Enhancing the HP e3000 User Interface

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This VB application in the client can now be customized to add graphical interface or modified
to integrate and interoperate with other applications. During the conversion, Magic looks at the
legacy application as an object, and looks at the MPE application through the eyes of the users
(not the application developer). Therefore, it may be useful to customize the MDI forms into
SDI forms. This client VB application will then be released to the end users.
Form Loader
Visual Magic provides a tool called FormLoader. This tool runs on the Windows platform and
looks into the MPE formspec file in the HP e3000. It downloads the formspec file into a local
database, and offers the facility of preview by which the user can view the VPlus screens on the
Windows platform. Using this utility, user can generate the Client/Server VB application offline.
User can include all the VPlus forms in the client VB application or some specific forms from
the formspec file.
3-tier Web-enabled Architecture
Visual Magic also provides a framework where we allow the presentation layer to be converted
into a multi-tier Web enabled presentation.
In this approach the presentation layer is converted into ActiveX documents and component.
These components are hosted in an Internet Server. The Internet servers tested so far are IIS
(Internet Information Server) from Microsoft and Apache in UNIX (Linux). The end user can
now use the MPE application through a Web Browser. The browser tested so far is Microsoft
Internet Explorer. With ActiveX plug-ins (available from www.ncompasslab.com and www.fob-
stech.com) the same MPE application can be used through Netscape as well.
Excel Interface
Visual Magic offers an Excel wizard. By using the Excel wizard, data from a MPE screen can be
directly transferred into Microsoft Excel workbooks. This MPE data can be integrated with
other data from other MPE and non-MPE applications. As a part of this facility a workflow
feature is also offered. In this facility a user can send the Excel workbook through email. The
address of the recipients of the mail is obtained by looking into the organizational database
using Microsoft OLE-DB interface.
USIN International
226 Airport Parkway, Suite 465
San Jose, CA 95110
[phone]
Contact: Dibyendu Mukherjee ([e-mail])