Launching programs via Genie?

[topshot]

Sorry for what is likely a simple question, but I am not at all an AS400 programmer/operator, just a .Net programmer tasked with creating an application that uses PL products to interface with our AS400. To date, the application works fine with Rich Display programs that have been converted and they are displayed using a browser control provided with the following URL:
"http://MyServer:8080/profoundui/auth/st ... 1={0}&l1=9" where {0} is a sessionID.

The problem is that many of the AS400 "objects" can't be converted to Rich Display without significant refactoring so my boss wants to run everything through Genie.

I see at the bottom of this doc that I should be able to launch a Rich Display program through Genie, but I don't see anywhere how I make "A simple CALL" with Genie to do that.

I also see in this doc I should be able to run Profound within Genie, which seems like what we want, but I'm not understanding what I need to change in the .Net app.

I need to move forward on this ASAP so any guidance would be greatly appreciated. :)

[Scott Klement]

Genie works by creating a 5250 terminal session -- just like an old-school non-programble terminal. There's no way to have the URL start a particular program because there's really no way to just have a program start in that terminal session. Instead, you log on, get a command prompt, menu, or the user's "initial program" (a program configured to run automatically when the user signs on to a 5250 terminal).

These terminals are what allows you to use your programs without changing anything -- since the old programs you're trying to run are for these old-school terminals, because Genie acts like one, they can work. But, it is a double-edged sword, because the terminals don't provide a way to launch a program based on a URL, since there were no such things as a URL back in the 1950s when this type of terminal logic was first invented.

Our workaround to this is to write a "macro". The macro pretends to be a user, and logs on to the terminal session, navigates the command-prompts, menus, programs, or whatever you have set up for your users to run, and does whatever is needed to run a program. You can learn more about Genie Macros here:
http://www.profoundlogic.com/docs/display/PUI/Macros

I'm curious about your statement that using Rich Display requires a lot of refactoring? One of the main designs of Rich Display is that it doesn't require any refactoring -- so I don't understand that statement. A lot of customers can't use Rich Display because they don't have the source for programs (3rd party programs) or the programs aren't written in RPG, or something like that... so we have Genie and we have the solution of running a macro to make it launchable. But, having to refactor the code? That shouldn't be needed. Can you clarify that?

[topshot]

Our workaround to this is to write a "macro". The macro pretends to be a user, and logs on to the terminal session, navigates the command-prompts, menus, programs, or whatever you have set up for your users to run, and does whatever is needed to run a program. You can learn more about Genie Macros here:
http://www.profoundlogic.com/docs/display/PUI/Macros

Scott,
My boss also thought we may have to use macros, but after reading that section, which he'd printed out for me, I didn't see how I would call a program via a macro like the bottom of that one doc I had linked said, "A simple CALL, just like you would call any other RPG prorgam [sic], is all that's required to launch a Rich Display program from Genie." I get the impression from your response that I need to emulate whatever keystrokes are required to do so (ie, moving a cursor to a particular spot and entering keystrokes to call xyz).

That also makes me even more unclear on how Profound runs within Genie like the other doc I linked. Some things can be called via URL and some things will apparently have to be called via macro (which can use a different URL), but the latter will require more effort so is there some way I could tell within my .Net app whether it will be an RDF or not?

I'm curious about your statement that using Rich Display requires a lot of refactoring?

It's not that the Rich Displays need refactoring. It's that some things we have apparently won't convert to a RDF for some reason, and my boss said he didn't have the time to fix them. I'm not sure what the issue is. I understand we have some RPG3 programs so maybe they're too old? I'd say over half, maybe even 3/4, of what we have has been converted.

Unfortunately, I have no familiarity with using the i system terminal at all other than starting a session. I have only used i Navigator to do queries and find things in IFS.

Edited to add: I asked my boss what the issue was with programs that didn't convert, and he says:

The most common issue with displays that will not convert is variable line number displays.
Which means you set the line number(row) and write the screen and it populates that “row” or line.
They will be migrated to subfiles (grids) eventually.