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How GraphQL Can Improve IBM i APIs
March 9, 2020 Alex Woodie
IBM i shops are embracing APIs as a method for accessing data and programs, just like the wider IT world. As RESTful Web services overtook SOAP-based ones in popularity, IBM i shops moved with them. Now a new approach to Web services, dubbed GraphQL, is gaining traction in the wider IT world, and leading IBM i developers are right there again.
GraphQL, if you’re not familiar, is a relatively new language and runtime for exposing and consuming APIs. The software, which was originally developed in 2015 by Facebook to streamline delivery of content in complex environments, essentially provides an abstraction …
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Monoliths, Microservices, And IBM i Modernization: Part 1
October 7, 2019 Alex Woodie
What’s the best approach for application modernization: Maintain the monolithic architecture, or break it into individual microservices? This is an important question, especially for IBM i shops that are looking to take their considerable investment in encoded business logic to the next level.
At first blush, the answer seems obvious: Monolithic architectures are bad, and microservices are good. Monolithic architectures, which are still quite prevalent in the IBM i world, proliferated from the 1970s well to the 2000s thanks in part to the popularity of packaged ERP suites that automated a multitude of processes and also to the programming inclinations …
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Boutique Footwear Company Finds A Great Fit With Node.js
August 19, 2019 Alex Woodie
As one of the premier providers of winter footwear in North America and Europe, Kamik knows what it takes to run a successful manufacturing operation. But when its custom RPG-based ERP system started to show its age, the company turned to Node.js to help modernize production systems, and found that it improved application integration and developer productivity along the way.
“Legacy” is a word that the folks at Kamik can take pride in. Founded in Quebec in 1898, Kamik remains a family owned business to this day, with factories located in Canada and the United States. Through its brand-name and …
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A HATS For Many Occasions
March 25, 2019 Alex Woodie
IBM gives customers plenty of options when it comes to its Rational Host Access Transformation software, including several modes of operation, different runtime options, and support for different operating systems in screen modernization engagements. With last week’s launch of HATS version 9.7, the development and deployment options got even wider.
Regardless of which downstream options a HATS customer ultimately chooses, it all starts out basically the same on the front side of the sausage machine: Customers come to HATS because they have a 5250 (or 3270 or VT100) application that they want to transform, but they don’t want to go …
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Taking A Fresche Approach To IBM i-Watson Education
February 4, 2019 Alex Woodie
There is a big data analytics revolution taking place that threatens to separate the AI haves from the have-nots. Companies that run the IBM i server want to get in on the analytics action just like everybody else, but AI discussions often stray away from IBM i. Now Fresche Solutions is working to close that disconnect with a series of educational courses centered squarely on the intersection of IBM i and Watson.
Last year, Fresche Solutions worked with IBM last year to put together a series of onsite training seminars aimed at giving IBM i professionals the educational tools they …
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Modernizing IBM i Apps with Microservices
November 7, 2018 Alex Woodie
Application modernization means different things to different people. For some, it could be turning a 5250 screen into a Web or mobile interface, or replacing database access with SQL. But for others in the IBM i community, including the vendor OpenLegacy, modernization refers to exposing existing business logic as APIs through a microservices architecture.
Microservices refers to a software development technique whereby applications are broken down into multiple self-contained components and served via APIs in a loosely coupled but coordinated manner. The main advantage of this approach is each microservice is built independently of others, which can boost productivity and …
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VACAVA’s Low-Code Approach To Modernization
July 9, 2018 Alex Woodie
IBM i shops have lots of options when it comes to application modernization. At one end of the spectrum are screen-scraper tools, which can provide a quick fix for shops tired with the 5250 interface. IBM i shops with more time, money, and inspiration may choose to completely rewrite their application on a new platform. Somewhere in between lies RapidBIZ, a low-code modernization affair from VACAVA.
The folks at VACAVA knows a thing or two about the IBM i platform. For starters, the company is based in Rochester, Minnesota, home of the world-famous IBM lab where the AS/400 was created …
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Reader Feedback On Tesla Teases IBM i Software Vendor
April 23, 2018 Dan Burger
Hey, Dan:
Sorry for the late reply. I am traveling in Colombia this week and next to work with potential clients. When I do get back, I am more than willing to take you for a ride in the Tesla and show you how the auto pilot, self-parking, etc. works! If you are in Orange County at any point in time, we can arrange it.
I did receive lots of nice feedback on the Tesla video, but not on the blog directly. The blog was published a little after the video was first published. I did get good comments in …
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A Closer Look At Enhancements To Integrated Web Services
March 21, 2018 Dan Burger
Technology Refresh 8 for IBM i 7.2 and TR4 for IBM i 7.3 became available last week. One of the enhancements in this TR pertains to the Integrated Web Services (IWS), which Business Architect for IBM i Application Development Tim Rowe calls IWS “one of our most widely used pieces of software from an integrated perspective.”
Web services provide the capability to expose the database to outside developers via APIs and Web services. Although that thought brings a shiver down the spine of many developers who learned the proprietary ways of the AS/400, multi-platform integration is the modern development path. …
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Guru: Moving A Web Service To Another Web Server
February 19, 2018 Mike Larsen
IBM Integrated Web Services (IWS) makes it easy to create web services and deploy them to a web server. If you need to deploy the same service to multiple web servers, you could use IWS to manually create it on each server, but it would be time-consuming and error-prone. Simply missing a setting when creating the service can lead to unexpected results.
Or you could automate the process. That would ensure the attributes of the service carry forward from server to server. While I won’t get into the web service creation process, as there are already many articles that address …
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