LANSA Releases LANSA Open for .NET Version 3, Adds Visual Studio Support

LANSA, provider of software development and application modernization tools, has announced Version 3 of LANSA Open for .NET, a tool that lets Microsoft .NET Framework developers easily and securely access business rules and DB2 data stored in the LANSA Repository. Significant in LANSA Open for .NET Version 3 is its support for Microsoft Visual Studio, allowing .NET developers to work with LANSA Repository objects from within Visual Studio.

LANSA Open for .NET works by letting .NET developers simply call methods in the LANSA Open for .NET class library to access DB2 data or specific IBM server objects. No knowledge of IBM i, DB2, or LANSA is required, and the product ships with ready-to-run samples, written in C#.NET and VB.NET.

Version 3 includes a Repository Explorer and a Data Model Editor. Using the Repository Explorer, .NET developers can connect to an IBM i server and inspect the objects defined in the LANSA Repository--for example, view the data in DB2 database tables. The Data Model Editor lets .NET developers construct a data model (by dragging objects from the Repository Explorer to the Data Model Editor) for their application within Visual Studio using DB2 tables defined in the LANSA Repository. Saving the data model generates the .NET classes and methods that will access the table on the IBM i server from the .NET application. Data models can also be created without Visual Studio by using the standalone version of the Repository Explorer and Data Model Editor.

With Version 3, .NET developers also have access to native IBM i server objects. They can write code to inspect spooled files, issue operating system commands, and start programs. .NET applications can now take advantage of the same data queues that IBM i programs use for communication, enabling Microsoft and IBM programs to work collaboratively.

You can learn more about LANSA Open for .NET here.