Web-enable your legacy applications today
A first step to e-business!

You would like to extend access to your legacy applications to occasional users and to external users such as your suppliers, customers or subscribers; however the application interface is difficult to handle for these new users and the installation of a client tool on their desktop can be quite difficult and expensive.

By web-enabling your legacy applications, Gweb will help you to give these new users easy and direct access to selected host information. You will then be able to improve their satisfaction, keep your business partners loyal and streamline your front-office costs.

With Gweb,

• the users will use a standard browser; there is no need to install and maintain special desktop software
• you will modernise the application presentation into an intuitive user interface
• you will not have to change your legacy applications
• the solution can be operational in the very short term and then improved at your own pace.

Install Gweb on a Web server or let it act as its own HTTP server and it will convert GCOS and MVS applications forms into HTML pages.

Gweb gives you

• Automatic facelift of host forms
• Data entry fields with 3D effect
• Your own custom wallpaper
• Mouse-activated function keys
• Your own logos
• Your own footers

And allows you to

• Completely revamp all or selected host forms
  • mix new text with text from host form
  • use any mix of fancy fonts and colors
  • images as illustrations and activators
  • drop down lists, radio buttons, hyperlinks or any other HTML technique
• Automate dialog steps
• Combine data from multiple host forms

Desktop: a standard browser

• Unix, Linux or Windows NT/2000/XP
• Gweb HTTP Server or a Web server with a CGI interface
  (ex: Netscape, Microsoft, Apache)

Communications:

• between Gweb and the host:
  • GCOS: DSA, Ggate and TNVIP gateways
  • IBM: TN3270 or TN5250 gateways
• between the browser and the Web server:
  • HTTP/HTML over TCP-IP network (intranet, extranet, internet)

Gweb features

• custom designed facelifter and default on-the-fly facelifter
• DKU, VIP, 3270, 5250 emulations
• tools to help facelifting: screen capture facility, macro-language, external script such as Perl
• use of standard HTML editors
• session management for TDS-Web /Web8 gateways

Gweb runs on the Windows 2000 side of the DPS 7000/XTA and connects to GCOS 7 via the RFC1006 protocol in order to transport DSA session over a TCP/IP link.

A " try & buy " version of Gweb, limited to 10 licenses, is delivered with each DPS 7000/XTA. This version allows to try the Gweb functions (face-lifting and/or HTTP/DSA gateway) during one year starting from the delivery date.

Gweb performance

As Gweb is a 3-tier architecture, some questions have been raised about the performance of the solution.

Based on the experience we have with Gweb installations worldwide and from the load testing done by G&R, the Gweb producer, we can safely say that Gweb is a uniquely scalable solution.

In order to generate test results meaningful for small to medium sized host systems, G&R have run a suite of Gweb load tests using a small monoprocessor Intel Pentium III server. The tests use a typical screen transaction pattern of 200 characters input and 2.000 characters output. The client sessions generate one such transaction every 30 seconds, far faster than real life users would generate transactions. In this test environment Gweb handled up to 500 simultaneous sessions with no degradation in performance. The delay time introduced in Gweb was constant, and less than 40 milliseconds. The CPU usage was linear as the number of sessions increased, and did not exceed 40% in these tests. The limiting factor was memory on the small Pentium III test server. The test suite was repeated running Gweb on Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Linux, all on the same small server, and all of which managed more than 500 concurrent sessions.

There is no limitation on the number of sessions inside Gweb itself; the number of concurrent sessions depends mainly on the memory available on the server. The CPU usage is minimal, but would eventually limit performance on such a small server. A faster server than the Pentium III used in the tests would have no problems in driving several times the load tested.

When making performance estimates, keep in mind that HTML pages use more characters than the screen protocol to present the same host forms and that the communications adapter/network between the browser and the web server may be the real limitation. The load between Gweb and the host system is exactly the same as if the browsers had been standard terminals.