On Fri, Mar 31, 2017 at 8:20 PM, Steve Beaver <[email protected]> wrote:
> I seem to remember someone saying that GNU Cobol gens out as C or C++. If > that is true that is great. > > I got a request from my brother, of all people, to prototype a Client > Server > application. That is easy enough > However I don't know squat about writing HTML and tying it to an ACCESS DB > or a SQL DB based upon a > Signon Screen prompting for an ID/PASSWORD then let the user read/update > and > create reports. > > IF this was CICS and VSAM or DB2/IMS I could get it done in a few days. > But > it's not so. > > Does anyone have a GNU Cobol example that essentially do what can be done > in > COBOL/CICS or point > Me to a FM or guide to do this stuff > > Thanks in Advance > > Steve > > Way too little information. There are a lot of infrastructure questions that need to be answered. Such as: What OS? Windows, Linux, *BSD, MacOSX, other? You mentioned HTML, so I assume this is a web server. Which web server? MS IIS, Apache, NGINX, Tomcat, other (and there at _TONS_ of the monsters). Which data base? You mentioned ACCESS DB (which is not what I consider a data base, but that's me) and "SQL DB" (MS SQL Server? MySQL/MariaDB? PostgreSQL? Sqlite3?) The HTML can be very simple. But, IMO, putting up a "signon screen" is not the proper way to do it. In Apache, you can define a "page" as requiring authorization and it will handle the authentication. The easiest way is with "mod_auth_basic", described here: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_auth_basic.html . I'm sure other web servers also implement this type of thing. It is generically called "HTTP Basic Authentication" and works much like what you are describing. But, as they say, the devil is in the details. Your question is much like telling an automotive engineer: "I need a motorized vehicle." (motor cycle? compact car? sedan? SUV? Pick up? Van?) The very basics of how basic authentication works is that the user tells his browser to go to a page, such as https://www.mycompany.com/FirstPage.html . The web server receives this request. The server's configuration indicates (somehow, depends on the server software) that basic authentication is required for this page. Generally this means that the first time, the server sends back a 401 response code. The browser knows this means "Not authorized". The browser will then pop up a dialog box asking for the userid/password. When the user enters it, the browser resends the original request, with the (usually encoded) userid & password. The server receives this and validates the given userid/password. Exactly how again depends on the web server software used. One authenticated, the browser now locally caches this userid/password and transparently sends it every time you go back to a page in the same "domain" as defined by the web server. This is not too difficult. It can't be. I've done it on z/OS using the old HTTP server (not the new Apache server). But I had been messing with HTML and Javascript for a couple of years on my own using my home Linux system. I guess trying to teach a 3270 CICS/BMS coder HTML would be about as difficult as teaching an HTML coder 3270 CICS/BMS. The concepts are there, but the "fiddly" stuff is quite different. It might actually be easier to do this with some sort of "Web page design" software. Example Google search: https://www.google.com/search?q=web+page+design+software&oq=web+page+design+software Looking on Amazon, there are packages around for $10 to over $100. Well, I'm tottling off to sleep now. -- "Irrigation of the land with seawater desalinated by fusion power is ancient. It's called 'rain'." -- Michael McClary, in alt.fusion Maranatha! <>< John McKown ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
