Last week the company released their newest video on Rich Internet applications (RIAs) for the IBM i. Roytman provides some background information on the technology and compares RIAs with traditional Web applications, and shows how RIA Libraries and Frameworks can help create powerful user interfaces with little to no coding.

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The team at Profound Logic is interested in getting feedback on what you would like them to cover in future videos. Leave your comments here or contact them directly.

Is IBM’s WebFacing Tool replaced now by HATS, or has it been de-emphasized, or is something else going on?

Borts: WebFacing is now enhanced by HATS – or Host Access Transform Services. This isn’t your mothers “Screen Scraping” software. This is a server based system that takes 3270/5250 applications (e.g., “legacy”) using a macro language with the screen’s behind them and can serve them on a multitude of clients including mobile phones, Firefox, smart phones, and more – not just Web. This option should be considered any time a legacy application needs a little kick for the user communities, giving the ability to make Web-based screens more logical for the users.

Mason: Changes in IBM product managers change strategies. To use WebFacing and HATS now you have to license the server from IBM. HATS is the default dynamic translation of 5250 screens for the Web. You can do customization of screens with WebFacing tools and deploy the customized screens.

Is the “Rational” product something I need to use, or is it more for larger projects that involve multiple people developing and testing?

Borts: Rational Software Solutions were designed to manage large software projects where change control, requirements management, and QA management are combined.

Mason: Rational products are purchased. They are also an option. You don’t need to buy them if you don’t want to. The alternative to RDI for building RPG applications is to do it the old way using SEU and the RPG compiler. The alternative to Rational Application Developer for i to build Web applications is using the free Eclipse BIRT or Web Tools suites. With these, you can do Web reporting, build Web applications, Web services etc.

Is RPG ILE also not a major emphasis anymore? I read the paper by Sharon Hoffman from 2006 that seemed to say the direction was away from RPG and toward JAVA. Does that say time would be better spent working with JAVA than RPG?

Borts: Well, yes and no. Yes, if you have the time and energy, Java is an emerging technology and anything written has some relationship to it. But, learning all the Web technologies – starting with HTML and Javascript, then after those skills are learned (not perfected) you can address the Web technologies such as AJAX applications utilizing CGI back-end software such as RPG (which can run CGI applications), Net.Data, Java (via JSP) and PHP can serve on an iSeries. Ajax allows for partial page refreshes, which makes a Web browser to act more like a PC application. RPG has had major enhancements over the past few years. We have RPG FREE, which is being used more and more (I call this language Java Junior cause it looks like Java!).

Mason: IBM doesn’t have a direction for development for System i. They have options. Sometimes they push one more than the other but there is not a clear strategic direction, just choices available. Your choices are RPG, PHP and Java.

RPG is fine for traditional RPG applications. Despite IBM’s attempts to do better, it’s not a great choice to do Web, Web services or XML applications – newer Java tools are much better.

PHP is a decent environment for building basic Web applications and more and it has good access to i5 OS features in the PHP toolkit for System i. the PHP runtime is OK.

Traditional Java development for i5 OS uses either Rational or Eclipse Web or BIRT tools and the Java Toolkit for the System i. Eclipse and the Java toolkit are both free and very good choices. Java runtime is better than PHP. Now Java development has moved ahead of other options with Groovy and Grails. New Java based on Groovy/Grails is easier to learn and faster to build many types of applications than the other choices. I’ll start covering more on Groovy/Grails for System i in search400 and the Virtual WebSphere Community Edition user group. You can find out general Groovy info and Grails info at the linked websites. I did a hands-on lab at COMMON building a Grails Web database application that created, updated, searched books and authors in a database. All students were RPG with no Web experience and completed the lab in one hour. I also do QuickWeb workshops for companies trying to make transitions to Web technologies quickly.

Gibbs: IMO, RPG and Java best work hand in hand. Java (JSP, servlets) work best for the general user interface with RPG doing the heavy lifting for database and business rules.

How many of these products cost extra? Web application Server? Rational Developer?

Borts: As far as costs, you can serve a Web page with an IBM i for free – all built in. However, many technologies are free. PHP, Net.Data, and CGI are all technologies that require no money up front to load onto the AS/400. Net.Data is actually supplied with the operating system, then RPG CGI can be downloaded from G.B. Peroti’s Web site, Easy400.net, then PHP can be installed on ANY i5 with V5R4 and above (V5R3 is back level supported, but not as many toys as Version meant for V5R4) for free – which fits into any budget. JSP pages can be served using Tomcat, which is supplied with the iSeries in the base OS. To run WebSphere, you need a paid license for the developer seat, and the server.

