Scraper vs Sniffer

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Guest

Problem: Users of my GUI App A have to manually key in data from the GUI of
LAN legacy App B.
Question: Should I create an App to capture this App B data off the GUI (as
a screen scraper) OR
off the "wire" (as a sniffer) OR some other solution ? Which is "easier" ?
There is no API or documentation for the LAN legacy App B, so I can't think
of any other standard interface.
Any suggestions/advice are Welcome, as I will soon be rewritting App A in C#
from Delphi
 
At some point, developing your own copy of App B becomes the cost effective
solution. Only your team will know this point. Hopefully managers
understand this point.
 
App B runs on an IBM AS400 offsite. I don't know how data is stored or the
structure. I'll figure out the data either from the packet capture (sniffer
solution) or the screen dump data. Either choice will be problematic.

Robbe Morris - [MVP] C# said:
You have no idea what the data store is that is used by app B?

--
Robbe Morris [Microsoft MVP - Visual C#]
..NET PropertyGrid Control - ListBox, ComboBox, and Custom Classes
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/tutorial...af-5cd3abe27a75/net-propertygrid-control.aspx




Burt said:
Problem: Users of my GUI App A have to manually key in data from the GUI
of
LAN legacy App B.
Question: Should I create an App to capture this App B data off the GUI
(as
a screen scraper) OR
off the "wire" (as a sniffer) OR some other solution ? Which is "easier" ?
There is no API or documentation for the LAN legacy App B, so I can't
think
of any other standard interface.
Any suggestions/advice are Welcome, as I will soon be rewritting App A in
C#
from Delphi
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Budget restraints, ie no $ to recreate App B and App B works for everyone not
using App A. I'm doing my part gratis.. for free, being an App A User.
 
Burt said:
App B runs on an IBM AS400 offsite.
Click to expand...

Which presumably means that the user's PC accesses the AS/400 though a
terminal emulator. Most terminal emulators have a programatic way of
reading the screen. They often provide a way to communicate through
ActiveX controls.

You'll probably want to research the capabilities of the current
terminal emulator. Sometimes it needs to be replaced as part of this
kind of project.

Mike
 
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