IBM AS400 Front-End Upgrade: Winning the Approval of the Modern User

Anjan Barman is a technology enthusiast with primary interests in IBM i/AS400 systems. He explores all aspects of the IBM i ecosystem and focuses on its enhancements for improved operational efficiency. He writes on effective ways to preserve and expand the value of IBM i investments to meet today’s business demands. ContentsTable of Contents

What is AS400 Modernization? 1

AS400 Modernization Types 1

Why Modernize AS400 Front-end? 1

AS400 Front-End Modernization 2

RPG Open Access 3

Using APIs 6

Screen Re-Facing 7

PASE 8

A Smart AS400 Modernization Approach 9

Why Count on Our AS400 Expertise? 10 Executive Summary

Most large enterprises often run their mission-critical workloads on IBM iSeries/ AS400. Launched first in the year 1988 as AS400, the system has stood the test of time and is still going strong as a reliable and versatile enterprise solution. But it’s not without its downsides; the over three-decade-old IBM workhorse today demands expensive maintenance, lacks modern aesthetics, and is difficult to operate. As a consequence, some users do consider decommissioning it for a ‘new-age’ application.

However, that doesn’t necessarily have to be the only way out. AS400 can be very much aligned with today’s dynamics to win user approval. The machine can be recalibrated to offer the same scalability, agility, flexibility, and cost benefits expected from a modern solution. With certain enhancements, the machine can be made to function and feel like any modern application. Today, the relevance of this concept has grown manifold as the IT leadership has decided to stick to its robustness by giving it a makeover. This whitepaper delineates some of the most effective front-end modernization techniques of AS400 along with their scope and advantages. What is AS400 Modernization?

They say change is the only constant, and this is true for software solutions too. The last two decades have witnessed so many promising ideas fade with time because of their rigid functionality and architecture that resisted enhancements (in every sense). While AS400 has always been close to being the utopian system for tackling high-voltage operational challenges, enterprises are worried about the efforts and resources it takes for keeping the machine current. The need is to modernize the system in every sense – functionality, aesthetics, flexibility, user experience, costs, and ease of maintenance. If the AS400 system has to stay capable of hosting heavyweight operations, it has to be kept evolving. This is what AS400 modernization largely means.

AS400 Modernization Types

Going by the definition of modernization, the subject is difficult to interpret. But the bottom line is that it should take on the age-old challenges of the system and transform them into conveniences for the user. To simplify things, we split AS400 modernization into two categories:

Front-End Modernization Cloud Migration

*A separate whitepaper on AS400 Cloud Migration is available for download on our website.

Why Modernize AS400 Front-end?

Misalignment with today’s expectations

AS400 was launched in the 1980s. Over the last 30 years, the world has witnessed unprecedented advancements in the UI/UX technology space that the green screens cannot come close to. That’s because the latter run on a 5250 emulator of the 1970s. Today, graphical user interfaces are desired by enterprises, and they are the standard.

For AS400, its user interface is nowhere near what the modern user gets with a contemporary application such as Expedia, Airbnb, and the like. Additionally, mobile access and cloud backup are also not native features of AS400. Thus, the learning curve for the users is steep and time-consuming. The need to modernize AS400 green screens can be summarised in the following points.

All rights reserved © 2020 1 Extend the value of the system to the modern workforce. Enable end users to be more productive with an AS400 system that’s easy to learn and use. Shed the image of being an ‘outdated’ machine. Increase AS400 adoption and cut down on training time and costs.