Mason: Rational tools cost more. The Eclipse suites (based on new Galileo base) for BIRT and Web tools are free. You also need to copy the jt400.jar file from the IFS folder. It connects Java to everything on the System i.

Your application server choices include WebSphere (billable), Apache Tomcat (free) and IBM WebSphere Community Edition (a full JEE server that is free but has options for IBM support plans if you need it for your production environments).

If you ever have questions that you would like to get a few opinions on, don’t forget that you can ask them via IT Knowledge Exchange, or ask a question of a specific expert or send me an email and I’ll shepherd it to the appropriate folks to provide you with answers. Also, please add your input on these questions below.

COMMON educational session tidbits
I attended a session at 8 AM (without coffee) on “Taking Advantage of Capacity on Demand” for POWER Systems. The session was led by Mark W. Olson, an IBM Power Systems World Wide Product Manager out of Rochester, Minn. I didn’t know what I was getting in for — maybe I should have read the abstract:

This session digs into how IBM’s Capacity on Demand offerings really work for the Model 570 and 595 processors and memory starting with how they are ordered all the way through how they are paid for. Topics include temporary and permanent activations of processors and memory, contractual requirements, pre-pay or post-pay, trial capacity, how to enable, and more.

On the bright side, if you want to know if you should get the daily or minute-based capacity on demand offering from IBM, just ask me and I’m a fount of knowledge. The session was likely useful for those considering paying for more capacity for their 570 or 595 Power Systems, but it didn’t answer what I consider the first step question, which is: Do I really need more processing power, or are there other tweaks to performance I can make? Again, no fault of Mark’s, just my own lack of reading comprehension.

I asked Olson about how cloud computing offerings might compete with limited capacity of System i on POWER6. He shared the story of a trial arrangement with a customer in which the customer’s POWER System has all the cores enabled and pays a flat fee for an agreed upon base percentage utilization, and a premium for higher use periods. Olson said that the company is working toward a “pool” solution in which the customer could take advantage of available processor power regardless of specific partition or machine dedication. The question that I asked in my head is why would IBM do that when they can make more money charging for capacity? In answer to my own question: competition. In a world in which it’s all too easy to spin up an Amazon EC2 instance of an SQL server, CIOs may start feeling economic pressure to get off an expensive licensing scheme.

Next I wandered into Paul Tuohy’s award-winning “Considerations for Succesful ILE Implementations” session. I was half there to meet Tuohy in the flesh, and half there to learn a little more about ILE. First, Tuohy is a great speaker and I learned so much that I can’t possibly repeat it all here. Here are some highlights:

• Although ILE looks more complicated, it’s easier to maintain.
• Legacy RPG code was great… 15 years ago. Now it’s an “unmaintainable load of crud.”
• Programmers do things out of habit. ILE is an unlearning process.
• DB2 now does things for you that you used to have to code: this is a good thing, take advantage of it. Resist pressure to move to SQL server.
• When writing ILE, accept that you’re not going to get it 100% right. The good news: ILE is easy to change.
• When embarking on an ILE project, make sure you have the right tools. WebSphere Development Studio Client (WDSC) is essential. If you’re not using it, it’s the equivalent of doing your word processing operations in Notepad…
• You DEFINITELY NEED a change management system. Really. Don’t try to do it on your own, or go without. It will cost you more in the long run.

IBM rolls out new blades, servers, and virtualization technology for System i
IBM held a press conference with Ian Jarman, Power Systems Software Manager, in which he went over much of Jeff Howard’s opening session presentation from yesterday, filling in the details for us journalists. Some highlights:

• Blades are growing.
• Expanded virtual tape support allows backup of tapes connected to BladeCenter S.
• Solid state disk technology: Bridge memory and traditional hard disk drives in a “hybrid” technology deployment in POWER Systems, and the IBM i has built-in virtual storage that can exploit SSD. This works by automating placement of objects on SSD drives.
• PowerVM has been shipped with 65% of POWER6 systems. This is 55% more than with POWER5.
• Linux on POWER is growing (see product demo of PowerVM Lx86 tool).
• DB2 WebQuery enhancements are coming with BI extension to Query400 which will dramatically improved Web-based queries.
• XML support is coming in DB2.

RPG to Web products
I managed to get another product demo from the exhibit hall, this time from Richard Milone of CNX who demonstrated the Valence Web application framework.

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Business Intelligence for i and Query400 report enhancement products
I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention a couple of the new product announcements released today.

