Plex 2E

It seems that Single Sign On is no longer on the list of enhancements. My company has wanted this feature for years. There are many business reasons for wanting this feature. People have already covered business reasons i.e.  SSO Business Case and Kerberos itself http://www.kerberos.org/software/whykerberos.pdf

Just the ease of use by changing the Plex connection to the server to single sign on is a huge plus. Single Sign on streamlines integration with other applications. Infrequent users don't need to store that password under their keyboard or have to change their password every time the use the application.  All the users on the IBM i can have their passwords set to *none which enhances security.

The inability of Plex to allow single sign on makes it seem more like a legacy application than a modern application.

Instead of "I have to type my user id and password in again", IT JUST WORKS!

So, how do I get CA to add Kerberos Single signon to Plex?

 We are moving at the speed of trust.

 Features and dates are subject to change.

I guess this missed the boat again

Do you know if VarChar support is going to be delivered for 7.2?

Hey there George,

VarChar is not targeted for Plex r7.2.

I don't see an idea for VarChar on the idea wall:

https://communities.ca.com/content?filterID=all~objecttype~objecttype%5Bidea%5D&query=CA_plex+VarChar

If you would like to see VarChar, please do raise an Idea.

Cheers,

Simon

Simon Cockayne

Sr Principal Product Manager

Product Owner: CA App Services Orchestrator / CA Plex / CA 2E

Twitter: @simoncockayne

CA Technologies | 2291 Wood Oak Dr. | Herndon, VA 20171-2823

Office: +1 703 708 3042 | simon.cockayne@ca.com

Sorry Simon don't quite understand your stance here.

I bang on about the wall and how customers should use it to shape the product blah blah all the time.

But 'RPGIV Varchar support' was already planned for 7.1 then 7.2 so why the need to create an idea for something that was planned.

if that is the case why is there no idea wall entries for certain other inclusions of 7.1 or 7.2 ?

Hey there George,

VarChar may well have been on planned for r7.1 and/or r7.2.

But...plans change...in large part to customer feedback and also change in our strategy.

For example, integration with CA API Gateway, planned for CA Plex r7.2, was not directly requested by customers...but it's a critical part of of our AppDev strategy to facilitate the orchestration (via CA App Service Orchestrator) of RESTful APIs and "API-assembled Apps".

Plex customers can join the CA Plex r7.2 agile collaboration program here:

http://supportconnectw.ca.com/cso/closed-betas/plex72/plex72validation.asp

Plex customers can join the CA App Services Orchestrator r1.0 agile collaboration program here:

http://ca.com/aso

Position on the Idea wall weights heavily in the prioritization process...but it is not the only factor.

Cheers,

Simon

Simon Cockayne

Sr Principal Product Manager

Product Owner: CA App Services Orchestrator / CA Plex / CA 2E

Twitter: @simoncockayne

CA Technologies | 2291 Wood Oak Dr. | Herndon, VA 20171-2823

Office: +1 703 708 3042 | simon.cockayne@ca.com

Thanks for that Simon,

Well I guess AS400 sites have only themselves (under these rules) to blame for not pushing their agenda or not having an agenda or apathy or moving on.

100% of the sites (not 500 site downloads but not 50 site downloads) who have downloaded StellaTools are AS400 sites so it could be said the majority of Plex customers are AS400 sites (amongst other things).

2 anecdotal points of interest around AS400 plex variant I have noticed in the last 6 months

1. If you were to choose between 2E and Plex in terms of AS400 support you would be hard to argue for Plex in terms of AS400 support

2. Free Format RPG support has made it easier to train/attract young developers to IBM

It has become harder to argue for Plex on the AS400

George,

I think you're anecdotal points are spot on. The Plex database code on IBM i is now way behind 2E (with release 8.7). 2E is better at 5250 than Plex. Plex does have strengths in the UI side of things, if you look at what Websydian is doing with ExtJS as an example. But that's not CA helping out. The number 1 request back in 2007, with the most votes, was -

63. Add support for designing and generating web clients

And it had almost twice the number of votes of any other enhancement.

#2 was - 64. Add support for Windows Forms or WPF .NET clients

I suspect #1 included lots of IBM i sites. #2 is driven for Microsoft sites. I can't use #2...

Oh well...

Crispin.

oh and here is the idea created june 2011 RPGIV - Support Date and varchar data types in RPGIV generator

This mayhelp https://communities.ca.com/search.jspa?q=RPGIV+Varchar

Hi Simon,

VaryChar support (for RPG) was ranked in the 2007 voting and fell 1 place higher than Single Sign-on for the System i (sp?).

Yes, that was a long time ago, but the point being that they have been asked for over and over, and that there is no "idea wall" post for it shows that there's a hole somewhere that things have fallen through.

That all said, it is quite humorous reading through that list from 2007.

Have a good weekend...

Crispin.

Hi there,

Kerberos support is not targeted for CA Plex r7.2, because there is not sufficient interest from the Plex community.

Kerberos support for Plex is on the idea wall with 13 votes:

IBM I Kerberos Single Sign-on support (RM VOTE Nov 2012: 13489638, 14117594, 14542767, 15583297, 15745294, 17137054, 171…

There are many other ideas which have considerably more votes:

https://communities.ca.com/content?filterID=all~objecttype~objecttype%5Bidea%5D&query=ca_plex

The more customers vote on an idea, and the further it moves up the Idea wall...the greater consideration we give to it.

NOTE: Idea wall score is not the only factor. For example, ideas that support our longer term AppDev strategy may warrant greater consideration.

Cheers,

Simon

Simon Cockayne

Sr Principal Product Manager

Product Owner: CA App Services Orchestrator / CA Plex / CA 2E

Twitter: @simoncockayne

CA Technologies | 2291 Wood Oak Dr. | Herndon, VA 20171-2823

Office: +1 703 708 3042 | simon.cockayne@ca.com