were added by simply right-clicking on the field names in the design tool.

Notice that the HTML is color-coded. This is a feature of ProGen WebSmart designed to make reading and writing HTML easier for you. Another tool for assisting with HTML construction include a Preview feature, which allows you to combine segments of HTML into Previews, and see the results in a mock-up page, rendered in your browser.

ProGen WebSmart also has a feature called ‘HTML snippets’ for helping you to construct pages quickly. This feature allows you to collect fragments of HTML and assign names to those fragments. For example, you might have a company logo that is stored as an image file somewhere on the AS/400 IFS. You could write a piece of HTML code that displays that image on a page, and also has a link to your corporate home page embedded with it. You can name these snippets, and they appear in a list in the bottom left-hand corner of the design tool while you are working with HTML code.

Here’s a snippet we sometimes use when writing WebSmart programs for our own use. This one is called "Powered by WebSmart logo". The HTML code is:

This example places an animated image (PWSAni.gif) on the page, and allows the user to click on the image to go to the WebSmart product page on our web site.

To place this code in the HTML, you simply drag and drop its description at the desired location in the HTML. The design tool then inserts the code you see above.

ProGen WebSmart comes pre-loaded with a set of useful snippets. You can add your own, or change or delete any of them. Also, you can share snippets with other users, by emailing them or storing them in a common file on your network.

What About Extending the Program Logic?

ProGen WebSmart comes with a powerful programming language, called PML. The syntax is similar to C or Java, and includes many traditional AS/400 programming constructs for record-level database access.

Here is the complete code for a program that lists a set of records from a file. Note that, in this example, none of this
code had to be written by hand – it was all built automatically from the template and through the Design Wizard:

func Main()
{

// Determine which library list will be used
setlibl("*FILES");

// Open all files
openfile("*ALL");

// As a default task for this program, execute the display function
runtask("DEFAULT", display()); }

func display()
{

// Loop through the records in this file
posrcd(WHSEMST);
getnxtrcd(WHSEMST);
while (WHSEMST.status == RecordRetrieved)
{

// If it's the first time through, output the list header
if(Firsttime == True)
{

wrtseg(ListHeader);
Firsttime =False;
}

// output the list detail
wrtseg(ListDetail);

// get the next record
getnxtrcd(WHSEMST);
}

// close off the table
wrtseg(ListFooter);
}

Explanation of the PML In This Example

It is beyond the scope of this white paper to go into too much detail on the syntax of the code shown here. Instead, here’s a brief explanation of the logic flow:

The user requests the program from a browser by typing a URL that invokes the program (or by clicking a link from a static web page). For example:

http://esdi.excelsystems.com/cgi/WHSLST.pgm

The program does these steps:

sets the job’s library list to allow access to the WHSEMST file, opens the file, and calls the function display().

Positions at the first record in WHSEMST.

Reads the next available record in WHSEMST.

While a record is retrieved, do:

If this is the first record, write the HTML segment called ListHeader to the browser. This contains the sample logo, and headings for the list (see the screen shot below). Also, set a flag to indicate that first-time processing has been completed.

Write the HTML list entry for this record – a segment called ListDetail.

Read the next record, and keep processing while records are retrieved.

At end of file, close the table, and complete the HTML for the page by writing the segment called ListFooter.

Execution of the program is complete, and the program terminates normally. Note that there is no need to explicitly end the program. Also, by the time the program ends, the entire page has been constructed and written to the browser, and control of the browser returned to the user.

Sample Output From This Program

Here’s the page that is produced from this program. It uses a warehouse file, which has 2 fields: location ID and warehouse name. Below the page, we’ve included the HTML that is a part of the definition that produced the page.

HTML Segments Used to Produce This Page

As mentioned earlier, the HTML used in a generated program is stored along with the PML, and other information, in a text file called a ProGen WebSmart Definition file. HTML is defined in segments, to make it easy for you to construct various components of a page in your programs. The example above uses 3 standard segments that are included in the template that was chosen to produce this program.

