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COBOL CGI

Connect your RM/COBOL Application to the Web

Cobol-CGI is a remarkably easy way to integrate your COBOL application with the Internet's World Wide Web. So easy in fact, that you can have your first COBOL program connected to the Web in a matter of minutes! With Cobol-CGI you directly connect your Web pages to COBOL programs. No need for a Perl interpreter or scripts. No need to rewrite your server programs to be event driven. Cobol-CGI makes it easy for your COBOL application to communicate directly with the Web. With Cobol-CGI you can create a Web based user interface and easily connect it to your core COBOL programs without rewriting them. Cobol-CGI can execute COBOL programs directly on the Web server, or it can be combined with Cobol-RPC

Cobol-CGI Makes Web Integration As Easy as 1, 2, 3

  1. You create Web pages for the client using any HTML tool, editor, or feature you want, including Java or Java Script. The Web pages do not need any special preparation to call COBOL. To call a COBOL program from the Web page, simply include the COBOL runtime as the ACTION for a form or directly in a URL. This will cause the Web server to execute your COBOL program. Cobol-CGI will allow the COBOL program on the server to easily access the necessary information from the client so that no special handling is required in your Web pages.

  2. The server program needs to retrieve data from the client, such as the values entered on a form. Cobol-CGI provides a simple COBOL approach to getting this data. The COBOL program calls a special function, CGIREAD, and supplies the name of the form fields or environment variables it wants to retrieve the values for. Cobol-CGI returns the values. Then the COBOL program processes the data using standard COBOL feature. The server program also needs to create a Web page to return to the client as a response. Cobol-CGI makes this easy too! The COBOL program calls another special function, CGIWRITE, and passes the HTML text lines that make up the response page. Cobol-CGI returns them to the client.

  3. The client displays the Web page created by the COBOL program. This page can use any feature of HTML — even forms. That's all there is to it!

Cobol-CGI makes the interface between the Web browser and the COBOL program so simple that it does not complicate the development process. You can spend your time creating great Web pages and great COBOL programs, not struggling to integrate them!

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