Development environment merges strengths of Visual Basic
with 3000's traditional database reliability

HP 3000 sites have deployed a version of Speedware that incorporates the graphical interface of Visual Basic, so users of the fourth- generation language can extend the lifespan and capability of their systems.

Visual Speedware lets IT departments use NT workstations and PCs to create graphical interfaces for applications already written in Speedware 5 or Speedware 7. The development tool is “an enhanced Visual Basic,” as described by product manager Chris Koppe. The product goes beyond building a look for Windows clients, by letting users’ desktop systems help shoulder transactions using two- and three-tier designs.

The product’s primary target market is the existing Speedware customer base, with the 3000 installed base as a secondary target.

Customers purchase a copy of Visual Basic — such as VB Professional — for their workstations, then add the development environment for Visual Speedware. Speedware used Microsoft’s add-in technology to modify Visual Basic, giving it the ability to communicate with and understand HP 3000 databases and logic running on the 3000 server. Creating a form in Visual Basic provides an element that’s included in the Visual Speedware repository back end. This repository, located on a development server such as an Windows NT or 95 system, stores the client-server definitions and information for Visual Speedware systems.

Koppe described the product as using a three-way connection: a development workstation, the development server, and the back-end HP 3000 running the Speedware application code and databases. The configuration lets 3000 sites deploy NT as a useful element in MPE/iX development.

“You don’t need to have the development server on the HP 3000 to use it,” Koppe said. The flexibility continues on the back-end server, which can be either a 3000, an NT system or an HP-UX server. Visual Speedware enhances Visual Basic by “taking care of things that don’t exist in VB but are required for mission-critical enterprise applications,” he added.

Visual Basic is a natural complement to the HP 3000 in this implementation, Koppe said, because it lets each system do the task it performs best. Things like back-end processing edit masks, field-level options, lookups and security — essentially all roll-your-own propositions with Visual Basic — are supplied with Visual Speedware.

“The databases that run their business don’t run on a PC,” Koppe said. “They bought a 3000 for a reason, and their mission-critical applications all run from a 3000. It’s aware of things such as security, multiuser logon, making sure certain users see some fields while others don’t. PC tools like Visual Basic have no concept of these things built into them.”

Database access is native within the HP 3000, not through ODBC, Koppe explained. DCE RPC architecture connects the PCs and application servers. “It’s important in doing three-tier client server, especially in the 3000 community, where lots of shops have more than 50 users,” Koppe said. End users see a Windows screen that’s been built with the enhanced Visual Basic. Behind it lies the application logic residing on the HP 3000 in Speedware. Customers decide how much code runs on the PCs and how much on the 3000s.

At Pakhoed Corp. in Houston, programmer/analyst Dennis Machado said the whole process of moving from Speedware 5 to the Visual Speedware environment took just under eight months, using the help of Speedware’s consulting services. The company, which faced the prospect of turning away from its Series 949 HP 3000 because the system wasn’t Year 2000-compliant, instead used Visual Speedware to extend the scope of its applications while adding Y2K compliance.

The five-member IS team wanted to work in a visual programming environment. They also wanted to winnow the three languages that made up the applications — two versions of Speedware and COBOL — dow to a single language. The HP 3000 at Pakhoed, which serves three divisions providing liquid storage, railcar cleaning and dry bulk packaging and warehousing, is shifting its role. Visual Speedware lets the system become a data server, rather than a front-line session system.

The learning curve was bigger than expected, Machado reported. “Think of the Disney song ‘A Whole New World,’ ” he said in describing the difference between Speedware and working in the Visual environment. Machado had taken a six week self-training Visual Basic course more than two years ago, but that’s about all the significant VB experience the team could bring to the training task.

“If you want to be able to use the Visual Speedware tool, you need to know [Visual Basic]. You don’t need to know things about data controls, because VS takes care of all that for you. But if you want to put a printer icon on the toolbar, you need to know VB, because that’s a VB trick as opposed to something Speedware is going to do for you.”

The lack of a development-time formatting wizard, like that in Speedware 5 and 7, makes managing changes more complicated for Pakhoed staff.

“We were spoiled by Version 7,” Machado said. “It’s a wonderful tool that gives us the opportunity to develop screens, reports, user field help and system documentation all in one. It’s different when you move to Visual Speedware. In the event that database changes are necessary, they must be reflected in both the Speedware 7 design and the VS repository.” Speedware’s Koppe said the formatting wizard is scheduled for release next summer.

Field editing is done differently as well, though it can be simulated “through careful use of error flags and fotFocus/LostFocus events,” Machado said. “Be ready to rework your code.”

Pakhoed’s Machado has been pleased with the overall results of moving to Visual Speedware. It kept the company from migrating to an operating environment (Unix) and a database (Oracle) where it had no experience or leverage.

“Regardless of our gripes, we are very favorably impressed with Visual Speedware,” he said. “The alternatives all had drawbacks. We’d lose all the investment in our existing code, as well as going through a much bigger learning curve.”

Thousands of teachers covered by the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL) are getting an improved membership system — already hosted on an HP 3000 — because of a migration to Visual Speedware. TRSL is the state’s largest public retirement system, with 94,000 active and inactive members and provides benefits to 44,000 retirees, survivors, and beneficiaries with assets of nearly $10 billion.

The system will feature an FileNet imaging module of scanned documents hosted on an HP 9000, linked to a Series 979 HP 3000. Standard form letters reside on a NetWare server.

“We wanted to install an imaging system using FileNet and Visual Basic for presentation,” said technical services manager Douglas Smith. “The users visited other retirement systems who have implemented similar systems. They pretty much sold the concept for us.”

Smith said Visual Speedware “fit in nicely with Visual Basic. Visual Basic with the FileNet and Speedware controls allowed us to present data and documents on the users’ screens by just clicking one button. The source of the information is transparent to the users. You cannot do this with character-based systems. We are also able to generate letters automatically from data on the HP 3000.”

TRSL sent programmers to Visual Basic training before working with Visual Speedware, but still faced a steep learning curve. “Even with the training, the learning curve is pretty significant, a change in your mindset from COBOL to Visual Basic,” Smith said. “The staff was quite familiar with the classic Speedware, so that helps.”

The product starts at $5,000 for a single development seat. Speedware is running a special promotion of up to 70 percent off for existing customers.

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