Note that, in order to produce this program, we did not have to write a single character of HTML by hand.
It was produced from HTML already in the template combined with HTML constructed automatically by the Design Wizard as we went through the initial design steps.

The 3 segments used are:

ListHeader segment:

<title>Warehouse Listing</title>

<!--

TD {font-family:Arial; font-size:10pt}

-->

</style>

</head><body ><p>

<br>

<h1><FONT FACE="arial,helvetica">Warehouse Listing</font></h1>

<td width="10%">Location ID</td>

<td width="90%">Warehouse Name</td>

</tr>

MainList segment:

</TR>

ListFooter segment:

</table></center></body></html>

Tools To Make Programming In PML Easy

If you find the appearance of PML a little daunting at first, don’t worry. It’s quite easy to learn, once you adjust to a couple of syntax requirements. Also, we have provided many tools in the product that assist you in programming. These are:

Functions list box – In the top left hand corner of the design tool, a list of functions is available to you while you are coding PML. You can scroll through the list, or drag and drop a function into your code.

Full prompting for all functions – As you type a function name, a prompt for the parameters used and their possible default values or range of values appears beneath your cursor. For example, if you are typing a wrtseg function, the tool prompts you with the available HTML segment names.

Full color coding – functions, keywords, comments, constants, etc. are all color-coded to make it easier to read the code.

Indention and reformatting option – this option will realign and indent your code, to make it easier to read.

Instant syntax checking – click a toolbar button to have the syntax checker verify the syntax of your code. It looks for mistakes such as: incorrect data types used as parameters, undefined fields and functions, missing brackets to complete structures, missing end-of-line markers, and much more.

Online help – describes in detail the purpose for each function, and in many cases provides examples of its use.

PML: A Powerful, Flexible and Extensible Language

Some of the features it supports are:

Files – access by physical or logical. Access the same file by key, partial key or relative record number.
Relations - define any number of key lists to use to link to files.

Fields – support for numeric, alphameric, and native AS/400 date, time and timestamp data types.

Strings – robust support for string handling.

Ad-hoc field definition – ability to create fields (alpha, numeric, date or time) within the language.

Structures – define data structures of fields, and use structures as parameters for various functions.

Program fields – these are pre-defined fields available to any program that provide values or functionality
automatically. For example, there are many date and time program fields in various formats which are
populated with the current date and time at the moment of program execution.

Arrays – support for numeric and alphameric arrays.

Tasks – support for tasks as a means for controlling program logic flow based on the URL request.

Web page parameters – support for numeric or alphameric data passed from a web page to a program.

Server-side program or module calls – support for calling other AS/400 programs or ILE modules from the
server program.

Forms controls – support for accessing data input in forms controls in HTML.

HTML fragments – support for writing HTML directly to a page, from any variable or string.

HTML segments – support for writing HTML segments by name.

Environment variables – full access to browser environment variables, such as browser name, server location,
browser IP address, etc….

Cookies – full cookie support (create, get, delete – temporary (for browser session) or persistent (with expiry date)).

Transactions – full support for e-commerce transactions, with functions specifically designed to manage
storing, retrieving and cleaning up transactions.

E-mail – function to compose and send e-mail from the server program.

Functions – there are many functions defined in the language to perform many possible tasks. For example,
string manipulation functions include:

rplstr: replace a piece of a string with another value
trim: trim a string of blanks
triml: trim a string of leftmost blanks
trimr: trim a string of rightmost blanks
append: append a string to the end of an existing one, with trailing blanks from the first string suppressed
substr: returns a sub-string of a string
upper: convert a string to all upper-case characters
lower: convert a string to all lower-case characters

PML is flexible and extensible: PML functions can be simple or complex, and due to its rich vocabulary, you can do almost anything you want in it. In addition, you can create your own custom PML functions, and include them in the design tool for use by yourself or others. For example, we have included a function called COUNTRYBX that displays a list of countries in a drop-down box and allows the user to select one, much like you see on any number of commercial web sites. When creating this function, we came up with a list of countries (and abbreviations for each one) that suited our needs. However, you may want to expand or shorten the list, or change the abbreviations to match codes you have in a file. In order to accommodate this possibility, we provide you with the RPG IV source code that is used by this PML function, so you can modify the function to suit your requirements. You can also create your own functions, and modify the code generator on the AS/400 side to generate the appropriate RPG IV code to run your functions as desired.

