PlanetJ Gives WOW an AJAX Refresh

Published: March 10, 2009

by Alex Woodie

PlanetJ recently updated its Web Object Wizard (WOW) product line, which can Web-enable a 5250 application in as little as four minutes, the company claims. With WOW version 6.5.05, customers will find new AJAX-style user interface features, in addition to several enhancements and fixes.

PlanetJ built WOW to be a flexible framework for quickly creating Web applications on the System i server. The Java-based development tool suite allows users to tap into existing RPG, COBOL, or CL functionality by generating SQL for accessing DB2/400. It also generates HTML and CSS to present the data in a Web browser.

With WOW version 6.5.05, PlanetJ has incorporated several AJAX-based features that users are increasingly coming to expect in their applications. This includes auto complete, a handy time-saver that shows the user all of the possible values when entering data into a field in a Web browser. Also new is the capability to right click on the mouse to pull up a drop-down menu of all the possible commands. Users with lots of data to enter also get the capability to add more rows by clicking a button in the browser.

Developers gain some handy new features, including a new edit operations button that enables them to quickly edit an operation from a running application, and new dynamic theme icons that allow users to change the look and feel of an application on the fly. Dozens of other enhancements, fixes, and changes were made with this release; see PlanetJ's release notes for WOW 6.5.05.

PlanetJ says it also updated WOWFusion Charts, its Flash-based dynamic reporting tool that automatically generates a variety of charts from WOW data, including column charts, line charts, donut charts, stacked charts, and gauges. With WOWFusion Charts version 1.1, the company has included more charts with the package.

PlanetJ was founded by ex-IBMers in Rochester, Minnesota, in 1998, and is now headquartered in San Diego, California. For more information and free downloads of PlanetJ products, go to www.planetjavainc.com.

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