We've Come Full-Circle

It was 20 years ago that I started working on what is now called the IBM i platform. I made the decision to move from what was largely a 370 - 4341 mainframe shop to a new technology IBM was offering called System/38. To me, System/38 was the future and it worked out okay for me.

After about a year, I started working on a Text Editor for System/38, in the meantime I also started writing tips and techniques and publishing them in my first publication "Q38 - The Newsletter for Programmers of the IBM System/38". I named that text editor "Q38Text" and until recently, some original customer were still using it to build and display application helptext.

In conjunction with the IBM announcement of the AS/400, I migrated Q38 (which was now a full-color magazine) to Midrange magazine. I even registered and received the trademark "MIDRANGE" and held it for more than a decade before unloading the publishing business and letting the mark expire. Along the way I started a publishing business and published several books on the midrange business by yours truly and other authors.

During the summer of 2010 I started to build a website engine in RPG and  SQL. I wasn't sure what I would do with it, but I knew it needed to be dynamic, support user-contributions and run entirely on IBM i. Behind the scenes I only used native functions and interfaces, (although it does use RPG xTools). The resulting system is called NOVA CMS and the initial website ClassAnova.com was launched as a test bed in mid-2010.

Effectively anyone IBM i shop can install NOVA CMS, configure an XML file, load the default HTML pages and JavaScript onto the IFS and have a website that can be maintained from within the website itself.

Today I've put the finishing touches into NOVA CMS and if you're a MidrangeNews.com user, you see these features when you become a member, or if you are just a visitor, you'll see some of the content being created by myself and others. Some key features include:

• User-created content
• Articles can be uploaded, written online, or linked.
• User Commenting
• Discussion Forum
• Subscription service per article (aka "Follow")
• Memberships

All of these features are pretty full-featured, providing WYSIWYG editing, modifications and are delete-capable depending on your membership level.  

MidrangeNews.com

Today I'm releasing my implementation of NOVA CMS, MidrangeNews.com into the wild. If you were a visitor of the RPGWorld.com or the forum on RPGIV.com you should start visiting MidrangeNews.com and if you're a new visitor to this site, welcome.

Thanks for your support over the years and welcome to your new home for IBM i news and information.