5250 Connect User’s Guide
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What is the 5250 (TDS) Connect?
The 5250 Connect XML-enables IBM AS/400-legacy system data using the User
Interface integration strategy by hooking into the Terminal Data Stream (TDS).
The term 5250 is commonly used to refer to the generic "dumb terminal" types
used to connect to IBM AS/400 mid-range systems. When connecting to an IBM
AS/400, the 5250 TDS uses IBM’s EBCDIC character-encoding scheme. The
5250 TDS, which was developed in the 1960s, emerged as that generation’s
standard, and persists today. The 5250 TDS allows users to interact with legacy
applications through the use of attention keys (e.g., Enter and Function Keys) that
are interpreted by the application running on the host to perform the appropriate
actions. This interaction, through a dumb terminal, means that all the data is
processed information from the AS/400 computer. The 5250 terminal emulation
software can be used to make a microcomputer or PC act as if it were a 5250-type
terminal while it is communicating with an AS/400.
Using the 5250 Connect, you can make legacy applications running on an IBM
AS/400 and their business logic available to the internet, extranet, or intranet
processes. The 5250 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 request documents to drive the inquiries and updates into the
screens rather than keying, use the messages returned from applications screens to
make the same decisions as if you were at a terminal, and move the data and
responses into XML documents that can be returned to the requestor or continue
to be processed. The 5250 screens appear in the Native Environment pane of the
5250 Component Editor.
5250 Screens appear in the Native Environment pane
