Lansa Continues to go Mobile

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LANSA Goes GA with Ecommerce App for Mobile Devices

Published: August 13, 2013 IT Jungle
by Alex Woodie

Organizations that want to use their IBM i server to deliver e-commerce capabilities to mobile devices may want to check out Commerce Edition Mobile (CE Mobile), a new application that is available now from LANSA. The solution, which LANSA originally announced at the COMMON conference earlier this year, promises to make quick work of the process of exposing product data housed in ERP systems to employees, partners, and customers via iOS and Android devices.  See complete article.

Common 2012 Fall Conference & Expo

This three-day Power Systems educational and networking event will be packed with over 100 educational sessions on a large variety of topics, including vendor-led sessions, and pre-conference workshops. As expected from all COMMON conferences, attendees will have the opportunity to further enhance their education through numerous networking events and meeting with leading solution providers in the tabletop-style expo.
Visit the COMMON Web site for more information.

Best of all: Two of my favorite vendors will be exhibiting at the Conference.  LANSA & VAULT400

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

Scott Guthrie's Blog on Microsoft ASP.NET technologies including the new MVC4 update is excellent.  You may want to take a look at this blog because it offers so much information on Microsoft Development technologies.  Scott lives in Seattle and builds products for Microsoft.  See Scott take you through the ASP.NET MVC4 Beta.  Just click here to view the video. It contains a lot of excellent information.

In summary the presentation covers the new features in MVC4 that provide a rich set of enhancements to this tool set that is accessible from within Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.  MVC4 comes built-into VS2011 as well.  It does install side by side with MVC2 and MVC3 in the same Visual Studio installation on your development workstation.

• Bundling/Minification Support - Improves performance on your website. 100% Automatic
• Database Migrations - Allows production database schema to be automatically updated.
• Web APIs - Great support in VS for creating Web APIs. Easily create HTTP Services.
• Mobile Web -  Improved developer support for developing Mobile applications for the phone and tablet.
• Real Time Communications - Allows for Client to Server Persistent connections over HTTP using SignalR.
• Asynchronous Support - Reduces the number of threads and server resources; Increases scaleability.
  

If you need a web application developed for your business, just contact us by calling 513-977-4544 or click here to learn more.

LANSA 2012 User Conference

As many look forward to the release of LANSA 13.0 it is sometimes rewarding to reflect on the history of LANSA.  The early years were filled with concepts like:

• Data Repository
• 4th Generation Language
• Multilingual
• Templates
• Database Triggers

You could recap all of the commands/parameters on a simple quick reference card.

Marketing was generally limited to print media.  (Remember printed trade rags?)

Presentations were given with slide projectors.

You actually had to fly somewhere to present.

Yes LANSA and the industry have come a long way.

Fast forward and we look forward to the conference that will feature:

• Cloud Based Labs (Bring your laptop)
• Web & Mobile App development
• Business Objects
• Some of the famous and familiar speakers in the LANSA community:
• Diane Joester
• Mark Duignan
• Don Nelson
• Madan Divaker
• David Brault
• and many others
• Opportunity to network

If you have not registered or are just interested.  Click Here.

LANSA Powers up Windows Interoperability

I read in System i NETWORK that LANSA has signed up 50 British i users to a free one-day conference on Windows interoperability in December.  Those of us that have used LANSA for many years readily appreciate the ability to work with and among multiple platforms via a single tool set.  Read Article.

Mobile Applications....Go Android!

In the past six months, as Android has gained momentum and market share. Last week, comScore reportedthat in the three months ending in May, Android was the top smartphone platform in the U.S. with 38 percent of existing devices. It grew faster than iOS, which reached 26.6 percent, while Research In Motion's BlackBerry platform fell to 24.7 percent, comScore said.   Good News: aXes and LANSA Wams can deliver to both!


Footnote: Is it a just a coincidence that the Android is colored Green like LANSA?

