Welcome to the G&R/Gweb information and demonstration pages. We hope you will find the information interesting, and that the demonstrations will convince you that Bull and IBM mainframe applications can be put on the web simply, quickly and cheaply. If you should have problems with the demonstrations tell us. If you have a Bull or IBM mainframe system that you would like to add to this demonstration tell us. If you would like to discuss installation of your own Gweb talk to our distributors, or to us.
Gweb makes mainframe applications developed using standard terminal interfaces accessible to large populations who do not have an appropriate emulator. Gweb is the ideal way of making mainframe information available to the general public without specialized web development. Your existing applications run immediately, and you can make new applications for access from the Web simply by developing transactions using your standard development tools and mainframe programmers to generate screen images for IBM3270, IBM5250, VIP7700, VIP7760, VIP7800 or DKU terminals. Your existing and new applications are immediately available to any web browser provided you install Gweb on the web server, and add the necessary configuration parameters for the GCOS host and application to the configuration file. Gweb enhances the screen images by automatic application of basic facelifting, and you can enhance them further by applying wallpaper and HTML headers and footers that show your company logo or other images.
Gweb provides a web browser interface to any host application that is otherwise accessible using the Host Links Qsim, V78sim, G3270 or G5250 emulations, and can connect using any G&R line handler to reach Bull or IBM mainframes using Bull DSA, DIWS, RFC1006, X.25, Telnet, TN3270, TN5250 and TNVIP links. Please refer to the product manuals for details of these emulations.
Gweb operates on most UNIX and Linux platforms as well as Windows servers. It can work together with any World Wide Web server that supports the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) for external applications. This includes most popular UNIX/Linux World Wide Web servers such as Apache, Netscape or NCSA, and Microsoft's Internet Information Server on Windows servers. Note however that best performance is achieved by using the Gweb standalone HTTP server, GwebS, included with the product. It is also by far the simplest to set-up, and occupies less space on your disk than any other HTTP server.
Gweb includes development tools that allow you to further enhance the screen images from the host applications by including your own HTML for presentation of individual screens. Gweb builds a library of the host screens after basic face-lifting has been applied, and this library of HTML pages can be edited using any HTML development tool on a screen by screen basis. The development package includes a macro language for accessing areas or fields in the host screen image, and returning values to be used in the screen fields when the reply is transmitted to the host. The macro language also allows conditional display of HTML sections depending on the content of areas or fields on the host screen.