AS400 Front-End Modernization

From a business perspective, green screens are both PASE a productivity and a technology problem. These screens are new to the modern user, and hence, Pase for i offers an integrated runtime environment users need adequate training before they start which allows users to run selected applications working on the screens. This is a big productivity free from the complexities of managing operating concern. Even from a technical standpoint, the systems, such as Linux or AIX. Applications that run screens are no longer the de facto standard for user on IBM i via PASE include Zend Server, PHP, and interfaces. MySQL/MariaDB

Consider this example: For a customer service representative who is on a call trying to identify the RPG Open Access cause and the best possible resolution to the caller’s problem, navigating through several green-screen Most resources and devices are not directly systems simultaneously for what is a one-click job supported by AS400. Programmers can use with other applications is a nightmare. They cannot RPG Open Access to configure RPG I/O models access the required information directly from a for connecting such devices and resources. single screen and has to search through multiple Programmers need an additional I/O handler screens/systems for every service request. to communicate with the RPG display program using a handler procedure called by Open Access. Different Approaches to Front-end Vendors such as Profound UI, LANSA, ASNA, Rocket Modernization: Software, and others support RPG Open Access Handlers. Among the several ways to modernize the front- end of AS400 systems, below is a compilation of the Modernization using APIs most popular ones.

It’s a widespread practice to create REST APIs to Screen Re-Facing pull information from AS400 to modern UI screens. Organizations can use web frameworks such as One of the oldest ways to modernize UIs and Angular, React, Vue, and others to modernize their deploy web applications, Screen re-facing involves AS400 interface and exchange information using reading and writing data to 5250 data streams and REST APIs. hosting HTML/CSS webpages on the AS400 system server. Using suitable toolkits for the re-facing, green screens can be redeveloped and visually- attractive webpages can be created by overriding the existing screens.

RPG Open Access facilitates the integration of Rich User Interface technology such as Profound UI or Lansa to deliver native GUI on AS400. Using this, the RPG’s input and output operations can communicate with browsers, mobile devices, and other technologies using specialized handlers. RPG Open Access Handlers are tightly integrated with the RPG language. Coders usually use different handlers for different purposes - web services, accessing remote data, graphical UI, and others. This transforms the green-screen-confined operations to rich user interfaces.

All rights reserved © 2020 3 RPG Open Access is supported by multiple vendors, but Profound UI is perhaps the most widely used among them. Profound UI is a high-performance and stable user interface platform that enables AS400 users to create connected applications to deliver rich user experiences. The tool leverages IBM i’s object- based architecture and allows developers to create native IBM i objects, known as Rich Display Files that support robust browser interfaces.

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Browser Program Request Apache Open Virtual Menus, HTTP Access Terminal System PC/Mobile Server Handler APIs Screens

RPG, COBOL, CL Rich Web GUI

Go from this...... to out of the box ...to enhanced with the visual editor ...and Mobile (Nalashaa’s Expertise) (Nalashaa’s Expertise)

All rights reserved © 2020 4 Depending on the organization’s business Performance dynamics, Profound UI can be used for RPG Open Access in the following ways. For displays with similar functionality, RPG Open Access using Profound UI helps create applications Building New Interfaces that usually offer performance speeds comparable to that of text-based green-screen interfaces. With Complete replacement of the existing AS400 green virtual rendering techniques, only visible portions screen display files with new rich display files. of the data on a page is sent to the browser, instead RPG programs are compiled over the new display of rendering everything at once. objects, which have complete versatility in regards to the presentation layer of the organization’s applications. Change Management Considerations

Modernizing 5250 Output Profound UI offers a native approach that makes it possible to preserve the current change In case the source code of the application isn’t management practices. Developers can save the available or there are development resource source in standard RPGLE, DDS, and CL source constraints, this option comes in handy. A low effort members, and compile user interface objects and option, it allows modernization of output from the programs using standard IBM i commands, such as green-screens on-the-fly, without interfering with CRTDSPF and CRTBNDRPG. the AS400 source code.

Development Tool Choices Benefits For RPG code editing, Profound UI facilitates development with multiple programming Reduced Training Costs and Time environments.

