By Leo Gemma, Technical Support Training Specialist

We have a new release of LanTurn, TurnOver’s interface for LANSA software objects to tell you about this month. LanTurn Release 5.4 requires TurnOver 5.4 dated September 2006, and fully supports the newest version of the LANSA 2005 iSeries-based, repository-driven software suite.

LANSA’s latest release adds some exciting new capabilities for enterprise Web development. New components for Web pages such as WAMs, LANSA forms, reusable parts, ActiveX controls, Visual Styles, bitmaps, icons, and cursors are now supported by LanTurn’s new LVLCOM type code. LanTurn supports Weblets, which are components that control the appearance of a LANSA Web application, with a new LWEB type code. And additional LANSA objects called Technology Services that are used to deliver content across multiple formats, such as XML and Pocket PC, are supported by the new LTECH type code.

In this article, we’ll build on an example from the LANSA tutorial to demonstrate how you would develop a Web Application Module (WAM) using LanTurn and the Eclipse-based TurnOver plug-ins.

Figure 1: RDMLX source for a LANSA Web Application Module

A WAM is a Web technology that is based on XML/XSL. It’s used for developing applications for presentation in a Web browser, and LANSA includes an XSL editor for further customizing the presentation of the application to the user. A WAM can include one or more webroutines, which are conceptually similar to a subroutine in a program. Each webroutine contains LANSA RDMLX programming to carry out distinct operations within the WAM. In addition, WAMs include objects known as weblets -- reusable components that provide supportive services ranging from simple style layouts to tree controls.

In the example, we have a WEB_MAP line in our RDMLX-based source to define data input and output for fields #TUT_NAME and #TUT_ADDR. We have also written two webroutines -- one that displays the name and address, and one that reverses the input on both fields.

Figure 2: A Web Application Module in Visual LANSA

At this point in the tutorial, we click on the LANSA XSL editor icon, and a new XSL document is created from the information in the RDMLX source. The XSL presents two fields based on the information provided in WEB_MAP, as well as two push buttons to handle our webroutines.

All development in Visual LANSA is done under the control of a LANSA Task Identifier. With LanTurn in place, TurnOver automatically creates a LANSA Task Identifier from your TurnOver task, and then builds a matching worklist. Once you have completed development of the WAM through the Visual LANSA interface, the next step is to “check in” the WAM component in LANSA, along with its layout weblet (the layout weblet is what we created with the XSL editor). The process of checking in updates the development partition in the LANSA repository on the iSeries. Once this has been done, you can test your Web application in the development partition. (You will need to have the LANSA Web server running on the iSeries.)

Figure 3: Our WAM (the LVLCOM object) and weblet (the LWEB object) get added to a TurnOver worklist.

Once you have done initial testing, it is time to export the WAM and weblet information from the development partition into higher-level partitions (testing, production). This is accomplished through TurnOver’s interface to LANSA, LanTurn.

Using the TurnOver Client, open the worklist that matches the LANSA Task Identifier. If you’re just beginning development of new objects under this task, the worklist will not yet be populated. However, you may have already added objects to this list and checked them out in TurnOver. You will only need to add items that are not yet on the worklist.

Figure 4: Adding LANSA objects to a TurnOver form is as easy as the click of a mouse.

Clicking on the Add Worklist Item icon will list the objects in your development partition, filtered by the LANSA Task Identifier. The filter also allows you to hide objects that are already on the worklist, so you can quickly and easily identify the objects that you’ve created in Visual LANSA, but have not yet added to the worklist or checked out in TurnOver.

Once you have set up your worklist, you will add the items to a form for promotion by selecting the items you want, right-clicking, and choosing Add to Form.

The TurnOver form is an iSeries job that exports its line items from the development partition and imports them into the testing partition. Promoting the objects via TurnOver forms to your production partition is the final phase of the development cycle.

Softlanding Systems is committed to supporting LANSA’s iSeries software suite. Call us at (800) 545-9485 to order your upgrade, or to find out more about leveraging change management for your LANSA shop.

 

  Back to Table of Contents