• Key Information Systems, in partnership with Systech Solutions and Talend announced the general availability release of their Smart i appliance, which was the foundation for the Fashion Institute of Design and Marketing’s IBM/COMMON Innovation Award winning effort. Smart i is a stand-alone BI appliance in a rack mount or blade server IBM chassis that brings business analytics to small and medium-sized businesses.
• BCD released version 1.6 of Clover, BCD’s real-time IBM i Web reporting and querying tool. The new version of the tool imports query definitions from IBM Query/400 and outputs them as real-time Web reports, graphs and spreadsheets.
• inForm Decisions announced the release of their iDocs SmartRouter software module that can direct or redirect output, burst, sort and group reports and forms based on spool file attributes or spool file content.
• Vision Solutions announced the release of iTERA HA 6.0 and MIMIX HA 6.0 including advanced autonomics coupled with full-featured high availability enhancements. New features of iTERA HA include library auto-discovery, environment configuration, journal creation, data and object synchronization, and automated mirroring, auditing and monitoring. Additionally, Auto Action Messages allow users to define and automatically trigger corrective action routines when specific messages are generated, and enhanced audits that provide deeper examination of objects.

First place runner Hany Elemary of Profound Logic Software (right), and event organizer, ringer and marathon runner Dan Kimmel (left), RJS Software and COMMON Treasurer finish up the last portion of the course near the Truckee River before heading to the finish line.

I stood somewhere close to the 4k marker and cheered on the participants while visiting with a couple of attendees who had volunteered to help monitor the course. As we were walking back, I found out I was talking to IBM i educator, Jim Sloan, who shared that his newest CL programming book was published in January. For my networking purposes, this was perfect, and we discussed getting a chapter excerpt for publication on Search400.com so you to get a preview of this resource. Based on some of the reader questions I receive, I know some of you may find this book really helpful.

Speaking of resources, I needed to see what sessions I should check out at the meeting, and started looking through the ambitious schedule of 500 educational events. Some at COMMON have used the term “technical information fire hose” to describe the event, and I have to say, it’s a fairly accurate analogy. I sat down to plot my course for Monday and discovered that there are two dozen concurrent sessions during each time block to choose from!

So far, the meeting has been a great opportunity to put some faces with names and to learn more about what people are doing in this community. I had the opportunity to meet with Philip Roestamadji and Alex Roytman of ProfoundLogic Software to discuss their new educational initiative, Profound Logic Software TV. The pair explained that the videos on the site will focus on summarizing and clarifying trends, ideas and technology for the IBM i based on the knowledge and information they have gained in conducting their business. The site emphasizes viewer interaction, with a request for viewer input on current and future content (including special requests). I cynically wondered what was in it for them, and it pretty much comes down to feeling good about sharing what they know with others. We’ll be sure to follow their activities, and let you know how you can get involved if you’re so inspired.

COMMON 2009 Annual Meeting opening session
The opening session featured awards and announcements from COMMON and IBM. I haven’t received the official press annoucements yet, so I’m going to hold off on telling you about the individual winners because I don’t have information about name spelling or company affiliation yet. The COMMON/IBM Power Systems Innovation awards went to companies who had some impressive achievements, and I hope to get the chance to follow-up and share more details about their stories soon. Briefly the award winners in the four categories are:

• Educational Excellence: Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, Neb.
• Energy Efficiency: United States Bowling Congress, Arlington, TX
• Web Solutions: Allied Beverage Group, Carlsbad, N.J.
• Business Solutions: Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Los Angeles, Calif.

Jeff Howard, IBM POWER Systems Marketing spoke in place of Ross Mauri, IBM General Manager, POWER Systems, who was stuck in Chicago due to weather delays at the airport. Howard shared IBM’s Dynamic Infrastructure initiative, walking attendees through the ways that IBM i fits into the campaign’s vision for a smarter planet — sharing the POWER systems virtualization, energy efficiency, business resiliency, and management tools.

Howard also previewed the hardware releases the company will announce on Tuesday (BladeCenter JS23 and JS43 Express and Power 550 and Power 520 updates)… stay tuned.

Keynote: The power of data in Las Vegas style cops and robbers problems
The keynote at the end of the opening session was delivered by Jeff Jonas, IBM Distinguished Engineer and Chief Scientist, Entity Analytic Solutions, IBM Software Group. Jonas captivated the audience with discussion of next generation data management, mixing humor and humility with highly technical descriptions of how different data bits can be connected to find unknown relationships, solving real problems including fraud in casinos to terrorist actions.

Exhibit floor demos
Exhibitors at the show were happy to work with my amateur camera skills to record a couple of product demonstrations for you to check out if you’re missing the conference. (Really, I’ll get better at the zoom thing, I promise.)

First, I met with AdventureTech Group’s president, Doug McDaniel, and director of sales, John Patsch. They explained the features of iSafari, a Web-enablement tool.
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Next, on the PHP side, I met with Marcel Sarrasin of BCD who demonstrated the company’s WebSmart PHP tool.
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