Announcing a New Tool: ClearPath Application
Integration Services

A seamless development environment that makes creating cross-platform applications quick and easy. It’s one of the main goals we wanted to achieve when creating our fabric-based ClearPath platforms. And with the help of the new ClearPath Application Integration Services (AIS), it’s possible.

ClearPath AIS allows you to create an application development and deployment approach that blends the ClearPath attributes of security, reliability, and performance with contemporary development skills – so you can pull from a wider pool of talent while reducing the roadblocks that could occur when working between MCP, OS 2200, and Microsoft® Windows® environments. It does so by providing tools that make life easier for ClearPath and non ClearPath developers alike.

For example, for anyone who would like to access ClearPath files using Windows file semantics, AIS includes a Windows API that gives developers who work in .NET access to file I/O on ClearPath systems. The interface provides access to ClearPath files from a Windows .NET program. The standard .NET file classes are used, extended, or mimicked as needed, giving you the same set of features you would get from a Windows file program. But they are also modified to provide the ClearPath centric capabilities you need to work effectively in MCP or OS 2200 environments.

Likewise, if you would like to use the rich file APIs available in the ClearPath environment, AIS features APIs for MCP and OS 2200 that provide access to hundreds of file attributes, perform record-oriented file I/O, and support various coded character sets. This gives you a means of developing MCP and OS 2200 programs in Microsoft Visual Studio®, with full access to Microsoft IntelliSense tools and online documentation.

With the combination of these tools, you get a bridge between the data in MCP and OS 2200 coded character sets and Unicode characters in .NET, helping you easily accommodate Windows developers within fabric-based ClearPath MCP and OS 2200 platforms. And unlike a simple file-access protocol, such as FTP, these tools give you fast and secure access to ClearPath specific features from a Windows centric development environment.

The result? MCP and OS 2200 shops will find it easier to build the type of robust, cross-platform applications the business needs to address new demands and differentiate itself from the competition.