Does Your Co. Use Visual Basic or ASP to Present AS400 Data? 3

[JohnBates]

Hi AS400/iSeries folks,

I'm curious about something. I have written a few Visual Basic programs that display data that resides on our AS400.
I used the OLE DB that comes with Client Access Express.

Do very many companies use Microsoft tools to pull or display/update data on the AS400? MS languages such as ASP (Active Server Pages) for web or intranet pages, or Visual Basic to display or update data on the AS400?
(I know Websphere and VisualAge RPG and ASNA are fairly popular, but I'm curious about the use of Microsoft tools)

Thanks, John

 

[onpnt]

My company a few years ago was running three 400's and I did present a few reports using ASP. mainly because I chose to and they actually let me do what I wanted for once. sense then we have (sadly) migrated to SAP and the 400's were sold off while I cried in the back corner. Displaying data was as far as I went with it though. A few links in our lotus home screen to various HR reports and finacial status for related departments.

A widly thought idea is the 400 cannot be used in this way. I see it quite often as the campus I still tutor runs the 400 for the in-depth programming courses. (you learn COBOL, RPG and CL you know just about all the theory and logic behind programming) most of the early year students think there is nothing beyond the green screen, but you can gain access to the stored information with various platforms.

The latest was using IE for a more windows based GUI to navigate through the 400. It made the click happy windows gurus hyper.

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[JohnBates]

Thanks onpnt,

Ahhh good ole SAP and ABAP and all that stuff, hmmm that is ASP just spelled a different way

My reason for throwing this question out is that I have an opportunity to go to work for a company that has an AS400. They SAY I would have an opportunity to develop web pages and VB programs against the DB2/400 data. I have 10 + years on that platform, but 3 years ago, made the transition to client-server and web development (SQL Server db and VB,ASP)

I feel it is a bit risky to move back to a company whose only platform is the iSeries. Dont get me wrong. There is no more stable machine and I really love it. But... well you know, I'm sure you've heard it all before.

Thanks for your input. John

 

[onpnt]

Hey, The top companies in the world still run the 400 as their primary system for data managment. I think you have the ideal oppurtunity there. Honestly it sounds like a dream come true to me.

The nice thing about the 400 I have always seen is that if you have a developer that has (like you) worked on that platform for multiple years, per say the company decides to make a change like mine did. you have far more cahnces to take that developer and place him in the new process with the new platform of choice then someone that is per say a VB head and thats it. Knowing the 400 in and out is like knowing how things work. Knowing a VB form is like knowing how to click a few options to make a calculator. (I'm going to get it for that one from the VB gurus)

My opinion! Go for it if you think you'll have fun in the job.

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[HaveFun]

I have done this kind of data programming at two different companies. A lot of the time companies have had their AS/400's for years and still just generate spool files and print them. I think that is such a waste of time and paper.

One of the best ways that I know of to get to AS/400 data is to setup an ODBC connection. Then you can use any program you want to access the data. You can even use Excel to pull the data, sort it, analyze it then resort it and analyze it again. If you set this up in a user friendly way users can do it themselves.

Just my opinion.

 

[tcsbiz]

John,

I have used MS Office, Access, VB, VC++ to grab AS400/iSeries data to desktops. HaveFun stated it nicely. Anything that works with an iSeries ODBC driver can be used.
And, users have MS Office to work with the data.

I haven't had the need to use ASP, yet.

Tom.

 

[Skittle]

Eight months ago my company started presenting AS400 data
using ASP. We do not yet do it directly. We take the data from the AS400 and store it on an SQL Server before accessing for ASP display.

I think this is probably a mistake as it would make more sense to take the data directly from the AS400. I intend to start investigating this in a couple of weeks using VB.

Personally I would love the opportunity to work on an AS400 and VB/ASP at the same time. I have 10 years on AS400's and have only been working with ASP/VB for the last year so its an excellent opportunity to learn new skills and maintain old ones. If you don't want the job and its in the Midlands email me!! )

I have recently been told our AS400 is to be ditched in the next year and to be replaced by a new system entirely! If it were not for my fledgling VB/ASP experience I would be really struggling for another job in my area. By this time next year I hope to be a seasoned VB/ASP programmer as well as an AS400 guy - doubling the number of jobs I can apply for; should it be necessary.

 

[JohnBates]

Good for you Skittle. Sounds like you are definitely broadening your skillset.

What I've noticed though, especially since the big "crash" is that VB/SQLServer/ASP skills are not worth nearly as much as the average AS400 P/A can make. That has been disappointing to me. But the MS tools are alot of fun to use.

you said ..."my company started presenting AS400 data
using ASP. We do not yet do it directly. "

Do you know why you don't do it directly? Also, do you have the SQL Server data on a web server... i.e. do you use Microsoft's IIS ?

I'm really curious about that.
Thanks, John

 

[Skittle]

John,

I agree ASP does not pay as well as AS400. But there are lots of ASP jobs about where as the AS400 stuff is becoming rare. I think this is because AS400 green screen stuff has become static while companies build ASP and other systems around the AS400.

We do not display data directly because 'it is to slow' to do it via an ODBC link. At least this is what I was told. I find that a little odd. It may well be down to the speed of our machine. I still have not checked this out but I understand these were the findings of a set of trials.

We have SQl server on one machine.
A web server on another machine running IIS.
The two are linked via our intranet.

I didn't configure either of them and my network knowledge is very low so I would struggle to put together this setup myself. I have a thumping great IIS for beginners book to read through as soon as I get the opportunity.

I have also got a book written a couple of years ago explaining all the of the ways you can get data transfer from an AS400 to VB or similar. Havn't read it yet but its called 'Building AS/400 Client Server Applications: Put ODBC and Client Access APIs to Work' by Mike Otey. Its currently available at amazon.com.

 

[lestatdelioncourt]

We do use ASP to directly display as400 data in real-time.

This is currently only used for our Sales order department to display historical stats about what customers have ordered (of course in graphical format).

To get the real-time element (responses of less than a second) we used SQL stored procedures on the AS/400 to do most of the work.

We are also expanding this to an on line (Internet) customer ordering system. With direct SSL connections to the AS/400, again in real-time.

So to the point of this post. It is feasible to use ASP for fast access to the AS/400 using ODBC.

We have even converted our Unix and NT people to AS/400 advocates, as they are so impressed with the performance and abilities of the platform.

 

[PeteJohnston]

As far as I have found there doesn't seem to be a speed problem using ODBC to go direct to the AS400. Doing an SQL SELECT with VB over a file with 1.3 million records was faster than Query/400. In fact, using VB techniques it can be much, much slicker.

I had to do a subfile program which showed all of the components of a specified part. This was Okay but when you then have to display each of the components of each of these it starts to get more difficult. Also, they make forklift trucks and there are an amazing number of component parts so it could be very slow. Loading a page at a time would have made it a bit faster but if they decided while looking at it that they only wanted to see a single level you had to reload the whole subfile!

Using a VB TreeView control (the folder list down the left of Windows Explorer is a TreeView) it could be loaded one level at a time with each lower level being loaded only when the user clicked the plus sign. It looked slicker and it was also faster because it only ever loaded one level. Also, clicking the plus again collapsed the lower levels so that they could see the level they were interested in.

PeteJ
(Contract Code-monkey)

It's amazing how many ways there are to skin a cat
(apologies to the veggies)

 

[Skittle]

This is very interesting. I have tried accessing AS400 stuff via ODBC using Microsoft Query and find it unreliable. For medium to large volumes of data it hangs up. I have yet to try VB but it something I am looking forward too.