AS/400 is GREAT for CGI apps!

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In case anyone is wondering, the AS/400 makes a great platform for launching CGI-based Internet applications. I have written a complete e-commerce solution which integrates with my company's core software product. It was done entirely in ILE RPG and OPM RPG using several OS/400 API calls. Check out www.cdrsoftware.com/webcon to see it in action. Everything you see there is dynamically delivered using AS/400 CGI apps. -John

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On Tuesday, April 20, 1999, 08:18 AM, John Richardson wrote: In case anyone is wondering, the AS/400 makes a great platform for launching CGI-based Internet applications. I have written a complete e-commerce solution which integrates with my company's core software product. It was done entirely in ILE RPG and OPM RPG using several OS/400 API calls. Check out www.cdrsoftware.com/webcon to see it in action. Everything you see there is dynamically delivered using AS/400 CGI apps. -John Hi John. I too have written a lot of CGI program in RPG for our company. It's all internal, though, but they have a "shopping cart" program needed soon so that will be fun. It's fun to show the "Web Guys" that just make pretty picture web pages how a "real" e-commerce web page is supposed to be. After you get the functionality, then you can go in and make it pretty. I noticed in your source that you are using links and the programs are in lower case. I am guessing you are using MAP directives in the HTTP configuration to do this. MAP /../PGMNAME.PGM /../pgmname.pgm Am I correct? I'd like to do this, but I'd rather have a way to map all programs in the CGI directory to lower case instead of having to define each one. So, I am still using /cgi-bin/PGMNAM?var=xxx in my links. I did notice, however, that the variable names can be in lower case or upper or mixed. So if you're like me, and think that beautifying the URL with lowercase makes a difference, it's a good tip to know. Let me know how you're allowing lowercase program names in your URL if it isn't like I figured above. As far as I can tell, the system wants it in the same case (all upper) for RPG programs unless you MAP like above. HREF="http://prairie.lakes.com/~bvstone/"> SRC="http://prairie.lakes.com/~bvstone/images/sig.gif">

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Another question or two.... Your logon window. Did you do it this way to make it look nice? This is instead of using the userid and passwd protection subdirectives in the HTTP configuration. Just wondering. It seems that setting up a validation list on the AS/400 and using these subdirectives would be a little easier. I want to avoid using Read Standard Input when all possible... Another difference I noticed was you use onSubmit on the FORM tag for your javascript. I make the "submit" button just type "button" instead of type "submit" and use onClick on the button itself. How are you converting special characters (ie. %, ?, @, &, space) to their hex representations? Or have you had to deal with that. I've been using javascript to replace these with their %hex values and spaces to "+"s. Unless it's sensitive data, I then build a URL in javascript and use window.location="PGMNAM?var=" + var1 + "&var2=" + var2 etc.. etc... Again, avoiding RdStin. There sure are a lot of frames in that page! It looks nice though. Good job! HREF="http://prairie.lakes.com/~bvstone/"> SRC="http://prairie.lakes.com/~bvstone/images/sig.gif">

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On Wednesday, April 21, 1999, 02:39 PM, Bradley V. Stone wrote: I too have written a lot of CGI program in RPG for our company. It's all internal, though, but they have a "shopping cart" program needed soon so that will be fun. It's fun to show the "Web Guys" that just make pretty picture web pages how a "real" e-commerce web page is supposed to be. After you get the functionality, then you can go in and make it pretty.

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That about sums it up, except to say, that "pretty" can ruin the functionality of your average web page, by making the end user needlessly wait for all the "pretty" to reach him at 28.8! One of my clients (with a T1 line) insisted on a wallpaper background, until a demo was given using a standard modem. "Why is it so slow on your computer?". Eventually the message sunk in. When you are trying to conduct business, you don't want to keep people waiting. David Abramowitz