Technical Articles

Where do frameworks fit in application development?

Frameworks are everywhere. Frameworks are available for almost every part of software development and they are not exclusive to the IT industry. Medicine, banking and insurance all have risk assessment frameworks. Education uses learning frameworks, companies are measured by quality frameworks and the USA Department of Defense has a framework for enterprise architecture. Why are frameworks popular? Where do they apply in software development? How can frameworks help to reduce cost and boost productivity?
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What is iFusion.net?

The iFusion.net software development platform combines IBM i and Microsoft Windows technologies to form a unified architecture that enables organizations to fuse their IBM i systems with Microsoft solutions like Office, SharePoint and SQL Server, or with applications built with the .NET framework. Achieving fusion means going beyond the limits of previous interoperability solutions – like calling programs, replicating databases or transferring files – to create true composite applications that deliver real-time enterprise data and functionality to people as they need it.
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Leveraging IBM i resources with LANSA Open for .NET

Once upon a time there was the IBM AS/400 and there was Microsoft Windows – two worlds and worlds apart. After having the two platforms running side-by-side for over two decades, many IT managers are still challenged managing the platform divide. What we need is an effective mechanism for mixed development environments to share resources. Companies that need to develop with .NET tools and incorporate resources from the IBM i can do so with LANSA Open for .NET.
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Leveraging Microsoft .NET technologies with LANSA

LANSA has long used Microsoft's core technologies to drive advances in its application development and integration tools, so an obvious question to ask is, "What is LANSA doing about leveraging .NET?" LANSA is advancing its tools along the .NET 'evolutionary tree' on several fronts.
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Why worry about integration?

Integration is a complex task spanning networks, hardware platforms, operating systems, programming languages, databases, applications and business entities. Integration is a necessary component for managing information when you operate more than one application. However, integration will become just another large and complex application, unless implemented as a component in an overall information management solution.
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Transaction Document Processing with LANSA Composer Version 3.0

LANSA Composer's transport, transformation and process orchestration features provide a very flexible and code-free framework that can be used to solve almost any type of Business Process Integration (BPI) challenge. LANSA Composer Version 3 further simplifies the task of building processes with the addition of ready-made transaction document processes.
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LANSA Composer: Code-free Business Process Integration

LANSA Composer brings the power of BPI technology to enterprises that want to automate and integrate business processes with external trading partners or between internal applications. LANSA Composer is a highly visual environment for designers and business analysts rather than developers, which provides a simple way for non-programmers to make use of core LANSA Integrator services.
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Implementing SOAP Web Services with LANSA Integrator

This is a brief outline of how to implement Web services using LANSA Integrator. Web services are just one of the many "Java services" you can rapidly integrate into your System i, Windows or Linux business applications with LANSA Integrator.
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LANSA Integrator Remote Function Invocation

LANSA Integrator Remote Function Invocation (RFI) is middleware that makes remote integration as easy as coding with local objects. The Java client developer creates and works with local objects and then sends these objects to the remote LANSA Java Service Manager (JSM) server, the remote service uses a local copy of these objects to supply data to the host program. The host program can also create new objects and return a copy to the Java client program for local processing.
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The Challenge of Interconnecting Business Networks

A2A, B2B, Web Services, Dynamic Data Interchange and Supplier Enablement are the latest industry buzzwords. Although they sound dissimilar, they are all really terms for dynamic transaction exchange, between trading partners, using Internet technologies such as XML and HTTP.
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Extending User Interfaces with LANSA Integrator

In this second article on LANSA's Java Services Framework, we discuss three different ways of using LANSA Integrator to expand the user interface possibilities of your applications. Firstly, we examine the new ‘Order Upload' feature in Commerce Edition Version 3 to show how an existing Web application user interface can be enhanced with LANSA Integrator.
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Rapid Windows and Web Development with Visual LANSA Framework

The Visual LANSA Framework is a design framework that empowers your business focused developers to create highly graphical Windows and Web applications. The learning curve is short, productivity is high and the applications are world class. Until now, many developers have found Windows development complex and hard to deploy. Many of you have told us that you find it difficult to migrate your existing 5250 applications to Windows or the Web successfully.
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Stepping up to LANSA Version 11 Modernize at your own pace

We have laid out five simple steps that chart a course for a staged and controlled adoption of LANSA Version 11. Each step details the benefits you will gain, things you need to know and other supporting materials to ensure you get the most out of Version 11. Obviously, the first step is to install LANSA Version 11, but you do not have to complete all the steps or use all the new features and techniques.
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Protect your data once and for all

Managing data is easier when the data definitions and business rules are centrally defined outside the program code. If any of the definitions or rules need to be changed, you only have to make that change in one place! LANSA provides tools, collectively called the LANSA Repository, that describe, store and deploy data definitions and their related business rules.
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LANSA and Current Modeler Strategies

Emerging trends are creating a dramatic increase in the use of modeling tools. This contrasts with the impression of modelers many experienced IT professionals gained from over-ambitious Enterprise Modeling projects during the era of Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) in late '80s. Then, modeling often took a long time and produced little or no Return On Investment. Today's modeling approach is different, producing much better returns.
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