AJAX/400

When doing development you will frequently found that there's a lot of backend systems that store the real data that is used when implementing a business process into a business application. The biggest companies has the very unbreakable mainframe running OS/390 or whatever, or any UNIX flavor, or if working with IBM customers, an AS/400, iSeries, i5 system.
The tendencies when moving into the IBM branding are exposing the legacy applications to web applications (and lately as web services). Most of the time this integration is by using Host Access Transformation Services from Websphere, or Websphere portal or any other application server that interfaces the data stored in those systems. All in the Domino over i5 is a killer mix. The data stored into the i5 can be easily integrated with any Domino application by using LC or even DECS which can be a very useful partner when dealing with web applications that need to store data in the i5.

One amazing thing is that you can use Domino agents (or servlets if you want) to retrieve the data from the system and throw the results as XML, HTML, plaint text or whatever. This is crucial when trying to create new applications or enhance application with stuff like AJAX, for example.

The AS/400, oops again, i5 customers are resigned to use those ugly green screens that even when using transformation tools remain in the same way of old fashioned application. So, if you pretend to increase the user experience in your web applications and you don't what to spend a lot of money, just expand your AJAX skills and integrate Domino in the middle. You'll be providing high performance applications that only take a snap to retrieve information from a system that is famous by slowing down the user experience. You'll be a rock start after that.



Tags: AJAX, Domino, AS/400, i5