Re: Applet [was]Passing User ID and Password inApplet

Hi Kenneth,

Apologies for the delayed reply.
To answer your questions - 
Well, I did not actually find the applet annoying :-). I was just doing a 
POC in which the user would get some message on a web page with a link to 
an AS/400 application where he was supposed do some operations. So, on 
click of the hyper-link, the user was supposed to be directed straight to 
required AS/400 screen. This would involve automatically logging on to 
AS/400 and bypassing the initial screens.
I didn't need to manipulate the emulator under any application framework. 
I succeeded in sending whatever keystrokes were required. I was also able 
to make the applet call a servlet for the username and password. We wanted 
the user to do everything in the browser, and hence the use of the applet.
In the present implementation, the Mocha emulator is used with an ActiveX 
control. The ActiveX control just keys in the username/password and the 
required keystrokes (as I had got done in the Tn5250j applet). So, 
essentially there is no difference between the applet and emulator 
solution.
The emulator was chosen over the applet 'cos someone finally realized that 
the users are more comfortable with emulators!!

One thing I couldn't get done in the applet was thread handling. I 
couldn't get the handle of the thread in the applet which did the logon 
process. So, I had to use a javascript sleep function to hide the logon 
and screen navigation from the user.


BR/ Gaurav




Kenneth Pouncey <[email protected]> 
Sent by: [email protected]
06/17/2005 11:24 AM
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Re: [Tn5250j-general] Applet [was]Passing User ID and Password  inApplet






Hello Gaurav

Yes been a while.  Just some questions if you have the time.

What did you find annoying about using the emulator as an applet?  Pete 
says that it was back in 2003 that you were doing this correct?  Also; 
only for straight emulation and sending keystrokes.  You never needed to 
manipulate the emulator within any application framework correct?

If using the ActiveX you were stuck using IE and windows so no other OS's 
to support I assume.  Does there ActiveX component allow you to catch 
events and manipulate it in anyway besides keystrokes?

I ask these questions because I really have no use for applets and was 
just trying to get some feedback on the usefulness of them and the why's 
and where fores of using them.

If you were to change anything in the 5250j applet what would it be?

Regards

Kenneth

[email protected] wrote: 

Hi Pete/Kenneth, 

Been a while, but I keep following the goings-on in this group from time 
to time. 
I had done a POC a couple of years ago as Pete mentioned. I was 
successfully able to pass the username/password to the applet from a 
servlet. The applet had to be signed for this purpose. The 
username/password pair was present in a text file in my local file system. 
The password was encrypted using a simple encryption tool. 
But the business users still had a problem putting the password, even 
though encrypted, in a text file. Some other team in my project has been 
working on the project now and they have dropped the web aspect of it, 
i.e. the applet-HTML interface. From a web page, they launch and use the 
Mocha 8.0 emulator combined with an ActiveX control to pass the keystrokes 
to the emulator. 
Do lemme know if I can provide you any more info. 

BR/ Gaurav



Kenneth Pouncey <[email protected]> 
Sent by: [email protected] 
06/16/2005 12:07 PM 

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Re: [Tn5250j-general] Passing User ID and Password in Applet








Pete

Here is the part about the flow control that he uses and is actually quite 
cool for the implementation.  Had not thought of doing it that way.  It 
would be a change on the host but very small as the original command is 
wrapped and the application process is not changed in anyway.

=================================================================================

- What we normally do, is to wrap the normal command they want to launch 
in a special command of our own. E.g. instead of issuing a WRKUSRJOB 
USER(user) we issue a STRCMD CMD('WRKUSRJOB USER(user)'); the only thing 
our STRCMD does is launching the command, but when the normal command ends 
and we fall back in the program stacking onto our wrapper command, we send 
the !# event or just do a signof with disconnect. The emulator at the Java 
side knows to close itself then. In GUI mode we can then even issue 5250 
as modal dialogs etc without a problem. So we do make it interactive! We 
can not however send back information towards the web application directly 
as we can keep synchronisations in there. We did once start to cache the 
5250 sessions, but that poses more of problem than it brings advantages. 
The only thing I still would like is to be able to create a protocol bean, 
connect it, start the initial command and only then hook it to a 
interactive terminal. This way the user would'n see the login and launch 
scenario pass by as they do now.
============================================================================================


Here is the link to the full message:

http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg00219.html


This should solve just about everything except the user and password 
problem but am thinking of the applet to servlet would take care of this 
or the SessionBean and wrapping everything up yourself in your own Applet 
code.

Regards

Kenneth

Pete Helgren wrote: 
I had posted some of this about two years ago when I first started working 
with the 5250 applet.  The problems that I had (and still have) have to do 
with the passing of UserID and password in the clear when I start an 
applet session.  Gaurav posted some code that has a servlet that talks to 
the applet and passes the password back to it.  I think I can follow the 
approach but wanted to know if anyone else had solved this problem in a 
different way. 

We have an HTML based menuing system that runs on the iSeries (under an 
Apache web server).  The user logs in via an HTML login prompt and then 
the menu(s) are generated from there.  Some of the menu items are HTML 
based but some are 5250 apps and we launch them using tn5250j in an 
applet.  We generate the HTML that launches the applet on the fly using a 
template but so far we have had to pass the password in the clear, not a 
good solution.  So, if you have any ideas that we could use to start the 
applet without passing the password in the clear, I'd like to hear about 
it. 

We also have a need to end the application gracefully when the users are 
done running the 5250 application.  Right now, we display a message that 
says "Click the Exit link to end the program" and the user has to click 
the link to end the session.  What I would like to do is have the applet 
close when the 5250 application has ended automatically.  I am not sure 
how to accomplish this since the 5250 session would have to "tell" the 
applet to close.... 

I'd appreciate anyone's idea as to how to solve these two issues as simply 
as possible. 
Thanks, 

Pete Helgren 


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