For the RPG programmer planning to adopt Open • Rational Developer for i (RDi). IBM’s eclipse- Access using Profound UI, the learning curve is based integrated development environment. short. With Profound UI, RPG developers can write • PDM and SEU. IBM i’s legacy programming tools. codes in the familiar top-down approach. The tool • RPGsp. Rapid RPG-CGI Web Application and the UI provides a native RPG Open Access Handler AJAX Development Tool. to support all RPG screen-related operations on systems running 6.1 or higher. For older versions • RPG-Alive GUI. Free RPG editor for all Profound (V5R3 and V5R4), Profound UI’s RPG Preprocessor UI licensed users. Module provides the support.

Ease of Use Licensing and i/OS Version Support

The visual design tool of Profound UI allows users • Operation systems: V5R3 and above, licensed in to create engaging browser interfaces using a drag separate modules and drop feature. This makes it exceedingly easy to • Additional requirements: IBM’s RPG Open add design components to the interface, size them, Access product license edit the content, and modify the properties visually. • For operating system releases lacking RPG Open Access - Profound UI’s RPG Preprocessor Module

This method enables AS400 organizations to expose the features of their system as APIs to facilitate information exchange with internal and external systems. Users can use internal AS400 mechanisms such as remote procedural calls, store procedural calls, data/message queues, and web services to exchange data with core programs or databases. The list of popular tools for this method includes OpenLegacy, Mulesoft Anypoint, and IBM Integrated Web Services, among others.

Modernizing AS400 screens with APIs

The first step is to choose the right applications for the transformation. For those wondering how to go about the process, here’s a handy tip – set application portability and business value as the metrics. While the business value assesses the operational significance of the application, application portability is the assessment of its technical composition.

Application Portability Business Value

Business value of key proccess in Size & type of inventory applications Technical complexity Impact of end user experience Existing UI Functionality Frequency of business Size & type of database enhancements Impact of changes on business Business rule density process Inter-coupling level Generate new revenue streams Level of maintenance from existing legacy applications

Screen re-facing is a proven technology for modernizing UIs and deploying web applications. The tools designed for executing screen re-facing facilitate the reading and writing of information to 5250 data streams. Today, most screen re-facing tools provide drag and drop support to the developer to save on the time and effort. The main objective of the re-facing approach is to enhance the usability and flexibility of AS400 systems from the user point of view without restructuring the underlying code. Using a re-facing technology, RPG developers can move their 5250 green screens to a web or mobile platform in a short period. One of the advantages of adopting this approach is the quick project turnaround time.

Types of Screen Re-Facing There are several ways to reface an AS400 system; while a few don’t require even the slightest change in the source code, others involve minimal changes to the UI code but don’t interfere with the business logic or database access. Choosing the right type depends strictly on the degree of changes aimed.

Screen Scraping

Here the 5250 terminal-based applications are converted into Windows, web, or mobile-based interfaces. It works on the principle of emulating a user on the terminal. While connected, it emulates keystrokes and processes the display output, followed by the extraction of the data and generation of a new window. While users see the new UI, the screen scraping handles the intermediation. It facilitates reading 5250 data streams and modifying what is visible to the user based on some merged content which can control or change color, layout, and more.

Here, the 5250 data stream is bypassed by assigning the I/O buffer of the RPG program to the OA handler. The I/O buffer is processed by field names or by using a data structure for each format, enabling more flexibility and possibilities in the re-facing approach. The OA solution enables users to control the UI in a more direct manner from their existing RPG code.

Benefits

Faster turnaround This is one of the fastest methods of modernizing AS400 green screens. There is no involvement of the core code or business logic, making it easy for the developers involved in the process to modernize the green screens.

Focus on the UI Without the underlying code of the AS400 system anywhere in the scene, developers can focus solely on the new interface features, cutting down on the need for segregating the application into what they understand and what they don’t.

Things to bear in mind

Since the AS400 system was not originally designed to support changes in the AS400 interface, the UI modernization effort must be coupled with optimization of the underlying RPG code by redesigning it. Re-facing does not take into account the UI design of the AS400 system. The flow and user interaction on a mobile or web interface might be different from that on the green screen flow. For example, on a green screen, the user might have to select a menu to access more data, but on the web UI, a drop-down menu does the job.

