Aton International, Inc.

Now you can give your business line managers what they are demanding without having to purchase expensive middleware or wait for time consuming host server programming.

The Aton Connect Host Integration Toolkit offers you the ability to access host server data from ASP.NET 2.0 or .NET Framework 2.0 in C# or VB.NET. With our Aton Connect terminal emulation component you can easily develop “web to host” or “web facing” pages for 3270 host server applications.  Here’s what makes this product perfect for your next project:

• Easy to Implement - Use our component with Visual Studio. Just drag the control onto your page. There are no proprietary protocols to learn. No complex configuration screens to navigate.  Sample code gives you a starting point for development.
• Cost Effective - Everything you need is included in the Toolkit. Priced “per Developer” so there is no need to keep track of servers, sessions or transactions. No mainframe programming required. Uses existing infrastructure.
• High Reliability - Smaller, less complex and more reliable than older emulators; high reliability with standard TCP/IP for communication through the Internet.
• Flexibility - Design possibilities are endless.  Retrieve and present data exactly the way you need it.
• Low Risk - Developed by US company with more than 20 years experience in data access and device integration. Free trial for 90 days. Quick response e-mail and phone support is available to assist you.

Technical Description

The Aton Connect .NET component emulates multiple sessions and allows the calling program to interface through a virtual screen and virtual keyboard paradigm.

This approach is particularly well suited for applications that need to acquire or transact data with a mainframe computer, yet wish to maintain full control over the interactive session.

Aton Connect is composed of a host access protocol engine (embodied as a .NET component) which emulates the TN3270 Telnet host protocol. The calling application interfaces with a virtual terminal screen to obtain data from the host server and a virtual keyboard data stream to send data to the host server. All error messages and exceptions are returned to the calling application for proper disposition, allowing the calling application complete control over the user experience.

This layered technique of implementation separates the presentation, protocol, and communication driver functions which allows it to be easily adapted for a wide range of applications, from IIS ASP .NET servers, web services, middleware services, and Windows XP/Vista business applications.

Aton Connect Host Integration Toolkit also supports the asynchronous web page rendering feature added to ASP .NET 2.0. Instead of using the Aton Web Control, the designer can create an ASP .NET 2.0 asynchronous task that interacts with the Aton Host Class. The use of the ASP .NET 2.0 asynchronous web page rendering feature can improve the scalability of the design by releasing IIS service threads for other activity while waiting for mainframe responses.

A custom program created as a Visual Studio .NET 2005 managed project, can access server data and display it on the device in a way that is more natural for the user. Creating the custom program is rapid and straightforward, because the job of retrieving and updating the host server data is accomplished by the Aton Connect .NET terminal emulation component.

The sample GUI programs that ship with this toolkit are examples of applications that were developed in a matter of hours using Visual Studio .NET 2005. These sample applications allow you to connect to a university library to do book searches by keyword. You can see for yourself how easily and quickly you can access and retrieve mainframe data.

The .NET component by itself can be integrated into your custom applications to provide one or multiple simultaneous host sessions. Your custom applications then have total programmable control over the user experience. Aton Connect custom applications may be written in Visual Basic .NET or C# using Visual Studio 2005 projects.

What’s Inside

The Aton Connect Web Control component is installed on an ASPX web page which is viewed through the Internet browser.  The web component works through the Windows operating system to communicate via TCP/IP to the TN3270 server which, in turn, communicates via SNA to the mainframe.

The ASPX page may display the data exactly as received from the mainframe. But, more commonly, the code in the ASPX page will interact with one or more mainframe application screens and then copy or “screen scrape” data of interest to internal variables. The reformatted data is presented to the user in a friendly graphical manner using all of the formatting power of the web browser and ASP .NET 2.0.

Aton Connect Host Integration Toolkit also supports the asynchronous web page rendering feature added to ASP .NET 2.0.  Instead of using the Aton Web Control, the designer can create an ASP .NET 2.0 asynchronous task that interacts with the Aton Host Class. The use of the ASP .NET 2.0 asynchronous web page rendering feature can improve the scalability of the design by releasing IIS service threads for other activity while waiting for mainframe responses.

The samples contained in the Toolkit were built to demonstrate the power and ease of use of the Aton Connect web control for accessing information located on enterprise mainframe servers. You are free to use the sample code as a base for building web applications that meet your company’s business process or customer service needs.

For the Aton Toolkit samples, the data being accessed is either from the United States Library of Congress database or from the library catalog for the University of Florida.  Both of these organizations currently provide open public access servers allowing you to test our components and samples without accessing proprietary corporate data.

Included in the Toolkit

• Copies of Aton Connect Host Integration Toolkit software components,
• Documentation and sample code (C# and VB.NET samples) for incorporating the Aton components into an ASP.NET web page.or Windows Vista/XP client application.
• 1 year of support via e-mail and phone for issues directly related to integrating our product into your custom application.
• 1 year of product updates.

Note: This is a subscription license for a digital set of products you download from the Aton International, Inc. website. Updates and enhancements will also be digital files.

Free 90 day trial available. We encourage you to try our product before you buy it. Request your copy today.

How To Buy

Please contact us to purchase licenses for Aton Connect Host Integration Toolkit.

• Toll Free: 1-800-833-0835 US and Canada
• International: +1-650-938-9328 (GMT -8)
• Fax: +1-650-938-9368
• Email: Use our contact form.
• Postal Address:
  Aton International, Inc.
  11490 Old Ranch Road
  Los Altos Hills, CA 94024-6312
  USA