by John Browne, on Mar 1, 2018 6:00:00 AM
Not every legacy app has a database connection but I've yet to see one of any size or value that didn't.
That said, we here at Mobilize have largely left the database/data layer alone--part of the beauty of our migration tools (like VBUC) is that they play so nicely with your existing DB code, converting RDO, DAO, and ADO to ADO.NET for easy connection to SQL Server or even Microsoft Access. However, that's only one piece in the legacy DB puzzle.
Well now we have a bigger solution, thanks to our newest partner CONNX. Part of Software AG, CONNX has drivers for a variety of databases (IMS, RMS, DB2, VSAM, Adabas, and a zillion more) for synchronization, replication, connection, and more. As of today, Mobilize.Net is a reseller for CONNX products. You can see the full list of adaptors here.
Virtual connections, federating data, and more
Imagine, if you will, our demo app Salmon King Seafood--VB6 with a Microsoft Access database behind it. SKS knows about orders, customers, products, and inventory. What it doesn't know about is customer credit history. That information, for the sake of this example, is stored in an ERP system that uses a DEC RMS database.
It's pretty quick and easy to modernize SKS from VB6 to either .NET (keeping it on a laptop) or even HTML and that's cool and all but it doesn't help the sales reps know if they need to chase a slow-pay customer before submitting a new order from said deadbeat. Up to now, the finance department has been trying to keep the sales team up to date on who's current and who's 90 days behind via email, but it has not been a successful effort. Sales reps, hungry for commission, take orders from customers who are already over their credit limit.
So with CONNX, let's add "Credit_limit", "Current_balance" and "Days_past_due" fields to the Customers table in SKS, and connect those two fields to the database using a CONNX RMS adaptor. Now in real time the sales team will see, before processing an order, whether the customer should be greeted with a smile or a frown.
Modernizing your apps with Mobilize.Net tools and federating all your data with CONNX means any app can access any data, regardless of where it resides or in what format.
And that's got to be a good thing.