PML is a constantly evolving language. As new releases of WebSmart are made available (either "point" releases, or full upgrades), new functions will be added to the language. Also, we have designed PML to be platform-independent, which means that it is possible for us to write a generator that produces Java servlets, enabling WebSmart to run on platforms other than AS/400.

Why You Should Choose ProGen WebSmart

Here are some of the options available to you for delivering live AS/400 data in web browsers:

Acquire a Java development tool, learn Java and hand write the client-side code. Also, hand-write the server side code to talk to the client, or use JDBC to access data.

Write server-side CGI scripts by hand.

Use a green-screen to HTML screen-scraper.

Use a complex, expensive application development tool that uses over 10 year old green-screen technology, with no integrated HTML design, to construct applications.

Use a Client/Server development tool that has been retro-fitted to attempt to support web site building functions.

Here’s why ProGen WebSmart is a better alternative than any of these options:

WebSmart is built by a company with 10+ years experience in developing Application Development tools for AS/400.

ProGen Plus with 2,500 installations, our flagship AS/400 host development tool, is a best-of-breed product. Winner of four consecutive industry awards for the best AS/400 Application Development and Report Writing Tool.

WebSmart is marketed by a leader in the marketplace: a company with 20+ years experience of delivering quality IBM midrange systems software solutions. Members of IBM's Partners in Development and IBM Tools/Net programs.

WebSmart is backed by the support and service of a company with one of the highest levels of user satisfaction in the AS/400 marketplace.

WebSmart is very reasonably priced. Both the Web Design tool & Web Application Server components are licensed with unlimited seats per AS/400 server (developers and end users). The components can be acquired together, or separately.

WebSmart is built from the ground up as a web development tool for the AS/400. It has not been retrofitted, or kludged into an existing development tool.

WebSmart uses a native 32-bit Windows application as the design tool. The tool can be used while connected to the AS/400, or independently –unlike other products that require most of the design work to be done from green-screen menus.

WebSmart integrates the HTML design process with the program logic design. Other tools treat HTML design as a separate issue, with no integration provided.

WebSmart produces working programs for you with no programming required – just select a template and let the Wizard guide you through all the design steps. Other tools require some level of programming or data-modeling setup.

WebSmart is easy to learn. When you do need to program in it, either in HTML or PML, the design tool provides many features to simplify developing web applications.

WebSmart templates can be created with infinite variations, and can be shared amongst developers, or at our WebSmart community web page. So, if there is a special application need you have, you may find a template that solves it for you, further minimizing any actual programming you may have to do.

WebSmart produces native, ILE AS/400 server programs, generated and compiled in the language most widely used on the AS/400 platform.

WebSmart programs use native AS/400 database access. There is no need to go through other middle-ware layers such as ODBC to get at your database.

WebSmart uses the native AS/400 Web Server, included free with OS/400, to deliver pages. There is no need to purchase a third-party web server.

WebSmart supports e-commerce capabilities, including SSL, cookies, automatic e-mails, persistent transaction processing....

WebSmart delivers dynamic web pages using AS/400 data to browsers with no need for client-side Java programs.

WebSmart web pages can appear any way you want, and include any supported HTML features, such as images, sounds, video clips, etc. You are not confined to the restrictions of a screen-scraper or DDS interpreter.

WebSmart applications are scalable. As your needs grow, you can have confidence that WebSmart programs, in combination with the WebSmart Web Application Server, are optimized for the best performance and least impact on system resources.

WebSmart is engineered for future growth. The programming language has been designed from day one to be extensible and flexible.

So go ahead and think smart, Think ProGen WebSmart !

To try ProGen WebSmart call BCD or your authorized BCD reseller and

you will soon see why this is the Smart choice for you.

Business Computer Design Int'l, Inc. - 630-986-0800 - www.BCDsoftware.com