Introducing iSeries Web Application Development

With the product you can make your iSeries applications and data accessible beyond the green-screen interface. You can create a new Web interface that connects directly to your program's input and output parameters.

You can create interactive Web pages using Web development tools. You use the Web Interaction wizard to define how your pages interact with one or more ILE or non-ILE applications. This wizard generates Java Action classes and JSP files for use with data from HTML forms. When the end user enters data in a form, the input becomes data to your ILE and non-ILE programs, and the output from the programs is formatted for the Web. Your ILE and non-ILE logic can be separated into different programs for each stage of input and output (known as a Web interaction), or can be a single service program with entry points to handle each Web interaction. The following diagram illustrates the Web development tools process:
Web Development tools process

You can easily customize your HTML and JSP files using the editing tools in Web development tools. You can use these tools to create and update input forms, change the appearance or placement of blocks of text, and add backgrounds and images to your pages. The iSeries-specific Web components help you create Web versions of your input and output pages with the same kinds of input validation, output formatting, and subfile controls that native DDS screens provide. You do not need a detailed knowledge of HTML or Java to accomplish these tasks.

You have an easy test mechanism for your Web-enabled applications. You can easily run your program in the WebSphere test environment of the workbench, quickly make changes, and retest, rather than redeploy your application every time you want to verify functions. When you are finished, you can package and deploy your Web applications as J2EE-based Web archive (WAR) and Enterprise Archive (EAR) files, and then install them in a WebSphere Application Server.

You have looked at the concept diagram of the Web development tools process and can recognize the capabilities of the iSeries Web tools and now you are ready to begin Introducing the Web customer inquiry application.