IBM Cognos Axiant 4GL

Frequently asked Questions

Does Axiant run on Windows 2000?
Yes. Axiant 4GL will run on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Axiant will also provide thin-client functionality to PowerHouse 4GL servers running on MPE/iX, OpenVMS, UNIX, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

What databases does Axiant support?
Click here for a complete list of supported databases and file systems.

How much work is it to move to Axiant?
There is no simple answer to this question since applications are different sizes and the reasons for migration will indicate some of the effort involved. Axiant has built-in migration tools that help automate much of the migration process and take you from a terminal-based development environment into Axiant. Details on this can be found in the Axiant White Paper here on our web site or by calling your nearest Cognos sales office and requesting a copy.

How long will it take to migrate an application to Windows?
This depends, of course, on the size of the application and the number of migrations that are involved. There is no one answer. There is, however, a way to get an answer through a prototyping process which quickly takes you through the learning curve and gives you the knowledge you need to answer this question for your specific application(s). This is documented in the Axiant Migration Planning Guide which is available here on our web site or by calling your nearest Cognos sales office and requesting a copy.

What parts of PowerHouse can move forward with Axiant?
Axiant can bring forward your entire application. How much of it you will wish to change and whether you choose to leave any behind will depend on your reasons for moving the application. Note that customers using QDD, QDDR and PhD dictionaries will have to generate PDL source. This is easily done through QSHOW.

Can I get to my existing data with an Axiant client/server application?
A core set of ODBC drivers are conformance tested and supported using standard interface calls. If you have any problems using them you will be able to call Cognos Customer Support.

What does Axiant offer that PowerHouse does not?
First of all, Axiant offers all the capabilities that PowerHouse does because it is a development environment for PowerHouse applications. Axiant then goes beyond PowerHouse by providing a graphical, rather than a terminal-based development environment. Also, Axiant uses a repository which provides the basis for inheritance when building applications.

Axiant will allow you to deploy applications to environments which PowerHouse cannot. These include fat and mobile client/server, as well as Windows native applications. More details can be found in the Axiant White Paper here on our web site or by calling your nearest Cognos sales office and requesting a copy.

Can I mix the Axiant development environment and my existing development environment for PowerHouse?
A team of developers on a single project must be using either the PowerHouse development environment or the Axiant development environment. Different projects can use different development environments but they cannot share work.

Will my terminal screens move easily to a graphical environment?
This depends on a number of things. Terminal screens tend to be very crowded which makes for very poor forms in a graphical environment. Axiant will generate a default graphical form from your existing screen layout statements, and it will be quite usable. It can even include a number of new graphical elements that you define in a default form style. However, once you move the screen to Axiant you will probably want to reorganize it to make it a good graphical form. Fortunately, all the business rules coded into the screen will still be valid and can be reused as is.

Will I have to change my data design when I go to a relational database?
If you do not have a normalized data design then you will almost certainly have to redesign it when moving to a relational database. Axiant can help with this by providing a first pass normalization which will "flatten" the existing design. This is fine for prototyping and small applications but a mission critical system would benefit greatly from the use of a good CASE tool. Such tools will generate SQL as will Axiant which allows you to move designs back and forth between the two products easily.

What's 'thin client'?
This is a type of client/server topology which Axiant can deploy. In the thin client, the graphical interface exists on a PC but the business rules (or application logic) exist on the server. The database can be on the same server or on another server. This is a good topology for smaller PCs or where it is more efficient to keep the processing and the data together to avoid network overload.

What's 'fat client'?
This is another type of client/server topology which Axiant can deploy. In the fat client, the graphical interface and the business rules exist on the PC but the data is on a server. This is a good topology for offloading work from the server.

What's a 'mobile client'?
This is the third type of client/server topology which Axiant can deploy. A mobile client has the graphical interface, business rules and data all on the PC. However, it can connect to the server and become a fat, or thin, client. This is a good topology for mobile users such as sales representatives who need to work disconnected but still need regular access to corporate resources.

How do I decide what client/server topology I need?
This will depend on the needs of your users and the capabilities of your infrastructure. Axiant does not force one topology or another. In a single application, you may find that you need to take advantage of all four topologies available from Axiant (thin client, fat client, mobile client and server only). You can also easily move programs from one topology to another by compiling in the new environment and redeploying without making changes to the code.

I'm running thin client but I can't see my QUIZ reports. What's happening?
Only QUICK screens have a thin client capability across all PowerHouse 4GL server platforms. With Axiant 4GL QUIZ reports can be viewed in a thin client environment if they are run on a Windows server. On other platforms QUIZ reports and QTP runs don't have a logical split between the UI and the application logic. Therefore they run in either fat client, mobile client or server only topologies. When the QUICK screen calls the QUIZ report, it is making the call on the server. The report runs but there is no terminal connection back to the user who is on the other side of the client/server divide. To resolve this, either run the report in fat client mode or call a terminal emulator and run the report from there.

Should I move all my applications to Axiant?
This depends on the needs of your developers and your users. If these applications have to be redeployed to new servers, databases or user interface then the answer is yes. If the application is stable and only receives infrequent maintenance then it may be best not to spend any energy on moving it into Axiant.

Can I migrate large applications?
Yes. During the field testing we have seen repositories containing over 1,800 programs and almost 10,000 data elements. For detailed information about migrating PowerHouse applications, see the Axiant Migration Planning Guide.

How do I decide on a reasonable piece of an application?
A common mistake is to pick the wrong piece of an application. If an unrepresentative subset of the application is chosen then the value of the pilot project will be diminished, possibly giving a false sense of the work involved and potentially endangering the ensuing full migration project. So, how do you make sure this doesn't happen?

Sometimes this occurs because a module of an application is considered easy to isolate from the rest of the application. Too often that is true because the module is not integrated into other application components or is not as complex as other components. Our experience has been that the most representative pieces of an application tend to be the most difficult to isolate from other pieces. While this represents a more challenging pilot project, the benefits will be greater.

When looking for a representative portion of the application to use in the pilot project, consider the following:

• Does the application involve non-PowerHouse components? Does the pilot project?

• Are screens, reports and QTP runs involved?

• Are there USE files that are used throughout the application? Are these used in the pilot project?

• Does the application involve long or complex transactions? Does the pilot project?

• Is the user interface of the pilot component similar to that of the rest of the application?

How can you determine how many programs to migrate at one time?
A good rule of thumb is to look at how the application is compiled in the server environment. When submitting a batch job to compile an entire application, it is rare to do it with a single session of a parser. Most often QUIZ, QTP or QDESIGN are started many times within a batch job and given a series of USE files. It may even involve several jobs. After all, an error in the first screen can cause all following screens to fail the compile process and the effort is lost.

The same steps should be taken when migrating the application. If you migrate all programs in the same step you are risking the same problems as if you compiled every screen in the application in one QDESIGN session. It just doesn't make good sense. Use your batch compile procedures as a guideline for how many programs to migrate at one time.

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