Tandem Connect User's Guide

CHAPTER 1

Welcome to exteNd Composer and Tandem Connect

 
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Before You Begin

Welcome to the Tandem Connect Guide. This Guide is a companion to the exteNd Composer User's Guide, which details how to use all the features of exteNd Composer, except for the Connect Component Editors. If you haven't looked at the Composer User's Guide yet, please familiarize yourself with it before using this Guide.

exteNd Composer provides separate Component Editors for each Connect. The special features of each component editor are described in separate Guides like this one.

If you have been using exteNd Composer, and are familiar with the XML Map Component Editor, then this Guide should get you started with the Tandem Component Editor.

Before you can begin working with the Tandem Connect you must have installed it into your existing exteNd Composer. Likewise, before you can run any Services built with this Connect in the exteNd Composer Enterprise Server environment, you must have already installed the server-side software for this Connect into Composer Enterprise Server.

NOTE:   To be successful with this Component Editor, you must be familiar with the Tandem environment and the particular applications that you want to XML-enable.

 
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About exteNd Composer Connects

exteNd Composer is built upon a simple hub and spoke architecture (Fig.1-1). The hub is a robust XML transformation engine that accepts requests via XML documents, performs transformation processes on those documents and interfaces with XML-enabled applications, and returns an XML response document. The spokes, or Connects, are plug-in modules that "XML-enable" sources of data that are not XML aware, bringing their data into the hub for processing as XML. These data sources can be anything from legacy COBOL/applications to Message Queues to HTML pages.

HubSpoke


exteNd Composer Connects can be categorized by the integration strategy each one employs to XML-enable an information source. The integration strategies are a reflection of the major divisions used in modern systems designs for Internet-based computing architectures. Depending on your B2B needs and the architecture of your legacy applications, exteNd Composer can integrate your business systems at the User Interface, Program Logic, or Data levels. (See below.) Fred

 
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What Is Tandem Terminal?

The Tandem Connect XML-enables Tandem 6530 terminal-based applications using the User Interface integration strategy by hooking into the terminal data stream.

Many applications have been developed for Tandem terminal based systems. These systems allow remote execution of their interface through the Telnet protocol. Host screens can be sent to a client and keyed data can be accepted from the client. This interaction, through a so-called "dumb" terminal, means that all the data is processed on the host computer. Tandem terminal emulation software can be used to make a microcomputer or PC act as if it were an Tandem-type terminal while it is communicating with a host computer.

Using the Tandem Connect , you can make legacy applications and their business logic available to the internet, extranet, or intranet processes. The Tandem Connect Component Editor allows you to build Web Services by simply navigating through an application as if you were at a terminal session. You will use XML documents to drive inquiries and updates into the screens rather than keying, use the messages returned from application screens to make the same decisions as if you were at a terminal, and move data and responses into XML documents that can be returned to the requestor or continue to be processed. The Tandem terminal screens appear in the Native Environment Pane of the Tandem Component Editor.

 
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About exteNd Composer's Tandem Component

Much like the XML Map component, the Tandem Component is designed to map, transform, and transfer data between two different XML templates (i.e., request and response XML documents). However, it is specialized to make a connection (via TCP/IP) to a host application, process the data using elements from a screen, and then map the results to an output DOM. You can then act upon the output DOM in any way that makes sense for your integration application. In essence, you're able to capture data from, or push data to, a host system without ever having to alter the host system itself.

A Tandem Component can perform simple data manipulations, such as mapping and transferring data from an XML document into a host program, or perform "screen scraping" of a Tandem terminal program, putting the harvested data into an XML document. A Tandem Component has all the functionality of the XML Map Component and can process XSL, send mail, and post and receive XML documents using the HTTP protocol.

 
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What Applications Can You Build Using the Tandem User Interface Component Editor?

exteNd Composer, and consequently the Tandem Connect, can be applied to the the following types of applications:

  1. Business to Business Web Service interactions such as supply chain applications.

  2. Consumer to Business interactions such as self-service applications from Web Browsers.

  3. Enterprise Application Integrations where information from heterogeneous systems is combined or chained together.

    Fundamentally, the Tandem Component Editor allows you to extend any XML integration you are building to include any of your business applications that support Tandem-based terminal interactions (See the exteNd Composer User's Guide for more information.)

    For example, you may have an application that retrieves a product's description, picture, price, and inventory from regularly updated databases and displays it in a Web browser. By using the Tandem Component Editor, you can now get the current product information from the operational systems and the static information (e.g., a picture) from a database and merge the information from these separate information sources before displaying it to a user. This provides the same current information to both your internal and external users.



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