Cross Browser Compatibility and LANSA aXes

With the new release of aXes version 2.1 (Beta version) all the major browser types are supported.  In prior versions, the aXes product suite only supported the Microsoft (MS) IE browser.  Now aXes supports the following browsers: MS-IE, Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari.  All of these browsers combined represent a huge user base.  Opening up aXes to all of these types of browsers vastly broadens the user community for who can use aXes and thus, iSeries applications via the web.  The only browser not sanctioned currently is Opera.  It’s officially unsupported but it executes with this new version.  Opera is a Java based browser so it’s very popular on mobile devices.

For more information or to download a free 30 day evaluation copy of aXes, please visit our website.  For further questions on aXes or other LANSA products, contact us at 1-800-887-1834 or request information by clicking here.

Most Popular Browsers

I can remember when it was assumed that you were using Internet Explorer.  That is certainly not the case anymore.  Look at the latest trends and you will notice that it's use has dropped significantly.  Also note how fast Google Chrome is being adopted as the default browser.

Can't wait to see what the landscape looks like next year!

Mixed message in the 2010 iPulse Survery conducted by LANSA

The 2010 iPulse Survery conducted by LANSA reminds me of the current economy.  The steep decline has stopped, but has no steam in the engine to rebound.  I am curious what other vendors are doing to address this issue.   Your opinion to the survey is appreciated.  I will publish the results in this blog.  Thanks!

No LANSA is not a Cabinet Pull (Handle)

Allow me to vent.  Over the years I have been mildly irritated by my search results when they directed me to sites like IKEA, REMODELISTA and even LANSA Flight 502 on Wikipedia.

The other evening I decided to turn my irritation around and see what the products have in common.  My Aha moment resulted in Modernization!  Continue to indulge my ramblings:

Background:  Old, yet functional kitchen.  Here is my version of some marketing copy for a site like IKEA:

With the new LANSA pulls you can transform dingy cupboards into something more contemporary and infinitely more livable.  

Background:  Old, yet functional 5250 legacy application.  Potential marketing copy from LANSA: With LANSA you can transform dingy hard to use legacy applications into something more contemporary and infinitely more usable.

I just had to vent!

New Version of aXes released

Probably the most exciting part of this release is the support for Mobile applications.  Below is a quick recap:


From LANSA, RPG, COBOL or CL applications running on your IBM i (AS/400, iSeries, System i), you can now deliver your business information and data direct to mobile devices — such as iPhones, iPads, Android devices and the latest technology from Blackberry and with Windows Mobile 7 — with Zero Deployment on the mobile devices.

aXes Mobile lets you leverage the growing power of HTML 5 and the emerging industry standard WebKit browser family to provide ubiquitous access to IBM i server based applications.


Design the new RPG, COBOL or CL application with the following in mind:

• Mobile devices have limited screen size available
• Use of GUI controls should replace more traditional 5250 screen interactions
• AJAX Web 2.0 capabilities can be added to any screen to maximize appearance and functionality
• Send and receive only the data required to minimize the traffic
• Create RPG, COBOL or CL program(s) to send and receive the information to each mobile screen
• Layout each mobile screen using aXes eXtensions to:
• Add controls like drop downs, group boxes, hyperlinks, images, text labels, checkboxes, and calendars
• Add buttons with scripts that control what happens when they are clicked
• Alter the position of fields on the screen
• Insert bars, stripes, colors and color gradients to enhance the appearance
• aXes handles the rest

Reuse Existing Applications — Let aXes Mobile do the work

You can use your existing RPG, COBOL and CL 5250 applications and access these applications via mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs without changing one line of the underlying programs.

Reuse Existing Applications - Let aXes Mobile do the work

aXes converts existing 5250 screens to Web pages on-the-fly without change to the underlying applications, and modernizes the screen to create rich Internet applications - all accessible from mobile devices.

