Our mainframe people are going to convert our Mainframe FOCUS to WebFOCUS. Reports are not a problem, but I was just asked a question by the manager. Can they run their MODIFY/CRTFORM apps or do they have to convert those to MAINTAIN? If so, is there any kind of utililty to help with the conversion?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kerry,

Your best hope of getting a definitive answer is to hope that Noreen is monitoring this forum.

My belief is that you should be able to still use MODIFY. I have used FOCUS for about 20 years and haven't fully converted to MAINTAIN, still using MODIFY when required.

Noreen?

T

We Live in Hope!

MODIFY FILE _TANDA
COMPUTE
INDATA/A10 = 'Hello' ;
GOTO C001
CASE C001
CRTFORM LINE 1
" Enter Data "

ENDCASE

DATA VIA CRTFORM
END


Modify without CRTFORM works fine. I just thought, "oh they may have put a facility converting CRTFORM to HTML if IBI was completely mad".

But they didn't and this crashes the server.

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Server: WF 7.6.2 ( BID/Rcaster) Platform: W2003Server/IIS6/Tomcat/SQL Server repository Adapters: SQL Server 2000/Oracle 9.2
Desktop: Dev Studio 765/XP/Office 2003 Applications: IFS/Jobscope/Maximo

jg, this is the biggest mental jump when making the move from mainframe to web, having done this now at 2 places; yes you can use Modify, but your forms aren't CRT forms, they're HTML forms. If you were using them to enter parameters to run reports, then html forms are the ticket. however, if you are using crt forms to collect massive amounts of data for updating, then MODIFY is the ticket. It depends how much data you want to pass thru at one time. MAINTAIN has benefits that ordinary html forms with modify might not provide.
Check with your local sales office for a detailed demo. But you can certainly get started with hmtl and modify.
The biggest thing to get your head around is that with mainframe and CRT forms, you could run a long fex with CRT forms popping out at various data extract levels, and continue processing the fex. with the web, you can't do that. once the fex produces output to the screen, whether its a report or a form, you're dropped. the connection with your fex doesn't exist any longer. Sounds like a bad thing, but actually its the best. I would recommend hiring a consultant to come in for a short bit to ease the transition. You'll enjoy the transition more having a guide.

hamm, do you want an example of how to accomplish what you suggest? its not hard at all... you just have to think about it a bit differently? if so, say , and we'll write you up one. or T will.

Think about it? On a Thursday afternoon (yes I know it is still morning there but for those of us who have been up 11.5 hours already and are just about to leave .........)

T

Thanks susannah, I'll pass the info along.

Susannah

I'd be interested to see what you come up with in your example.

In this example I was just displaying a variable for update on screen OLD-Skool.

What would be your take with the New Paradigm?

Regards

John

Check out the Legact to WebFOCUS conversion tool which should help get you started....
http://techsupport.informationbuilders.com/app/css_leg_...ebFOCUS_Site_Map.htm

Rich..that's sweet!

Basically you would build your HTML page with all your named objects becoming WF variables and then use MODIFY to perform the update.

I have used such a process recently where I saved all the values in various objects on the HTML page, concatenated these into one long variable which was then passed to focexec. I didn't actually use form submission but used an activex process to call the focexecs URL. The upshot is that the user doesn't even notice that an update has been performed as the screen doesn't change.

If I get time I will give an example here to show the process.

Even though I prototyped the above process using a FOCUS database, I now use SQL Server to the same effect using SQL passthru in the called focexec.

Put you rmind to it, scan through some of IB's javascript modules and you'll see how, just like I did.

T

MODIFY's do run on WEBFOCUS, however, only the MODIFY with FIXFORM, not CRTFORM. The problem is the "non-persistent connection" which would support T. etc. There are two options. One is to convert to MAINTAIN (But unfortunately there is not a utility to do that). It depends on the complexity of the MODIFY. Some can be easily converted, others it takes some work.
Stacks are easier in MAINTAIN, and don't require as much code to display a GRID as CRTFORM, but you really have to look at each piece. Another alternative is to (again if it is a simple 1 CRTFORM type screen just for data entry) to create an HTML screen, and then create a FIXFORM input for the MODIFY.
So, sorry if it is a CRTFORM MODIFY, then this has to be in most cases manually converted to MAINTAIN or FIXFORM in some fashion.

In the past, when we have converted Modify to Maintain, we have mapped out the logic paths in the Modify and then recreated them in Maintain. There are some major differences between the products that have made a converter impossible.

For example, the Maintain Development Environment makes it easy to create complex HTML forms with Combo Boxes, List Boxes, Radio Buttons, etc... These objects are tied directly to the database. The events, whether they are push buttons, selections or mouse-overs, perform cases, JavaScript or URLs. The logic is more directly tied to the form. It is much more complex than the CRTFORM.

Actions that took 5 or 10 lines in Modify code, can be done in 1 line of Maintain code. The logic cannot be converted line by line.

I highly recommend trying the fanclub tutorial, included in the documentation, to get a feel for the Maintain product. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Mark

See http://BI-Software-WebFOCUS.blogspot.com for information on how to automate the conversion of FOCUS to WebFOCUS.

jgelona,

Think of CRTFORM as the user interface component of MODIFY, and Forms as the user interface component of MAINTAIN.

CRTFORM was made to work for the character based Mainframe screens(3270, etc.), whereas Maintain Forms are designed to work with, more complex, HTML pages. There is very little common ground to support a conversion utility.

All you back-end MODIFY stuff will still work fine, but anywhere you have (-)CRTFORM user interface functions in your mainframe Focus code, either Modify or Dialog Manager, it will have to be re-written.

The price of progress ?

Converting mainframe FOCUS to WebFOCUS has never been easier! We have a formal methodology and software application to automate the process.

The upfront assessment effort is automated using the BI Analyzer tool, which can scan hundreds of files per second (FOCEXECs, MASTERS, JCL/PROCs, CLists, REXX, etc.), put everything into a database, and apply algorithms for analysis (e.g., purpose, complexity, active/obsolete, duplicate, redundant, business grouping, etc.).

The BI Transformer can automatically convert legacy reporting modules into WebFOCUS versions: FOCEXECs, JCL/Procs, schemas, HTML pages, SQL dialects, etc.

See: https://bi-software-webfocus.b...focus-has-never.html