Transforming your COBOL UI - COBOL Developer Day

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1 Transforming Your COBOL UI Scot Nielsen Mike Bleistein

description

Presentation from Micro Focus Dev Day events:- Austin & Toronto (Oct 2013)

Transcript of Transforming your COBOL UI - COBOL Developer Day

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Transforming Your COBOL UI

Scot NielsenMike Bleistein

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Key Concepts

COBO

L

User Interface Modernization for Net Express & Server Express applications

• User Interface modernization using .NET or Java/JVM• Thick Client/desktop applications• Thin Client/browser applications

• Modernizing using web services• BYOD

• Best Practices and considerations for COBOL UI modernization

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Universal Deployment with COBOL Serverrapid, cost-effective, flexible service delivery with Visual COBOL

Cloud .NET JVM

INNOVATECHOOSEDEPLOY

Application Virtualisation: Mobile, SaaS and cloud-based solutions

Unix Linux Windows

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Native Code Generator

Visual COBOL Deployment Agility

Native code

MSILcode

Bytecode

COBOL source

INT code

Micro Focuscompiler

COBOL is the unique solutionThe fastest & lowest risk route to Java or .NET

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• .NET based UI– Window Forms (WinForms)– Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)

Take advantage of Visual Studio’s built-in UI design tools…but generate COBOL

• Java based UI – AWT, SWT– Swing

Take advantage of Java UI design tools…and call COBOL compiled as a Java Class

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Desktop UI modernization with Managed Code

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Design Tools with Visual COBOL and .NET

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Design Tools with Visual COBOL and Java

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• Replace a screen with a Windows Form

• Wrap a .NET user control as an ActiveX and use that in Dialog System

Modernizing Dialog System apps

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• .NET Web Service– WCF - Windows Communication Foundation

• COBOL JVM and Java App Servers– Deploy Java and COBOL together under Tomcat– Use Java to provide web service and call COBOL on the back end

• Web Services – Enterprise Server– Native code support for web services and J2EE app server

deployment

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Service based modernization with Visual COBOL

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Best Practices

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• Existing Micro Focus COBOL in many cases can be compiled as-is or with very little changes.

• One set of existing COBOL source can be reused on multiple platforms (Native, .NET, or even JVM)

• Provides for a clean and easier to maintain architecture

• COBOL.NET class interfaces with “other” .NET languages in an object oriented way – Class Definition, Methods, Properties

• Methods in COBOL.NET class can call legacy COBOL with standard COBOL syntax:

– CALL “program” USING… or CALL WS-PROGRAM USING…

Keep Existing COBOL portable where possible

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• Gives you more options as new technologies come along

• I/O Layer, UI Layer, Services, Layer, Business Rules layer

• Gives flexibility within the application as well makes it more open to other applications and re-use

Begin separating layers of the application

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• Without changing one line of COBOL, allows existing procedural COBOL to run in multi-user applications

• Classes provided a runtime service classes that can be used by any .NET language that needs to use legacy COBOL in multi-user applications

• Only needed at the top level class that is calling the procedural COBOL. Any called modules below are also protected.

• Absolutely necessary in server or multi-user .NET applications – Code at executed ON the server by many users

• Allows you to bring valuable existing business logic forward into .NET server applications

• Provided in MicroFocus.COBOL.RuntimeServices assembly

• RunUnit class

Procedural COBOL re-use in Multi-User applications

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Demonstration

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Demo Architecture

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Client

COBOL JVM

Server

WCF COBOL .NET

Server

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Things to remember…

• Where and how you want to deploy your applications will help determine your modernization strategy

• Visual COBOL provide a number of choices for modernizing your existing COBOL

• Choices are enabled by support for and integration into modern development IDEs and associated technologies

• Test Drive a Visual COBOL app in the cloud:

http://vcdemo.microfocus.com/airportdemo

You don’t have to take the B out of COBOL for it to be COOL!