RJS Tackles a ‘Screen Jumping’ Problem

August 20, 2013 Alex Woodie

Tired of jumping back and forth between Windows and IBM i screens? You’re not alone. While RJS Software Systems can’t erase all cases of “screen jumping” in the world, the Minnesota software company has worked to eliminate the annoying practice in iForms, its electronic forms and report writing tool for the IBM i server.

RJS last week announced that it has overhauled the Windows-based iForms Text Designer component of iForms to make it much easier to use. iForms allows users to create professional-looking documents, such as invoices and reports, from enterprise data sources like IBM i, and output it in modern formats like PDF and HTML. The server component of iForms is Java-based, and does the work of merging data with document and report templates created with the iForms Text Designer.

In the old iForms Text Designer, users had to “hop” from a Windows screen to an IBM i screen to do various tasks in the document creation process, including running commands, grabbing spool files, and converting them into text before creating an electronic form or report template.

“The new version eliminates screen jumping and simplifies document creation through tighter integration with the iSeries,” RJS says in its blog.

The new iForms Text Designer from RJS not only features a modern Windows interface, but will require less hopping between Windows and IBM i screens.

“While there are also many cosmetic improvements, the most important enhancement is in the user experience,” RJS’ blog writer writes. “Put simply, iForms is much more streamlined and requires fewer clicks to build forms using text or spool file data.”

The version 2.0 release of the iForms Text Designer is actually a brand new product, and the first major overhaul of the product since iForms debuted many moons ago. In addition to working with spool files stored in DB2/400, the Java-based product supports data from other enterprise databases, such as Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, and DB2 for LUW.