Graphical user interface out-of-the-box

• No source code to change. Nothing to recompile. Works instantly, even on 5250 screens for which you do not have the source code (screens from OS/400, purchased packages, etc)
• Web enabled terminal emulation straight to the mobile device
• Automatically handled by aXes

Use the aXes eXtensions to enhance the GUI

• No need to change the underlying RPG, COBOL or CL code
• Layout each screen using aXes eXtensions:
• Add controls like drop downs, group boxes, hyperlinks, images, text labels, checkboxes, and calendars
• Add buttons with scripts that control what happens when they are clicked
• Alter the position of fields on the screen
• Insert bars, stripes, colors and color gradients to enhance the appearance
• aXes handles the rest

This is truly exciting and very timely!  Learn more about aXes and other LANSA products.

aXes Spooled File Explorer

As we have discussed in previous blogs, aXes has several features in addition to being a graphical application which converts 5250 RPG and COBOL programs to rich internet applications.  It also has a Spool File Explorer. 

The aXes Spooled File Explorer allows a user to access spooled file data through a standard browser based interface.  The Power i spools outputs to an out queue, which can be viewed in a number of formats including PDF, Text, and HTML.  Since aXes presents everything in a browser, it can help to make a company and its employees much more mobile and flexible.

Default Page

When the initial web address (URL) is accessed by the user, this default page is displayed.  aXes calls this the default page.  Once installed, you can configure the webserver to bypass this page and go directly to the aXes Home Page or various aXes sessions. 

Home Page

Clicking the link on the default page takes you to the following secured administrative and developer web site.  This page shows the various aXes Sessions, Development Projects, aXes Documentation, and Tutorials that are available. Looking at the right hand side menu under the "Launch aXes Sessions" box you will see the "Terminal Session," "Basic Terminal Session," "Development Session," and "Data Explorer Session" that you may be familiar with.  

In this short blog, we will navigate to the “Spooled File Session” by selecting the link on the right side of the screen in the blue “Launch sites Sessions”.  We will see some of the features that are available.

Spool File Session

Selecting the "Spool File Session" yields a new web page that contains some new results, as represented in the following screen snapshot.  You can see the spooled file name, the user that created the file, its status, form type, number of pages, and printer that it’s assigned to, including the date and time that it was generated.  This is the same information you can see in the native 5250 terminal session.

If you select the “<<” icon on the left top, it will open a menu that allows you to do a variety of administrative and productive tasks.  These are shown on the next few slides.

Spooled File Handling

When the “<<” icon is selected, it opens up the left menus as shown below.  It shows a very robust interface for spooled file handling.  You can select different out queues and view the spool files in the queues, select different libraries, as well as select tabs for managing commands, options, and attributes.  Take a look at a couple of screen snapshots below.

As seen on the options tab, you can select to view the spool files as HTML, Adobe PDF and Text formats.  You can also select the columns you want to view for each spool file.  There are over 26 different fields that can be selected for viewing.

Thanks to Robert Sweney for providing the material for this blog post.

Click here to learn more about LANSA aXes. If you would like to download a free 30 day aXes evaluation, click here. For questions, contact us at 800-877-1834.

LANSA aXes Includes a Remote SQL Access Tool called the Data Explorer

In addition to aXes being a web-based graphical application that transforms your RPG and COBOL 5250 programs into rich internet applications, another feature aXes provides is a Data Explorer, which is included with the product. Many companies pay big bucks for SQL GUI tools they can use to develop queries and reports. aXes comes with the Data Explorer built into it.

Below are screen snapshots that can start to give one an idea of what the aXes Data Explorer can do. aXes not only provides you a browser based GUI interface, it also gets you the Data Explorer that can replace other expensive tool sets or provide additional capabilities for one fee.

The screens show a sample file that is included the standard LANSA "Demo" called the Personnel Master (PSLMST). These files have been part of the standard LANSA demonstration for many years. Some of you may be familiar with this data file so this should be a good example to use. The sample screens show how to setup a Datasource, illustrate reviewing the fields in the table as well as a view of the data from the table.

