COMMON POWERUp 2024

You’ve been asked to create nice web user interfaces for an application. You could do a 1:1 replacement of each screen—a tiresome but doable project. But, if you need to adhere to modern design systems like Google Material Design or IBM Carbon, your efforts, no matter how valiant, won’t cut it for your users. Also, what happens when users start asking for better workflows or customization?

In this session, we will discuss:
o How you can take assets you already have—like display files—and smartly approach your web UX projects
o How you can collect each screen, uniquely identify them, and then build the UI
o How you can keep the green screen application and the new UI in sync to handle changes dynamically

Obtaining information from external systems or data servers has come a long way since the introduction of EDI in the 1980s! Today, publicly available Web Service APIs offer a much more flexible and easier-to-integrate method for pulling pertinent global data into your IBM i applications. Whether it be commodity prices, financial data, current weather information, demographic statistics or whatever else you can think of, there is no shortage of information available on the internet that could complement certain areas of your company's business, thus adding valuable real-time information to your various user applications.

In this session we'll put this concept to work in a hands-on fashion. The presenter will use real-world API examples to demonstrate how developers, using Native IBM i DB2 SQL, can quickly access these valuable web service repositories and pull data into an RPG program or UI tool for their users. Attendees will see two simple 5250-based interactive examples in action, with source code they can try on their own systems.

Learning Objectives:
1> Understand the basic structure of a REST API, and how it differs from SOAP.
2> See how to find a public web service API and understand its inputs and outputs.
3> Learn how to structure and execute an SQL statement to pull data from the web service.

Users don’t accept two-dimensional experiences. They want rich media. They want real-time information. They want an interactive experience. And they want it all at their fingertips. Long gone are the days when users were okay with going to five different sources to get the information they needed. To build the modern user experiences users want, you need to use HTML Living Standard.

In this session, we’ll discuss:
o The value of HTML Living Standard, including bi-directional communication and responsive error handling
o How to integrate with third-party solutions to build an interactive, rich experience
o What are other ways to use HTML Living Standard, such as local storage, database queries, and leveraging local technology such as device cameras and location data.

Application modernization, customization and enhancement includes two main components: Presto and code transformation. The transformation process involves identifying programs to be updated, using a product to convert the existing code. However, this initial transformation is not the final step; additional refinement and "massaging" of the code, referred to as "delivery," is needed.

The backend development ensures the application's functionality, but there is also a focus on the frontend design, such as button colors, fonts, and dealing with constraints from the transformed code, particularly from an RPG or COBOL background. We will cover what is achievable with the user interface (UI), highlighting the possibilities and constraints.

This conversation will highlight the importance of long-term planning from quick wins to full transformation, ensuring that the transition is smooth for end users.