How does ArtinSoft converts your Unisys Linc applications to Java?


Our highly-automated migration process will convert Linc code to Java cost-effectively by using a relational database as a persistence mechanism. The standard Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) defines a series of technologies and logic tiers where the software components that make up an organization’s corporate application are located. In Linc, an ISpec can define aspects such as the screen, a database structure and the business logic as a response to an action by the user. Figure 1 shows the correspondence of the general elements of Linc with those of J2EE.

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Figure 1: Correspondence of Elements of Linc vs. J2EE

How it Works

Our complete, turnkey solution generates the following J2EE tiers from Linc:

Layer Description
Client tier Each ISpec of type Input or InputOuput becomes an HTML page that the user has access to. Additionally, elements such as a "Cascading Style Sheet" (CSS) are used to obtain a more configurable interface. To achieve a greater efficiency and provide a better experience for the end user, Java Script libraries are generated to perform tasks such as the validation of required fields.
Web tier
 Each ISpec of type Input or InputOutput generates a JSP component, which is responsible for dynamically generating the HTML screen that is displayed to the user. Java Standard Tags Library (JSTL) is used to generate this JSP.
Business tier
 Each ISpec of type Input or InputOutput generates a Java class which contains the business logic defined in the ISpec as methods of this class. This class extends the GenericProcess class (provided by ArtinSoft), which is in charge of providing the necessary functionality to execute the migrated code in the same way as defined by the Linc cycle. Additionally, the business tier generates a Stateless Enterprise Java to implement the Façade pattern. This EJB determines which generated Java class must handle the request, and moves the execution of the control to that class.
Database access tier
 For each ISpec of type Output or InputOutput a class is generated that encapsulates all access and operations with the database. This class enables the implementation of the Data Access Object pattern. The methods to access the database are generated automatically based on the information provided by the Determine and Look.Up commands along with the defined Profiles.
Relational database tier
 The general model for the migration of the database consists of 3 phases:
  • Generation of the relational database. The table creation scripts are generated automatically by the data migration tool using the Linc source code.
  • Data extraction. The tool generates reports in Linc from the ISpecs of type Output and InputOutput that allow stored information to be moved form the DMSII database to plain text files.
  • Population of the relational database. The plain text files are imported to the database using tools such as Oracle SQLLoader or DB2 Load.

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