IBM Tivoli Web Access for Information Management

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2003 71

Chapter 7. Converting a 3270 application

So, you have decided to convert your 3270 application to the Web? Maybe you tried the

Desktop, but were really interested in a Web browser solution. Or, maybe you tried to go to

the Web, but found that building the HTML from scratch and modifying the necessary REXX

code was just too time consuming and difficult. Now that Web Access is here, the tasks

necessary to move a 3270 application to the Web should be greatly reduced.

Before you can really think about the Web aspect, you have to do a little work on your data

model. That is, you need to build the necessary data model records, data view and data

attribute. If these concepts are new to you, spend some time reading Chapter 29 in the

Tivoli

Information Management for z/OS Panel Modification Facility Guide, Version 7.1

, SC31-8750

(BLGP6E10). It is essential for your understanding of how Web Access works and of how to

customize it that you understand data model records.

Once you are familiar with the concepts, you need to build the corresponding data model

records for your existing 3270 application. Information Management for z/OS provides a TSX

called BLGTDMBL that will do the work for you. BLGTDMBL is also discussed in Chapter 29

of the

Tivoli Information Management for z/OS Panel Modification Facility Guide, Version 7.1

,

SC31-8750 (BLGP6E10).

BLGTDMBL was written to scan through your 3270 panels and to create the necessary data

model records. It was tested on several applications, including the Integration Facility (IIF); but

the more customized your 3270 application is, the more likely the chance that it may miss

something.

You should start by running it with FUNCTION=SCAN and FLOW=Y. Do one record type at a

time, and specify the summary panel for that record type as the START panel. You may find it

necessary to do the runs again with a STOP panel (which could mean doing several runs with

different START and STOP panels). A data attribute record should be determined for each

field on a panel, and even for direct ADD control lines in any control panels through which

your application flows.

If you are content with the output from SCAN and FLOW, run BLGTDMBL with

FUNCTION=CREATE to actually create the data attribute records. However, if you do not

seem to be getting the right results, you might try a different approach. You could specify

each data-entry panel in your record type as the START and STOP panel on a BLGTDMBL

7