| **WARNING: This is an archived article: For the most current information on getting to the Web and creating Java applications using 100% Java with no prior Java training or need to learn Java, please visit the m-Power information page. Our Java capabilities are now Web 2.0-enabled, and 100% Java servlets.**
If you'd like more information, or you'd like us to build you a sample over your own files, just let us know. |
November 1999
By Andy Vigrass
The mrc UK office held a users group meeting at IBM’s offices in Warwick on the 14th of October. There was a good turn-out with attendees travelling from every corner of the UK, including London, North Wales, Norfolk, Lancashire, Yorkshire and all points in-between.
The aim of the meeting was to share knowledge and make our customers aware of the full range and power of mrc-Productivity Series, so that they would leave the meeting inspired to make the best use of our software for their businesses.
The day started off with a report on the quality of our support service. The statistics from our help system (written using mrc, of course) showed that the high standard of previous years had been maintained with 78% of help calls closed within one hour.
We then got on with the interesting stuff - demonstrating release 8. This included a range of applications using the new Client External Objects and also a Web site of applications developed using our new Java program templates. Many customers immediately spotted opportunities where the new functionality will help them solve current problems in their businesses. The flexibility of mrc-Productivity Series has just taken another great leap forward - this new release is going to help us all to solve problems that we haven’t even dreamt of yet!
To demonstrate the Client External Objects, we showed an enquiry displaying AS/400 data that, on selection of a record, then smart-linked directly to a Web browser showing Web pages relating to the chosen record. Another example of Client External Objects involved the selection of AS/400 data and then automatically opening PC-based documents related to the AS/400 records chosen. You could link between AS/400-held data and images such as CAD images stored anywhere on your network. It is hard to see the limits of this powerful new feature.
We demonstrated how easy it is to develop the new Java applications and how you can quickly incorporate them into your own Web site. This has given a number of our clients an easy solution to the problem of giving remote parties the ability to access their AS/400 data. We are keen to work closely with any clients who wish to develop their own Java applications with mrc-Productivity Series, so if you need any help in formulating your ideas please feel free to contact us.
The day also included sessions on making best use of the standard AS/400-based part of mrc. The topics covered included performance tuning, creating your own powerful prompt screens and ingenious uses for external objects. Thus making it a worthwhile day, covering old and new parts of mrc-Productivity Series - to fulfil our aim of helping you to make the best use of our software.
Thank you to everyone who attended and made the day a big success.
A new contributor to News & Views, Andy Vigrass is a Sales Manager for mrcUK. Andy can be reached at avigrass@mrcuk.com.
| mrc Proud to be Powered by AS/400e |
Some of you have been mrc customers since before the Internet was a household word. Many may remember when our Web site address was http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/mrc400/
and our e-mail address was 71114,152@compuserve.com. Although we have tried to keep our office operations up with the advancements of technology, our growth has been gradual. Until recently, we outsourced our Web site hosting service to a local ISP, although we did design and maintain the site ourselves. Also, though many of us had access to shared e-mail accounts, we were all using modems to access the Internet. Well, we are proud to announce that not only have we improved the way we communicate with the outside world, but we have made those improvements using our own AS/400’s!
We started this project by contracting our own T-1 connection to the Internet, then scheduled our circuit installation, and connected our router. Before we knew it, we had a T-1 installed in our network room and we were ready to go! All the PCs on our LAN are now connected to the Internet via this T-1 connection.
The next step involved configuring our AS/400 as a Web server. The http server software on the AS/400 was remarkably simple to install and setup, although there were some very tricky problems that we encountered, such as supporting the forms on our Web site. After everything was working, we began routing IP traffic to our AS/400. We are very pleased with the speed and responsiveness of the server. Also, since the server is now in our possession, each department at mrc will be more involved in updating and maintaining the Web site. We hope that you will tell us how we can improve the site. What would make the site more beneficial for you? Are you finding the information you are looking for? Please let us know!
In addition to our Web server, we configured another AS/400 as our firewall and mail server. The firewall was quite challenging, but is very important for the security of our network. The mail server allows us to create as many e-mail accounts as we wish, using our domain name of mrc-productivity.com. Each department and all of our employees now have separate e-mail accounts. We know this will be much more convenient for our customers to communicate with us. The new e-mail addresses are listed in this newsletter and are also available on our Web site.
The changes that mrc has recently made in our internal network, as well as in our external Internet presence, might be transparent to you right now. However, we believe that the benefits will surely become clearer. For mrc, this change has made a substantial improvement in our office functions; from communication to flexibility to increased efficiency, all departments are affected. The end result enables us to be more responsive to our customers and to provide better customer service and support.
| Cozzi Speaks His Mind About mrc |
Many of you are familiar with Bob Cozzi’s "In My Humble Opinion" column in Midrange Computing magazine. His October column asked, "Is Rochester Conspiring to Kill RPG Development?" For those of you familiar with Bob Cozzi, you know that he frequently makes attention-getting statements such as these. You may also know that he is heard by many, and has been very influential in the AS/400 industry. He was recently elected the COMMON president. We at mrc were pleased to read Mr. Cozzi’s most recent article, which speaks quite highly of Release 8, also known as mrc-Productivity Series2000 (due to be shipped on November 11, 1999).
Mr. Cozzi’s column discusses IBM’s lack of responsiveness to programmer suggestions for a native AS/400 GUI. He then explains the enhancements that he would like to see; specifically, allow AS/400 languages to access the user interface controls and class of a native GUI, and then integrate communication between client GUI and RPG. He then goes on to describe mrc as an exemplary software.
"Consider what michaels, ross & cole, ltd. has done in the latest release of the mrc-Productivity Series. The code uses Sockets to integrate RPG running on an
AS/400 with a Java user interface running on a client. It’s wonderful!" (Midrange Computing, p. 14).
He then adds that IBM should follow our example and "provide this kind of support for Java within RPG and other AS/400 languages."
We are already excited about the many benefits of our latest release, so we couldn’t be more pleased to have the industry experts giving us this kind of recognition. But the important opinion is yours. We hope you’ll enjoy the many features we’ve built into this release, and that you’ll share your feedback with us.
Here are the new mrc department e-mail addresses for your convenience:
|
