Introduction

This tutorial teaches you how to create a simple e-business customer inquiry application that uses a Web-based front end to communicate with the business logic written in ILE RPG residing on an iSeries(TM) server. While creating a browser user interface, you will learn how to use the iSeries Web Interaction wizard to generate input and output JSP files as well as Page Designer to enhance the input and output Web pages. You will also add iSeries Web components to your pages, for example, Web equivalents of iSeries command keys, input fields that accept only particular types of data, or output fields such as subfile names. You will then learn how to run the application in the WebSphere(R) Test Environment that is part of the product.

Prerequisites

In order to complete this tutorial end to end, you should already have working knowledge of the following:

It is also useful, but not necessary, for you to have basic knowledge of the following:

The file(s) required for this tutorial are available for download at http://ibm.com/software/awdtools/wdt400/library.

Time required

To complete the modules of this tutorial, you will need approximately 3 hours and 5 minutes.

Learning objectives

The tutorial is broken into 9 modules, each with its own learning objectives. You can choose to complete one or all of the modules. Each module contains several exercises that must be completed in order for the tutorial to work properly.

Module 1. Introducing the Web customer inquiry application teaches you about the completed e-business customer inquiry application that you will build in this tutorial. In this module, you will:

Module 2. Creating an RPG program teaches you how to use the Remote System Explorer perspective to edit and compile an iSeries program that will be invoked by the Web application to get data from the iSeries. In this module, you will:

Module 3. Creating the RPG service program for your Web application (optional) teaches you how to use the Remote System Explorer perspective to edit and compile an iSeries service program that will be invoked by the Web application to get data from the iSeries. In this module, you will:

Module 4. Creating a Web project teaches you about the Web perspective and the tools in this perspective to help you create a Web project to contain your Web application files and to supply the information which the iSeries server will use for serving business information for this Web application. In this module, you will:

Module 5. Creating a Web application teaches you how to create a Web interaction to use an input and output page, and to create the servlet to invoke an RPG program to get data from the iSeries database. You will also learn how to visualize the flow structure of your Web application using the Web Diagram editor. In this module, you will:

Module 6. Running the Web application teaches you how to run the Web application in the WebSphere Test Environment. You also learn about the WebSphere Test Environment. In this module, you will:

Module 7. Debugging a Web application teaches you how to set up the debug environment, use a service entry point, add and remove breakpoints, display a variable, and view the call stack. In this module, you will:

Module 8. Adding an error page teaches you how to create an informative error page for customers when an incorrect customer number is entered.

Module 9. Enhancing the input page using Web tools explains how to add color and some pictures to make the input page of the Web application more attractive. You will learn how to use the Page Designer tool and some other related Web tools. In this module, you will:

When you are ready, begin Module 1. Introducing the Web customer inquiry application.