GCOS 8: GCOS 8 & Internet

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GCOS 8 & Internet

Internet solutions can be seamlessly integrated into the GCOS 8 environment, thanks to the global adoption of TCP/IP in GCOS 8 networking through MainWay and the GTEA APIs library.
Web solutions can be introduced with no disruption thanks to Web 8, which turns GCOS 8/TP8 into a TP Web server with flexible presentation on workstations equipped with standard Web browsers.
The performance of TP8 is optimized :
- Protocol conversions, GTEA and GEAP or MainWay HTTP-DSA gateways are implemented external to GCOS 8.
- The adoption of the HTML based standard presentation for TP applications simplifies users' interaction with TP8.
By adopting the Java language, GCOS 8 has assimilated the major technologies and standards of the Internet world. The road to the Electronic Commerce solutions is now open.

Thanks to GCOS 8 "New Frontier", Internet technologies and standards now benefit GCOS 8 users

As new Internet applications gradually open information systems to enterprises partners and customers, an additional benefit is the increasing value of investments in GCOS 8 applications and data. Enterprises or government agencies now have a new way to interact with their clients, their suppliers, and/or the general public. GCOS 8 users can now take advantage of the Internet and the Web by combining the best of both worlds — the universality of Internet and the robust transaction processing power of GCOS 8.

Through its GCOS 8 “New Frontier” program, Bull has introduced Internet and Web technologies across its major product lines – using technologies that are specified and endorsed by international standards organizations :

• TCP/IP : The universal communication protocol
Born with the Internet, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is the de facto Web communication protocol.

• HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol) and its companion language : HTML (HyperText Markup Language) : The application exchange protocol on the worldwide Web.
Dynamic links can be established between documents located on remote, heterogeneous sites that are connected via the Internet. This possibility results from the generalization of the hypertext concept, and the implementation of simple standards for document exchange (HTTP) and document description (HTML language). Easy-to-use browsers interpret these “documents” (i.e., Web pages) on a workstation.

• URL : The unique addressing mechanism
The addressing mechanism that identifies every object on the Web : the Universal Resource Locator. When the GCOS 8 server becomes a TP Web server in the Web 8 solution, URLs are used.

• Workstation with Browser : The “universal client”
The browser’s graphical interface is intuitively easy to use and is a de facto standard, independent of proprietary interfaces of workstation operating systems. This independence has been extended with the introduction of Java micro-applications (or “applets”) in Web pages. Bull is using this capability by offering VIPlet which is a Java applet achieving the VIP terminal emulation : through a Web browser a GCOS 8 user can access GCOS 8 applications in VIP emulation mode, thanks to the VIPlet downloaded “just intime.”

GCOS 8 enterprise servers open via TCP/IP communications

Because of the constant progress in throughput and reliability of telecommunication lines and devices, TCP/IP is a generally-adopted communication protocol. Suppliers in the data processing and telecommunication market support TCP/IP. Its adoption by GCOS 8 data center can yield significant cost reductions and enable standardization on fewer networking platforms.

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• Cooperation between TCP/IP networks and GCOS 8 infrastructures :
MainWay, the Bull communication server, a favorite entry point of GCOS data centers, enables communication between TCP/IP networks and networking infrastructures driven by protocols such as SNA or DSA.
With its ONP (Open Network Processor), MainWay fully supports TCP/IP networking and integrates TCP/IP with the DSA-oriented GCOS 8 environment.

• Cooperation between client applications and GCOS 8 over TCP/IP networks :
GTEA (GCOS TCP/IP Enterprise Access) is a software gateway that enables GCOS 8 users to write DSA applications and “transport” them over TCP/IP networks for a platform (AIX, Windows NT/95) that communicates directly -as client applications- with DSA-oriented GCOS 8 programs. GTEA is installed as a library of routines, effectively exporting the DSA/GCOS 8 APIs (Application Programmatic Interface) to the client system.

Web applications bring a new dimension to GCOS 8 systems

Internet technologies open the transaction processing power of GCOS 8 to the largest possible number of users in a twofold perspective :

    • The Web 8 solution for direct Internet access to TP8
    • The cooperation of new departmental Web applications and
       GCOS 8 servers where enterprise data reside.

Web 8 turns GCOS 8 into a TP Web server

Web 8 : the simplest and most efficient solution for direct access to TP8 over the Web.
Thanks to Web 8, any user can access TP8 thru a standard Web browser, without any intermediate Web server. Web 8 turns TP8 into a transaction processing Web server that provides database access and TP capabilities over any Internet/Intranet infrastructure.

