FW: Axiant

[Hasse, Christina]

Hopefully you will find this useful in your quest for information about
Axiant and thin client with HP3000.

-----Original Message-----
From: Whittall, Conrad 
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 5:50 PM
To: Hasse, Christina
Subject: FW: Axiant


FYI...

-----Original Message-----
From: Whittall, Conrad 
Sent: Thursday 29 March 2001 18:49
To: 'james.stanton@execrelo.com'
Subject: RE: Axiant


Hello Jim,

I don't believe that we have any documents that specifically deal with
moving MPE/iX PowerHouse applications into Axiant. I'm assuming that you
want to leave the application running on the HP e3000 (against IMAGE and
KSAM) but update the user interface...creating a thin-client solution that
gives you a friendly Windows UI together with a solid, reliable,
easy-to-administer, back-end server. (Definitely the way to go, in my
personal opinion.)

However, there are a few steps that you can take that will probably make
life much easier for you. First of all, make sure that you have the latest
Axiant 3.0 RBF from customer support. I believe this to be Build 1130 (which
can also be downloaded from the customer support web site,
http://support.cognos.com).

Then, on your Axiant development machines, manually add the entry to the
Windows Registry that restores the single file import menu items. I detailed
how to do this in an article in the technical section of the January-March
2001 issue, Volume 11 Number 1 Page 66, of Supportlink. If you don't have a
copy to hand let me know, and I will send you the text of the article. There
is no need to do this for Axiant Client machines as it only affects the
development workbench.

Once you have added this Windows Registry key you will find new options
under the "Tools" menu in the Axiant workbench, such as "Import PDL",
"Import QUICK", etc. This makes it pretty easy to now directly "import",
rather than "migrate" via a Migration Profile, your existing PDL, QDESIGN,
QUIZ and QTP source code. However, before you do this you should verify that
the defaults to be used during migrations/imports are as you want them --
click the Repository object (the safe icon) once to give it focus, then
right-click and select the Open option, and check the details on the Options
tab of the dialog that appears. For example, you can set here the target
container objects for any programs that you migrate/import (Application
Name), as well as any element definitions (Element Library Name) and record
layouts (Structure Library Name) that come from migrating/importing PDL data
definitions.

Another place that you will want to ensure you have defined your defaults
before importing programs into Axiant is in the Default Section
Library...setting up the default style section, form section, menu section
and toolbar section (at a minimum) that you want your QUICK programs to
inherit as they are imported. You can use the ones pre-loaded into the
repository by Axiant (and perhaps modify them), or simply use them as the
basis for your own customized sections -- which, of course, can start by
inheriting from the pre-loaded sections and then having certain properties
"specialized" to create the look and feel that you want. Note that while you
can specialize any of the properties of an object in a section, including
its position if it happens to be a form section that you are dealing with,
it isn't possible to delete an inherited object. If you need to do this,
better to create a copy of one of the pre-loaded sections and cut it down to
the minimum you need, then create other sections that build upon this by
inheriting from this base section and adding whatever extra objects you
need.

It doesn't matter that these sections might not be exactly as you want them
to start with. That's the great thing about inheritance -- so long as the
QUICK screen you import inherits these objects you can change them later on
and your imported QUICK programs will automatically pick up the changes
(unless you have overridden particular properties at a lower level, such as
at the individual program level itself). And it is much easier to have
Axiant add the inheritance of these sections as it imports the programs than
for you to go into each program afterwards to do it manually (which, of
course, you can do).

Finally you need to ensure that in the properties for the Application object
that you are going to import your programs into you have set up, in the
Default Sections tab, all of the sections from your Default Section Library
that you want your QUICK programs to inherit as they are imported into
Axiant.

I hope that this gives you a few pointers as to how you can import, rather
than migrate, your existing PowerHouse into the Axiant environment.

As for the pricing changes hinted at on the listserver, when we released
Axiant 3.0 we reduced the price of the development workbench to
approximately the same level as the administrator version of Impromptu,
around US$895. This was in recognition of the fact that most of the
customers purchasing Axiant probably already had PowerHouse development
licenses on their servers, and that they would be using Axiant to build and
deploy thin-client applications using those server-based development
licenses. There are now no volume discounts on the Axiant development
workbench, and the annual support and maintenance fees are now a much larger
percentage of this reduced license fee.

If you would like to discuss having one of our own consultants spend a few
days with you to perhaps help you get to grips with Axiant (and maybe even
look at PowerHouse Web for MPE/iX) then the person to contact is Christina
Hasse, North American Manager of ADT Services. She can be reached in our
Chicago office on (847) 285-2905, or by e-mail at
christina.hasse@cognos.com.

Christina is also the person to talk with if you are interested in obtaining
Axiant training. We tend not to publish a public schedule of courses for
Axiant as demand is very erratic. Instead, Christina often arranges to have
Axiant courses taught on-site for an individual customer, for perhaps up to
12 students, at a rate similar to hiring the consultant for a similar period
of time (plus T&L). This is often a much more economic way for customers to
get all of their developers trained at once, rather than sending them off to
another city one at a time to a public course (when they are held).

I hope that this helps. Good luck!

Best regards,
Conrad

Conrad Whittall
Marketing Manager, Application Development Tools, Cognos Incorporated
3755 Riverside Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1G 4K9, Canada

Tel. +1 (613) 738-1338 ext.7229
Fax. +1 (613) 727-0236

Developer productivity never goes out of style!

For details of the Cognos PowerHouse family of high-productivity
development tools for Web, Windows and terminal-based business
applications, and to request your own free copy of our new product
demo CD, simply click here http://www.cognos.com/powerhouse.

-----Original Message-----
From: james.stanton@execrelo.com [mailto:james.stanton@execrelo.com]
Sent: Wednesday 28 March 2001 14:27
To: Conrad.Whittall@Cognos.COM
Subject: Axiant

Conrad, Is there any white paper that you know of which details how to
migrate a HPe3000 Powerhouse 8.29 shop to Axiant?  I realize you have
the old 12 step and what to think about migration pdf but short of
getting a consultant (which we have received names for Cognos) has
anyone documented issues as starting PowerGrid, moving your PDL into
Axiant, moving your quick screens into Axiant, etc....  The
documentation is very generic (which I understand).  It's not that I
am against spending any money (we have owned and have been paying
support for two years on Axiant!), I am just by the 12 step part and
just short of a Axiant class for the HPe3000 (which I don't know if
there is any) or Consultant.  It just seems like there is a big gap
without any information.  I guess, I am just wanting to try this out
on some actual screens to make a decision on what I will recommend as
a future direction.  In the listing archives you mention a new pricing
policy can you explain it?

Thanks, Jim