Why replace display files?
Hi all! Today's blog is more of a rant at people advetising web interfaces over green screen interfaces for IBMi/iSeries.
Please note, I am one for modernisation. The web is the way forward, and green screen is a step backwards. The web is only one the way forward, if you can afford it. No one wants to hire 3rd party companies to design you a web interface (which doesn't even turn out that nice looking or easy to use) to replace your display files at an extortionate price - but I digress.
If you have a web UI, it needs to be fluent. Such web UI needs to make good use of JavaScript, pretty page transistions, good use of a templating engine & even web sockets. Sadly, this post isn't about moving to web UI, it's about sticking with green and there is nothing wrong with that.
My issue is that companies are showing off the ugliest green screen interfaces and then showing a pretty web interface next to it and of course if you have an ugly interface, no one will want to use it. Take this interface for example:
It is an ugly interface, but that is only because they were designed badly. I cannot stress how easy it is to design pretty display files - it's actually something I really enjoy doing with RDi.
It's also cheaper to implement new green screen interfaces rather than pay for a whole new web-UI. It is not hard to design display files anymore. With the use of RDi, it's as simple as dragging and dropping your display file's elements.
You can even replace your display files without having the orignal display file source - but that's for another blog post.