How iWeb works

This page presents some quick information on iWEB.
For detail information, please refer to the iWEB User Guide.

1. Prerequisites
2. Installation
3. Conversion
4. Runtime
5. iWEBMaster

Prerequisites

iSeries basic software supports a number of standard HTTP protocols. One major standard protocol is CGI (Common Gateway Interface). CGI performance is quite satisfactory, as there is no overhead due to intermediate software layers. iWEB is based on CGI protocol, therefore it has optimum performance without any requirements.
The oldest OS/400 release supported is V4R5.

Installation

iWEB installation is fully automated. After restoring library iWEB, you enter command

iweb/installc to install the Converter
iweb/installr to install the Runtime

As a result an user library (iWEBDATA) is automatically generated and filled in with data a number of IFS directories are restored/created two HTTP instances are created, one for the Converter, and one for the Runtime.

Conversion

Note: iWeb does not alter original objects or sources. Only converted programs are recompiled and to process them iWeb ask you for a new Target library, therefore you don't need to do a copy of your original libraries.

The conversion process has two major objectives:

• create some masks that represent the layouts of the display files
• imbed in the RPG code some statements that allow programs to run both in interactive and in WEB mode.

The results of these activities are largely invisible to developers, as they may continue to maintain their applications as before (with the exception of using a new compile command). iWEB Converter provides a friendly HTML interface, through which the conversion process appears quite straightforward:

• you select from a list the library containing the programs that you want to convert
• the converter looks at the programs there and takes into account only those referencing display files
• you select from a list the programs you want to convert
• you are asked to enter a few parameters (for example, the name of the library to contain the converted programs
• the conversion is submitted as a batch job
• you may display the log of what is happening
• the conversion is done in minutes

The conversion process takes care of RPG (RPG III and ILE-RPG) programs, CL programs, display files, menus, and panel groups. Conversion settings are saved for a user-specified period of days. During that period you may:

• display again conversion logs
• fix compile commands
• change some control parameters and rerun conversions

Runtime

As soon as an user logons for an iSeries application through the client iWEB Java Applet (which runs "inside" the client Internet browser), a "CGI batch dispatcher job" (1) is invoked in the iSeries iWEB-Runtime HTTP instance. The dispatcher submits to batch (2) a job that starts an initial program or menu.
An application program executes until an EXFMT is met. At this point, instead of performing the EXFMT, it sends (3) to the CGI Dispatcher some data representing the output buffer of the display file. The CGI Dispatcher (3) routes those data to the remote client, used by the Java Applet to draw the image representing the original 5250 page.

Worth noting that - differently from other "refacing" tools - IWEB pages are not assemblies of graphics notations, but sets of true java objects, with properties and methods. This, for instance explains why iWEB end user may resequence subfile-table columns, where similar operations cannot even be though of with other refacing tools.

As soon as the remote user presses the Enter key or a function key, the input data are sent from the Java applet to the CGI Dispatcher, which routes them to the appropriate batch job waiting for the input buffer ("pseudo" EXFMT).

Note the following:

• The CGI Dispatcher job is always in control of the destinations of the individual pieces of data.
• There might be more than one CGI Dispatcher job. This is up to the HTTP server to decide, depending on the volume of incoming requests from the external network.
• iWEB Runtime is based on batch jobs. For systems having a limited interactive CPW power, using batch CPW could become an interesting achievement.

iWebMaster

iWEBMaster is a simple powerful control language through which you may populate your converted pages with an incredible number of objects, ranging from font styles and colors to images and sophisticated push buttons. An exciting experience!