PASE (Portable Application Solutions Environment)

PASE for i is an integrated runtime environment designed for AIX applications running on the IBM i operating system. It supports the application binary interface of AIX and supports a wide subset of the features provided by AIX shared libraries, shells, and utilities. It facilitates the direct processing of IBM PowerPC machine instructions, so it’s free from the drawbacks of environments that emulate just machine instructions. PASE for i applications use IBM i system functions, including file systems, security, and sockets. Zend Server, PHP, and MySQL have been running on IBM i via PASE for years.

An application platform for PHP, Zend runs natively on IBM Power Systems servers. It’s preloaded with an IBM i toolkit for easy deployment of modern web and mobile applications. AS400 developers get a flexible programming environment along with access to a huge user community, toolkit, and extensions for support while modernizing the AS400 screens.

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Benefits of AS400 Front-end Modernization

When carried out by a competent team, AS400 front-end modernization is an effective way to breathe new life into the world-class application server. For enterprises, successful modernization of the application can deliver a rapid return on investment (ROI) and several long-term benefits. Today, modernization services include meticulous documentation of processes to help the in-house team with training and system maintenance activities. Armed with thorough system documentation, the internal team of the client can handle service requests efficiently. Also, whenever the client considers migration to a new environment, this would help them replicate the processes and functionalities. By modernizing, users enable new services and processes in their system. Modernization transforms the system’s front-end user interfaces, creates new features, automates existing manual processes, and launches new service offerings, ensuring better user experience and hence, higher productivity.

A Smart AS400 Modernization Approach

Once the user recognizes the value of modernizing their AS400 system, a streamlined process for executing the modernization is the next logical step. Adopting an efficient strategy comprising well-defined stages and tasks is a great beginning to a successful modernization journey.

The first step is to understand the current status The modernization team’s involvement doesn’t of the system and where the user wants to get it end with the delivery of a modernized front-end. to. There is substantial research on the functional Its post-release responsibilities revolve around user and non-functional requirements of the task, and training and an ongoing support system to address a roadmap is formulated accordingly. The business user queries promptly. Besides the regular bug value of the system is assessed to determine fixes, it’s important to keep the features current its functionality, supported business processes, and relevant. A reliable support mechanism is performance, quality of services, dependability, and critical to keep pace with the future functional, system outputs. Also, the modernization approach, development, and enhancement requirements. the vital goals, and cost and time estimates are Adding automation to the mix helps in the efficient determined. handling of all modernization-related issues.

Planning

A detailed project plan comprising time-bound goals is created and the tools for the project are finalized. The modernization partner assists the client in determining the project KPIs and success metrics. Accurate resource allocation is done as Why Count on Our per the objective, availability of resources, and their dependencies. Automated system testing AS400 Expertise? frameworks that comprise tools and processes working in sync, and integrated functions like At Nalashaa, we possess the right mix of libraries and test data, are leveraged for quality resources to help AS400 users with end-to-end analysis. UX documentation is executed as per the system migration, modernization, and support. role and needs of the end user and is followed by We specialize in consulting enterprises using screen design and sign off. IBM i to enable them to enhance their business operations and plan their strategic technology Implementation roadmap better. Our clientele comprises global corporations across industries that have This is where the modernization team actually benefitted significantly from our innovative does the real work to produce the deliverables by AS400 solutions. We offer flexible plans to help A Smart AS400 Modernization Approach working on UX development, performance testing, you with viable IBM i solutions and make the complete testing, and UAT. Modern methodologies, engagement a desirable experience for you. such as Agile, help split the project into small and manageable units, enabling the team to ensure quality and quicker turnarounds. Agile also helps in prioritizing the modernization features, iteration planning, and review sessions, thus expediting the go-live phase. End-to-end documentation of the developed feature set helps the in-house team in its understanding and maintenance of the system.