Danish Firm Web-Enables 5250 Apps with IceBreak

Published: October 10, 2006

by Alex Woodie

System & Method International, a software developer from Denmark, earlier this year introduced a new application server for Web-enabling RPG and COBOL applications, as well as building new Web applications that run natively on i5/OS. IceBreak, as the software is called, is unique in that uses Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) and Internet Information Server (IIS) as models for a native i5/OS application server, according to the company.

System & Method International's development unit, called System & Method Technologies (formerly Agent Data), had a problem. About half of the company's programmers developed applications for the OS/400 and i5/OS server, and the other half was steeped in Microsoft development technologies. The two sides were taking very different paths in how they were developing Web application server technology, with the iSeries camp focused on CGI and WebSphere, and the Windows developers headed towards IIS and .NET.

To help mend the gap--or "break the ice," so to speak--the company decided to create a native OS/400 application server modeled after Microsoft's ASP and IIS environments, which System & Method views as very easy to comprehend and integrate, especially compared to the prevailing Web application methodologies practiced on the iSeries--WebSphere and Java, which the company views as overkill for more OS/400 shops, and CGI which it sees as too complicated. IceBreak is the product that resulted from the blending of i5/OS technologies and Microsoft Web application development methods (but not Microsoft technologies).

According to IceBreak's lead developer, Niels Liisberg, IceBreak borrows many aspects of the integrated ASP.NET-IIS development and runtime combo. "The syntax [in IceBreak] is the same as you've got in ASP and just like in .NET, we have [Just In Time] compiler technology," he says. "We pretty much designed IceBreak the same way that IIS is designed."

One of the key aspects of IceBreak is that users can develop their HTML screens in any development tool, including Visual Studio, WDSc, or even a text editor. The actual HTML files are developed in the third-party HTML editor of their choice, while the IceBreak development and runtime components handle the integration of HTML with the RPG or COBOL source.

The program is invasive, in that it requires changes to be made to the RPG or COBOL source code. There are four extensions that developers will insert into their source code that enable IceBreak to serve HTML screens using RPG or COBOL business logic, including an extension, or tag statement, an include statement, a set marker statement, and a session management component.

IceBreak utilizes the "just in time" compiling techniques, and runs very quickly on the iSeries server, the company says. The product includes facilities and commands for debugging new applications through a Web browser, in a manner similar to what RPG and COBOL developers are accustomed. Also, because IceBreak applications run in the batch subsystem and don't require any 5250 interactive capacity, the cost of the hardware required to run IceBreak applications is greatly reduced.

IceBreak has been in production for five years in Europe, but is new to the North American market, having been introduced about six months ago at the Spring 2006 COMMON conference in Minneapolis. Jim Cooper, president of System & Method International's North America business, is spearheading the IceBreak push into the U.S. and Canadian iSeries market.

Cooper, an author, RPG programmer, and college professor near Toronto, Ontario, was contemplating ending his iSeries programming for the Web courses at Lambton College, where he teaches. "All the solutions were based on solutions for current customers, and most, if not all, were using CGI," he says. "But I couldn't teach green screen. The students would just revolt. I had made the decision to drop RPG from the curriculum, and once I made that decision, I thought, 'If I'm going to drop RPG, why teach System i?' I had pretty much made the decision to drop System i from the program."

Cooper says he read about a new type of product called IceBreak, and decided to download it and give it a go. He liked what he could do with the software. "It was too good to be true," he says. "I realized this is the best thing I've seen since the original AS/400 back in 1988. I called System & Method and said I want to work with you guys."

Cooper and Liisberg have worked with IBMers in Rochester and Toronto, and have modified their business plan somewhat. Initial meetings in Rochester left several IBMers stumped, in part due to some confusion over whether IceBreak actually uses Microsoft's ASP technology on the iSeries. (Without support for Microsoft's Common Runtime Language [CLR] on OS/400, it would seem to be impossible to run ASP.NET applications on the platform.) However, the two sides continued to work with each other, and as a result, IceBreak is ServerProven on the i5/OS-OS/400-iSeries-System i platform, and IBM and System & Method are working on an IceBreak plug-in for WDSc.

IceBreak supports OS/400 V5R1 and higher, and is available now. Licenses run between $8,000 and $20,000, with the average Model 520 implementation going for about $11,000. For more information, visit www.icebreak.org or www.system-method.com