Midrange Stuff, OS/400 Edition

A new wrinkle for developing dynamic Web applications on OS/400 servers was introduced last month by Damon Technologies. The company's product, RPG Server Pages (RSP), allows developers to create dynamic Web content by inserting RPG code directly into HTML tags. Company officials say RSP speeds the development of refined-looking OS/400-based Web pages by avoiding what they term as the "clunky" nature of CGI techniques. They also believe RSP will be well-received because it eliminates the need for programmers to learn natively graphical languages like Java.

Damon Technologies, an iSeries consulting company based in Omaha, Nebraska, developed RSP, essentially a scripting language, while developing a Web site for one of its local clients. The client, a seed company, had two experienced RPG programmers, so Damon Technologies decided to use CGI, says Schadd Gray, president of Damon Technologies. "It was cumbersome and slow to develop, going to SEU [source entry utility] and trying to put tables in the bottom of a program. We said, 'There has to be an easier way,' " he says. "So we developed RPG Server Pages, so you can put the RPG right in with the HTML and see the two together."

Developers work with RSP from within their favorite graphical Web development environment. Gray uses WebSphere Development Studio Client for iSeries and recommends it to customers. As the developer shapes a Web page using pure HTML or another language, like JavaScript, the developer embeds RPG code inside of the HTML tags. The developer can even encase the HTML in RPG "IF" statements and "LOOPS." RSP deploys alongside OS/400's HTTP Server (powered by Apache). The server portion of RSP includes a plug-in for Apache that routes requests for RSP pages and sends them to the RSP subsystem that handles the requests.

"What our software does is allow the RPG programmer to embed RPG statements inside of HTML," Gray says. "Think of JSP [JavaServer Pages] and ASP [Active Server Pages]. This is the RPG version."

The program includes two PC-based components--an RSP console and an RSP maintenance program. The console is used to create RSP servers, or "server instances," and to start and stop them. The RSP maintenance application is used to create, delete, and compile RSP pages. RSP ships with built-in functions designed to help the programmer. One such function is the session handler. The session handler in RSP puts an ID (a cookie) in the client browser to help speed access to back-end data residing in memory. The software also includes a garbage collector to clean up the data associated with sessions that have timed out.

Because RSP works with WebSphere Development Studio Client and the Eclipse framework, it should be able to interoperate with the array of plug-ins that other companies have developed, such as software change management capabilities from SoftLanding Systems, which just announced a WebSphere Development Studio Client plug-in (see "SoftLanding Delivers Change Management Plug-Ins for WDSc"). Gray says that Damon Technologies will be building a formal WebSphere Development Studio Client plug-in for an upcoming release, along with a GUI editor.

There are several benefits to developing OS/400-based applications in RSP, according to Gray. First, RPG programmers can continue to use their primary language, RPG, which has an added benefit of running fast on OS/400 servers. The Java learning curve is notoriously long, and Java applications simply do not run as fast as comparable RPG programs (although Java has its own benefits). With the graphical IDEs available today, knowledge of HTML is kept to a minimum, Gray says, and the learning curve for HTML is short anyway.

Gray says he received positive feedback from attendees at the COMMON show last week in Indianapolis, where Damon Technologies demonstrated RSP for the first time. "They liked the idea of being able to develop Web with RPG easily," Gray says. "CGI to me seems to be a little clunky--not a real friendly environment. They [developers] like the idea of visual development."

RSP has gone through beta testing and is generally available at Version 1.3. Pricing is tier-based and ranges from $995 to $3,495. For more information or trial downloads, go to www.damontech.com.

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