Enhancing the HP e3000 User Interface

Appendix E: Screen Intercept
Computer Associates Opal
Opal embraces the huge investment associated with character-based
applications, including those on the HP e3000 platform. Opal is a set of
products that modernize legacy applications by giving them a modern GUI
interface, allowing them to be deployed on the web, and by integrating
multiple screens, applications and data from ODBC databases. Opal
addresses the need of organizations to get more use and productivity from
their existing investments in applications for mainframe, HP e3000, AS/400
and UNIX systems. Opal increases the value of legacy applications by
extending their life expectancy, streamlining business processing and
providing an easy to use, intuitive user interface that goes beyond today’s traditional GUI-based
applications. And this application integration can be delivered with both low cost and low risk.
Opal provides solution synergy by extending and combining legacy applications without altering
them in any way.
Opal’s advanced user interface technology allows the addition of multimedia—graphics, sound,
and video—to existing applications. By replacing the character-based interface with a modern
GUI, the application can be easier to use and require less support and training. Opal’s ability to
deploy to both desktop and web environments allows organizations to get applications to users
more easily. With web deployment, there’s no need to configure terminal emulators or ODBC
drivers on the client, and the Opal applications themselves are updated centrally on a web
server. Web deployment also gives customers the ability to use their existing applications to do
business over the Internet.
Opal’s integration abilities allow new applications with better workflow—few menus, cleaner
screens - to be built on top of existing applications without requiring changes to them.
Integrating multiple character applications together—even if they are on different platforms -
allows a single Opal application to find and update information on multiple systems - a more
and more common situation in today’s IT chaos. Finally, the ability to pull information (and
images) from databases allows the construction of extended applications that provide
features—like data lookup or images—that simply aren’t supported in the underlying
application.
Opal applications are built with Opal Integrator, an object-oriented, drag-and-drop development
tool that can build complex applications with no traditional coding. Opal Integrator has built in
graphical “themes” to provide a consistent look and feel to Opal applications—themes that can
be customized for a particular client’s “look and feel.” Testing and debugging can be done from
within the Opal Integrator environment, simplifying and speeding development.
Opal Server provides communication and licensing services to the Opal Player clients. Using
Opal Server, all host and database communications are moved from the client to the Opal
Server, simplifying client setup and security—primary benefits of thin client computing.
Opal Players are available in desktop configurations for Windows and also as browser plug-ins
for Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
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