Web 8 : the easiest and most progressive way to implement Web applications integrated with GCOS 8.
Once connected to a TP8 application, workstations equipped with a Web browser can gradually replace conventional TP8 stations, at whatever pace the enterprise chooses to implement the Web 8 solution. Web 8 integrates vendor-neutral Web technologies with GCOS 8 technologies : TCP/IP, HTTP and HTML, combined with TP8 and IDS/II.

• COBOL will continue to be the primary language for building production TP applications that can interact with thousands of workstations, and also for building utility data-access TPRs to serve browser clients. With Web 8, TPR developers can concentrate on business rules and database access, leaving the details of presentation to Web page designers. Existing TPRs may require only slight modification for browser access, depending on the original design of the TPR.

• HTML introduces a new and highly flexible way to design the presentation aspects of TP applications. Scripting language capabilities, such as JavaScript, can be used to streamline and simplify users’ interactions, thereby improving ease-of-use while increasing TP8 efficiency.

• Tasks that can be accomplishing using scripting can be distributed to the browser (the client), offloading this processing from GCOS 8 and TP8.

Web 8 : The power of GCOS 8 transaction applications combined with the ease of use of a Web browser

Step-by-step, all capabilities of HTML can be introduced into the user’s browser interaction with TP8. The enterprise can choose to begin with familiar screen displays, executed as a Web page by the Web browser. An alternative that is usually more attractive is to adapt the presentation of TP8 output to styles that are familiar from other uses of Web browsers. The enterprise can choose to leverage the full power of HTML, combined with a scripting language such as JavaScript, so that the user interacts with intelligent forms through the Web browser. Over time, these capabilities can be used to reduce the number of exchanges between the workstation and TP8, simplifying the tasks of both users and TP8.
With TP8 as the centralized transaction server, a secure, more easily administered, and easier to deploy two-tier client/server architecture can thus be deployed over an Internet infrastructure, while taking advantages of the well-known benefits of TP8 and GCOS 8.

Web 8 : HTTP-DSA gateways designed to provide the best fit to the Internet infrastructure chosen

The Web 8 gateway products provide direct access to GCOS 8 from Web browsers by converting stateless HTTP and TCP/IP connections into persistent DSA sessions. Bull offers two HTTP-DSA gateways’ implementation outside the GCOS 8 mainframe :

• The MainWay HTTP-DSA gateway is designed to provide Web connectivity to the customers of an enterprise by using the global Internet, with no additional software to distribute to clients. Any client system with a vendor-neutral Web browser can connect to GCOS 8 via MainWay.

• The GEAP( GCOS Enterprise Access with Performance) HTTP-DSA gateway is designed to provide maximum performance for applications used by the employees of an enterprise. For best performance, GEAP will be installed in the remote offices of a company. GEAP implements remote forms capabilities that significantly reduce the amount of network traffic required for HTML based applications.

When implementing a Web 8 solution, Webform 8 , installed on the GCOS 8 platform, provides a collection of tools for developing TP8 applications that interact directly with Web browsers.

Cooperation of Web departmental applications and GCOS 8

• Cooperation of Web servers and GCOS 8 enterprise servers

The integration of new Web applications and GCOS 8 applications results in multi-level client/server architectures. One level is the “universal client,” the term for a workstation equipped with a browser; the next level is a server that supports new Web applications (such as home shopping and home banking) supplied with enterprise data resident on the GCOS 8 server; and the top level is the enterprise server itself.

• Development Tools and Interoperability Solutions

Development tools and interoperability solutions minimize the impact of the Web on GCOS 8 applications. Tools for developing Web applications on intermediate servers are readily available (e.g., Netscape SuiteSpot, Oracle WebServer, Prolifics, NatWeb). Interaction between the client application and the GCOS 8 transaction server is handled by GCOS 8-Open Systems interoperability solutions.

Secure Internet access for GCOS 8

Bull offers comprehensive Internet/Intranet solutions ranging from electronic trading to Web server development. Bull also offers the following security solutions to protect the organization’s information resources :

    • AccessMaster for centralized access management

    • The SecurWare Bull offer, consisting of :
        - NetWall, Bull’s firewall solution
        - ID for individual authentication using
        - VPN (Virtual Private Network) for setting up a virtual private
          network using encryption systems