HATS Off to IBM for New Rules-Based Screen Converter

by Alex Woodie

IBM last week announced yet another method of converting 5250 and 3270 green screens to GUIs, its second such new offering in recent weeks. Officials with the company say WebSphere Host Access Transformation Server (HATS) Version 4.0 provides a simpler way to create browser-based GUIs from midrange and mainframe screens than other options on the market, including several of its own. But is Big Blue stepping on its own toes?

To understand why IBM thinks HATS is significant, let's take a look at the other legacy screen-rejuvenation products that it offers. Before adding HATS to the WebSphere Host Integration suite, the company offered two products in that suite that would allow companies to deliver green-screen data to users, through a Web browser. These products were WebSphere Host On-Demand and WebSphere Host Publisher.

WebSphere Host On-Demand provides a relatively simple thin-client terminal emulator that runs in a browser, and does not convert command-line screens into GUIs. Host Publisher, on the other hand, provides a host of powerful tools that allow programmers to slice and dice sections of various green screens and database applications, meld them together to form new GUI screens, and deliver them through a browser. Host Publisher, while very capable of rejuvenating host screens, requires Java programming skill. HATS, with no Java requirements, would be a better choice than Host Publisher for shops looking for the quickest return on investment. The new HATS product sits between Host On-Demand and Host Publisher, in terms of functionality and ease of use, said Mark Heid, an IBM business unit manager for WebSphere Host Integration. HATS provides better value-add than Host On-Demand because it can rejuvenate host screens, he said, while it's easier to use than Host Publisher, even if it doesn't provide the same level of functionality. "Host Publisher requires programming skill, so it's an IT-shop type of product," he said. "HATS is the easiest way to get screen rejuvenation going en masse, on the fly."

The HATS development environment, called the HATS Studio, features a rules-based transformation engine that automatically converts host screens into HTML. The HATS Studio ships with default settings on these rules, which can get companies up on the Web in as little as two hours, IBM said. To change these factory settings or customize the new screens with graphics or logos, one of the HATS wizards walks the developer through the process. When it's time to deploy the new screens, the HATS Studio sends the runtime components (which are Java servlets) to the WebSphere Application Server (Version 4.0, at least), where pure HTML is served to the client, maintaining a very thin-client footprint on the user's machine.

HATS bears a striking resemblance to two other IBM tools besides Host On-Demand and Host Publisher. To start, HATS is extremely similar to another new screen rejuvenator that IBM began selling just two weeks ago, a product developed in France called the Crys@lid Server (see the article "IBM Ships New Industrial Strength WebFacing Tool" for a complete run down on this new offering). The biggest difference between them is probably IBM's strategic positioning. "Crys@lid and HATS are similar products, but HATS is the flagship product," Heid said.

Ed McCabe, product manager for Host Integration Solutions, said IBM partnered to bring in the Crys@lid Server to fill a temporary gap in IBM's screen-rejuvenation lineup that was created by the fact that the HATS server does not yet run natively on iSeries or zSeries servers. Crys@lid Server will run on any Java-based Web application server and is supported on iSeries and zSeries servers. While the selling points of HATS and Crys@lid Server read almost identically (rules-based screen conversion, convert screens en masse, on-the-fly-GUIs, no change to legacy code), there are differences.

"At the high level, they're the same, but there are differences," he said. "HATS takes hours to generate a GUI, and there's no programming needed. Crys@lid is development-intensive. You need a couple of weeks of services from a specialized technician. There are significant technical differences between the products." No matter that IBM was marketing Crys@lid Server as a "significant breakthrough" just two weeks ago, now that HATS is here (or almost here), the Crys@lid Server has been relegated to "quick fix" status in the IBM hierarchy of things.

And then there's the WebFacing Tool. Like it or not, armed with HATS, IBM's Software group is also taking aim at the boys in Rochester and Toronto who built the WebFacing tool, which IBM started shipping with that anthology of iSeries development tools called WebSphere Development Studio, starting with OS/400 V5R1, last year. "With WebFacing, you need to go back in and get underneath the data stream," said Ken Schafer, an IBM Host Integration portfolio manager. "It's more invasive."

Back in the world of HATS, the product appears surprisingly well-rounded in its introductory Version 4.0 release. It supports SSL 3.0 and 128-bit encryption to keep your data safe, and provides full support for 5250 keyboards, printing, and macros. The HATS Studio integrates with Host Publisher and other WebSphere Studio development tools, including Eclipse and Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE).

HATS Studio requires a Pentium II-class machine with 512 MB of memory (recommended) and Microsoft Windows XP or Windows 2000. HATS Components must be served from WebSphere Application Server running on Windows NT, Windows 2000, IBM AIX, or Sun Microsystems Solaris operating systems. In all cases, IBM recommends at least 1 GB of memory for the servers. Heid said IBM will support HATS runtime components on WebSphere Application Server running on iSeries or zSeries servers with the next release of WebSphere Host Integration Solution, expected in the spring of 2003.

To purchase HATS, companies must purchase the entirety of the WebSphere Host Integration Solution. IBM decided to bundle all of the products, including HATS, Host On-Demand, and Host Publisher, into a single tool to give companies choice and flexibility and the ability to use the right tool for the job, officials said. WebSphere Host Integration Solution Version 3.0 costs $303 per registered user or $446 per concurrent user. While WebSphere Host Integration Solution 3.0 started shipping last Friday, the new HATS capability won't be available until December 20, officials said.

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