Web(2.0)Facing

When providing a UI Modernization solution, ultimately it’s all about the resulting UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience).

These are areas that have endless opportunities for improvements, and for WebFacing this is no exception. In fact, it’s been lower on the priority list for too long.

ENPTUI support? Better Subfile UI? Content Assist (e.g. Calendar widget for date fields)?

What UI enhancements are highest on your list to directly improve end user usability, enhance their experience, or enable the development of richer WebFacing applications?

I’m open to rants as well. Feedback is valuable in any form.

How to connect to an i5/OS WAS instance from within the IDE

You might sometimes need to test a web application on an i5/OS WAS instance. If you find it too much of a hassle to export your project as an EAR or WAR file, upload the file to the remote server, then install the application (and repeat the process again when you make a change!) – or if you just don’t want the overhead of running WAS locally – consider configuring your remote server within the IDE so you can use it just like a test environment.

Here’s how:

TUG MoM @ Toronto Lab

On Wednesday, George Farr and the Toronto Lab hosted the Toronto User Group (TUG) for System i Meeting of Members (MoM) event.

TUG has always had close ties with the Lab, and we were happy to welcome them once again. Visiting from Raleigh N.C., Wendy Toh, Software Development director of Enterprise Development Tools & Compilers, and Danny Mace, Program Director of Rational Enterprise Transformation and Tools Development, were also in attendance. The session was conveniently held the day after the big V6R1 Announce, allowing members of the IBM System i AD team to introduce the changes and (quickly) demo some of the new features available in the latest release of our tools. Wendy also gave an insightful overview of IBM’s strategy in this space. Overall, the response was very positive. Some questions about the repackaging which George readily explained, and a lot of excitement over the new features made available through RPG, HATS, and the new RDi line.

As a follow-up, TUG will be hosting their annual TEC conference, Apr 22-24, which will contain over 20 sessions and labs presented by members of the IBM Toronto Lab System i AD Team, that will dig deeper into many of the new features introduced in the announce and at this event. Hope to see everyone there!