Profound Updates I/O Handler for RPG Open Access

Published: August 24, 2010

by Alex Woodie

The developers at Profound Logic have been busy this summer with Profound UI, Profound's graphical user interface development tool that uses IBM's new Rational Open Access RPG Edition technology. The product, which is the first commercially available "I/O handler" that uses the RPG Open Access technology, has been updated several times since its initial release in the spring.

Profound Logic gained some notoriety in April when it became the first IBM i ISV to actually ship an I/O handler for Open Access, the much-ballyhooed technology that provides a way for RPG programs to talk directly to Web browser interfaces.

While RPG Open Access, which debuted with IBM i 7.1, has been hailed by supporters as the closest thing to a native GUI that the IBM midrange platform has ever had, it is not an out-of-the-box solution. I/O handlers are required to sit between the RPG program and the Web browser, and take care of the nitty-gritty grunt work of matching an RPG application's I/O into the constructs mandated by the Web's architecture.

These handlers are not easy to write, which is why ISVs like Profound and others are using this as a market opportunity to move product. Profound says its Profound UI software takes most of the pain out of Web application development, and even eliminates the need for developers to write JavaScript to develop an AJAX front-end to their IBM i applications.

Since the first release of Profound UI in April, the Dayton, Ohio-based company has released a steady stream of updates and fixes to the product. The latest release, version 2.1.3, was issued just last week.

Among the more notable new features added this summer are:

• Support for Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6
• Support for single sign-on when using Kerberos or other HTTP-based authentication method
• Support for i5/OS V5R3 and V5R4 with the Profound UI RPG Preprocessor. (The RPG Preprocessor enables applications running under older releases of the OS to use RPG Open Access. IBM only supports IBM i 7.1 with RPG Open Access, but the Preprocessor extends this back to V5R3.)

Other improvements include: the capability to feed entry parameters into initial programs in an application job; the addition of an "input only" property on input-capable widgets (Profound UI ships with 125 pre-defined widgets), support for sorting and moving columns; and an Excel export function for SQL-driven grids.

For the complete list of enhancements to Profound UI, see www.profoundlogic.com/versions.rpgsp?product=profoundui.

RELATED STORIES

Profound Delivers First RPG Open Access 'Handler'

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