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Obsydian for AS/400 5250 is a workstation based product that enables development and deployment of AS/400 host-based applications. Obsydian for AS/400 5250 not only offers unprecedented productivity for the development of 5250 applications, through the use of business objects and graphical development, but also enables the application to rapidly meet future client server requirements.
This paper provides information that is appropriate for
Obsydian is a PC workstation based application development environment that significantly accelerates the implementation of business systems. The twin catalysts of innovation and practicality combine to provide Obsydian developers unprecedented levels of productivity. Some of the highlights are:
Deployment to any of the supported platforms in Obsydian occurs from a single model developed using a common set of development tools. This clean break between development and choice of platform provides Obsydian users the advantage of reusing investments made in developing and deploying host based applications to meeting future client server requirements.
The Obsydian for AS/400 5250 product, in addition to all the features provided by Obsydian, provides its users the following:
Developing in Obsydian for 5250 is centered around re-using Business Objects through a simple four step process:
The hardware configuration required to complete the above are as follows.
| Hardware Required | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Client | Server | Highlights | |
| Developing a Business ModelComparing, Selecting ClassesCustomizing and Prototyping | PC Workstation | None | Model development is done on a PC without the need for an AS/400 connection. This allows analysts to conduct joint sessions with end users to design a business model and prototype user interfaces in a mobile computing framework. |
| Generating the application | PC Workstation | None | Not requiring any server connection allows users to off-load AS/400 processing and analyze any generation errors using a standalone PC workstation. Obsydian generates native AS/400 5250 code including: RPG, DDS, , UIM Help, Messages. |
| Compiling the application | PC Workstation | AS/400 | Compilation of generated code is initiated on the workstation. Obsydian transfers the generated code to the AS/400 initiating the appropriate AS/400 "CRT" procedures. Native AS/400 compilers are used on the generated source to optimize performance. All jobs are monitored remotely from the workstation. |
| Executing the application | 5250 Terminal | AS/400 | Deployed applications can be run on a 5250 type terminal or from a PC using 5250 emulation. |
Obsydian generates native AS/400 5250 source and objects including
Obsydian’s full-function panel design editor for character based terminals provides complete access to native AS/400 panel functions. Its main features are:
The panel design editor provides a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) interface for designing 5250 screens. Graphical panel designers make it simple to prototype and design 5250 panels by providing complete drag & drop design capabilities, the ability to scale and size the design window, character-based positioning and full support for formats, fields and controls.
Obsydian panel designer supports mapping of physical events (for example; subfile selection value 2) to user defined logical events. This feature allows all action diagrams to be event-driven and reusable across all platforms by allowing the different physical events of two platforms (e.g. Toolbar push-button in Win-AS/400 Client-Server and a subfile selector value of ‘2’ in 5250) to the same logical event (e.g. Change). Since the mapping occurs in the panel designer, action diagrams which account for this (such as those inheriting from the Obsydian Base Class action diagrams) will require minimum modification when switching platforms.
Developers can make full use of the AS/400 by developing full screen (24x80 or 27x132), or windowed (pop-up) AS/400 panels.
Obsydian supports both multiple line and folded Subfiles. If the Subfile is defined as folded, an additional physical event is provided to toggle the state of the Subfile between folded and dropped.
The panel designer supports a standard group of controls, also known as elements for AS/400 panels. These include the panel itself, formats on the panel and fields within a format. Each control includes a set of properties, such as color, location and visibility. The setting of any group of properties is controlled by a control state that can be set to change the appearance of a panel at execution. Using this feature, the developer can define more than one control (field, format) in the same physical location. Obsydian generated applications can:
Obsydian allows the developer to define an unlimited number of regions on a panel and control their display using control states. 5250 designers should be aware that the AS/400 limits applications to twelve active displayed subfiles per panel at one time from a single program.
Obsydian for AS/400 5250 supports enhanced Subfile support functions through use of group controls. It includes the ability to:
Obsydian allows definition of an unlimited number of regions for a panel. A single instance region will generate as one format, while a Subfile region will generate as two formats.
Since Obsydian does not distinguish between region types, developers can define information of any size in any location on a panel. For example, header and footer regions can be of any size and can be placed in any location on the panel.
RPG indicator usage requirements have been minimized in Obsydian for AS/400 5250 generated applications, thus expanding the capacity of panels to support more fields and states. In addition, the designer has the ability to structure panel elements into formats, that use an independent set of RPG indicators.
Obsydian provides the ability to generate native AS/400 UIM Help. It also allows definition of nested help topics that are generated as UIM definitions. Obsydian supports field and panel sensitive help, keyword searches and hypertext links to additional help topics. Obsydian provides a variety of topic styles that map to the appropriate AS/400 UIM and Windows RTF help tags for users interested in deploying to both 5250 and Windows Client-Server. Context-sensitive help is automatically generated into the DDS display file for a program.
Obsydian provides a very high level of abstraction for coding, through business objects that encapsulate much of the standard business processing for potential reuse. Obsydian also offers a rich set of business logic functionality through Action Diagrams that hide many of the complexities of programming. Functions are Obsydian objects that represent the activities, processes and procedures that together constitute the functionality of an application.
Obsydian for AS/400 5250 provides server-based reporting capabilities. Existing client server reports can be implemented as server applications.
The Obsydian Class Libraries supply function templates which can be overridden or specialized for specific needs. The Class Libraries provide template support for commonly used business functions as well as frameworks (e.g. for Date/Time processing) and API’s for supported Platforms (e.g. AS/400 5250, Windows and ODBC). Through the class library functions, Obsydian leverages developer productivity and hides many of the complexities of programming.
Obsydian allows specification and manipulation of native RPG arrays, including arrays that contain structure fields. This includes both array specification and manipulation from within action diagrams.
Obsydian developers can architect their application in terms of internal and external boundaries along any combination of panels and reports. An internal function is typically implemented as a sub-routine or sub program and an external function as a program. This allows developers maximum flexibility in maximizing their application performance by creating a few, large external functions or modularizing the application by creating smaller modules. In addition, Obsydian allows internal functions to be designed with a panel or report. All internal functions referenced within an external function’s call graph will be generated into one program (*PGM) object, and all their panels and reports will be generated into one display (*DSPF) and/or print (*PRTF) file.
The Obsydian Action Diagram editor provides operations equivalent to each of the native RPG database I/O operations (READ, READP, READEQ, CHAIN). While the Obsydian Class Libraries provides standard I/O routines, the developer can optimize them for performance.
Existing, native AS/400 applications can be easily integrated with Obsydian-generated applications. Using the API function type, developers are able to define the native AS/400 program in Obsydian, including its name and call parameters. Once defined, it can be ‘called’ from within any Action Diagram as if it was created by Obsydian.
Obsydian for AS/400 5250 provides IS organizations the most productive state-of-the-art development tools and class libraries in the market to deploy native full-featured AS/400 5250 applications. It also equips IT organizations with the environment, expertise and models necessary to meet current or future client server requirements - with minimum effort. Obsydian for AS/400 5250 generates native RPG code enabling full featured 5250 applications to be deployed that meet the most demanding transaction processing requirements and rigorous levels of integrity, control and security.
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