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 By Elizabeth Pawelka
Communications Specialist
IBM Rational Enterprise Modernization, Ecosystem Team
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You can extend all or selected functions of 3270-based green screen applications to mobile phones, data collection terminals and personal digital assistants (PDAs) with IBM Rational Host Access Transformation Services (HATS).
IBM Rational Host Access Transformation Services (HATS) delivers tools to build integrated Web applications from existing terminal applications – including CICS and IMS – thereby helping your end-users be more productive and make fewer errors.
Because HATS creates a standard Web application, the only client software necessary for accessing the application is a standard Web browser. Browser access lets you extend all or selected functions of your 3270-based green-screen applications to intranet, extranet, and Internet users.
Further, more users are accessing these kinds of Web-based applications using non-traditional devices. Mobile device-enabled applications can help you improve the productivity of an increasingly mobile workforce, broaden your company's customer base and improve service levels.
With version 7.1, HATS also allows access to character-based 3270 applications from mobile devices, such as cell phones, data collection terminals, and personal digital assistants (PDAs). See Figure 1.
Figure 1: With HATS, you can extend your 3270 host applications to the Web, to portlets, to rich clients and to browsers on mobile devices. You can also create Web services.
With HATS, you can transform a 3270 application's appearance without changing the underlying, reliable application. For example, you can streamline navigation by creating screen customizations and macros, and create Web and rich client applications with easy-to-use graphical user interfaces (GUI) for improved usability and consistency with your company's existing Web or portal GUI standards.
The process for developing a HATS Web application for a mobile device is the same as developing any HATS Web application – with consideration for the characteristics of the mobile device and its Web browser.
Transform the user experience with a Web interface
You can quickly improve the user interface of your existing applications and integrate them with other business information with only minimal development cost. The result is an easy-to-use Web interface to the application, which can reduce training costs, simplify the application, and even make the application accessible to new users.
 For example, a typical application might require a customer service representative to access several screens to get to customer account information, as shown in Figure 2.
User interface design has come a long way since many CICS and IMS applications like these were developed, but companies typically find that it is too expensive to develop new applications from scratch. Modernizing and streamlining them with Rational HATS, however, can provide a quick return on investment and result in a Web page that's much easier to read and navigate, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: With HATS, you can transform terminal screens into a much more user-friendly application.
The sample Web application not only combines multiple 3270 screens into one Web page, but also matches the customer's corporate style. In addition, macros let the customer service representatives skip over screens or enter information into multiple host screens with a single entry.
You can further enhance the usability of application screens by adding widgets, such as drop-down lists, radio buttons, check boxes, macro buttons, and calendars. Wise use of these widgets can decrease the errors on entries such as order codes, countries, states and date formats. Figure 4 shows a calendar widget and drop-down list.
Figure 4: Application enhancements, such as a calendar widget and drop-down list, can help reduce data entry errors.
In addition, using global variables, the HATS application can store values, such as a customer account number, that will remain available for reuse throughout the lifetime of a browser session, further reducing entry errors. And, the HATS Web express logon (WEL) feature enables single sign-on, so users don't have to log on again when switching between multiple applications.
Bringing the mainframe to cell phones
The process for developing a HATS Web application for a mobile device is the same as developing any HATS Web application, but requires consideration of the following characteristics:
- Smaller screen size (see Figure 5.)
- No mouse or keyboard
- Limited processing power
Figure 5: A PDA's screen size is significantly smaller than a desktop, one thing to consider when developing an application for a mobile device.
As with any HATS application, you begin development by creating a HATS project with the IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform. By selecting 'optimize options for mobile devices' in the Create a Project wizard, you can automatically limit the available HATS templates to only those optimized for mobile devices and set defaults to those appropriate for use with mobile devices.
Projects created for mobile devices differ from typical Web application in several ways. For example, in the project settings, a second rendering set named 'compact' is created and set as the default.
In the compact rendering set, several defaults are used:
- To preserve space, the drop-down (selection) widget, instead of the link widget, is used for selection lists.
- Recognition and transformation of dialogs is activated and only the dialog area of the screen is transformed for display on the device.
- The application keypad, which provides application-level functions, is displayed as icons.
- The host keypad, which provides functions typically available from a host keyboard, such as function keys or the Enter key, is displayed as a drop-down list.
- To reduce the amount of HTML and blank space displayed on the PDA, the field widget uses the 'separated' layout setting to render the output using inline span tags to differentiate between fields.
In addition, to aid in displaying table data, HATS provides a columns placement function that allows the arrangement and exclusion of columns from the display, as well as expandable detail columns, to help you fit a table into a small space (see Figure 6).
By default, only the first two columns are displayed as primary columns and all columns after the second are treated as detail columns. This enhancement allows tables to be collapsed and expanded, so that more data can fit without horizontal scrolling.
As an additional option, the table widget will create the expandable areas for retrieval by the browser only when requested. This approach uses AJAX technology and reduces the memory and footprint size on the client device. This feature can also be used in standard HATS Web applications.
Using the optimized compact rendering defaults and options in HATS V7.1, you can easily make your green-screen 3270 applications on the host accessible to your mobile workforce. With compact rendering, the main entry fields are reduced to fit on a smaller screen, yet are large enough to be easily usable without scrolling, as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: A transformed application on a mobile device using HATS compact rendering displays text in less space for improved readability without scrolling.
Can your company benefit from mobile applications?
Mobile applications can be used in many different business scenarios. HATS' features enable companies, such as appliance, cable, and alarm installation and repair shops, to extend valuable applications to field personnel.
HATS also can be used to update your customer account management, service order entry and inventory applications, so they are easier to use, and therefore, reduce input errors.
In the service scenario, for example, when a service request comes in, either via a phone call to a customer care representative or via a self-service Web site, information is gathered and entered in the host application, making it accessible for future use. Inventory applications can also be mobile enabled to ensure the service engineer has the parts necessary to complete the service.
When on the road with HATS mobile device support, the service engineer can easily use a PDA to directly access the necessary applications and find the next customer address and directions. Because the service order was only entered once – in the main application – there is no chance for the kinds of errors that often occur when an order is rewritten and handed to a service engineer. No longer will the service engineer show up at the wrong house or with the wrong part due to an address or part number being copied down incorrectly, for example.
The service engineer can also directly access the inventory application to note when stock of an item is running low, without having to remember to do so after returning to the home office. This connectivity will help ensure parts can be ordered quickly to avoid customer service delays.
Having customer account and history information available at all times can help ensure excellent customer service in many ways. The engineer could see, for example, if the current customer has other services, and offer appropriate upgrades to newer technology to increase customer satisfaction and company's sales.
The mainframe opens up new business opportunities
Having information easily accessible and immediately available to your mobile workforce on the road can open up a wide range of possibilities to save money, increase customer satisfaction, and even increase business. IBM Rational Host Access Transformation Services (HATS) has built-in support to modernize existing terminal applications and to extend them to all your company's employees – even those that work away from the office.
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