Datasource Control

Table Schema Viewer

SQL Table View

To use the aXes data explorer, a few prerequisites must be configured. Once these are ready, you can use the data explorer. We have provided a list of the prerequisites for your reference; please contact us for specific setup assistance.

• The TCP/IP IBM DDM server is required to be configured.
• The aXes DE HTTP server instance must be started. e.g. the one that says AXESDE in our example screens above.

Lastly, you will need to have at least one file available in your LANSA environment to be used to access. In our examples we used a demonstration file provided with LANSA's base tool called PSLMST, the personnel master, located in a library called LW@DEMOLIB.

Click here to learn more about LANSA aXes. If you would like to download a free 30 day aXes evaluation, click here. For questions, contact us at 800-877-1834.

How to Customize aXes Log On Screens

Robert Sweney has done something very few developers ever do....write it down.  Thank you Robert!
This short technical paper will provide an overview of how to use aXes to modify the standard login screen. Before we get started, let us give you a quick overview of aXes. Basically, aXes transforms RPG and COBOL 5250 programs into Rich Internet Applications accessible via multiple Web Browsers on multiple devices (including mobiles) — without having to change a single line of code.   Read white paper in the R&K Resource Library.

Power7 Planning Beyond the Bells and Whistles

Since many of the LANSA clients are IBM i customers, I thought you might enjoy this article from the The Four Hundred by Dan Burger.  I could not help but notice that they quoted my friend and fellow IBM business partner Jim Kandrac.

These new configurations make the selections more challenging and also quite difficult for the software vendors to price properly.  Read more

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• IBM no-money plan aims to poach rivals' clients (sfgate.com)

Right part at the right time!

I had a conversation with Gerald Combs our Product Director for METHOS.  I told him that somebody recently asked "Why is it so hard to have the right part at the right time?".  It triggered a few response that I thought were worth sharing.   Being in the software business, we immediately assume it is because you do not have our product.  Unfortunately, it certainly is not that simple. A few other reasons include:

• Sometimes it just does not make economic sense.  Who wants to explain the carrying charges of an expensive part sitting on the shelf for 5 years?  

• Occasionally, you might be suffering from some less than functional suppliers.  It is always good practice to evaluate their performance.

• We also hear of people telling us that it is in their system.  However, they can't find it!  Multiple systems, poor communication or unplanned inventory shrinkage can be the culprits.

• The problem can also be looking back at you in the mirror.  Your system might be directing the scheduling properly:  Perform PM on piece of equipment every 4 months.  If you only do it every 6 months, you are bound to run into problems.

Learn more about METHOS.

John Reuter Presents Contract Guardian

I thought everyone would enjoy the venue where John presented Contract Guardian. This is of course a very heavily attended event.

LANSA Based Solution (Contract Guardian) Featured at 2010 HFMA Conference

The LANSA Based Solution - Contract Guardian - will be featured at the 2010 Healthcare Finance Conference.

Rippe Delivers LANSA WAM SharePoint Web Part

We are please to share with the LANSA Community that we can now deliver a LANSA WAM SharePoint Web Part. Need help...give us a call.

The Lansa WAM Container Web Part is developed using the following technologies and versions:

• .NET framework 3.5
• Sharepoint Services 3.0
• Windows Server 2003
• Visual Studio 2008
• C# .NET development language

Supported Platforms: The Lansa Wam Container Web Part is designed to run on Sharepoint Server 2007.

Google Saves The Day

I am guessing that a number of visitors to this blog have the need to man a booth from time to time. If so, I thought you would enjoy this story:

We are exhibiting at a conference in Dallas, Texas. We wanted Internet access at our booth. When we were informed that it would cost $1,400....I promptly said "NO THANKS!"

I pulled out my droid (Google) phone and connected to the Internet. We then tethered laptops to the phone. Great performance and saved us $1,400! Thank you Google!