Visual LANSA Reviews & Product Details

Makes developing advanced form heavy web applications very easy. By defining your rules and constraints in the repository (data dictionary) you then don't have to to handle all the validation checks and displays yourself. The WYSIWYG editor works really well and allows you to design nice web pages without deep knowledge of HTML/CSS/Javascript. Having only know one language (RDML/X) is nice as a modern web developer has to be proficient in about 5 different languages. Architecture wise it is very similar to what a modern SPA type application would be where you have the SPA client making HTTP requests to an API server that is then using data access objects to interact with the database. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

VCS Integration. Seems like it is more suited to SVN style source repositories than DVCS such as Git. A lot of internal LANSA objects get pushed into your repo unless you specifically ignore them. The generated HTML is "different" making it sometimes difficult to use with normal web developer tools. By different, I mean that it does not render standard HTML form object but its own HTML rendering of them. For example, when using a repository defined field, a HTML INPUT is not rendered as but instead it is rendered as a ....

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Well, first of all, I like the fact that Lansa has given me a 'one-stop-esoteric-shop' of sorts in which to code for iSeries, Windows, and Linux. Second, I find RDML/RDMLX to be a pretty simple (agile) language, simple to learn that is; but as I've gotten more comfortable, I've noticed some profound capabilities. Third, I love to learn, so for me I find myself checking the 'keep generated source' checkbox when compiling, It's eye-opening to see the C/C++ code derived from programs that I've created. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It's sometimes annoying that the UPRINT command doesn't work with RDML. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The many ease of use tools available to cover a wide range of area Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The training on AS2 could be improved, it would be nice to know the inner workings of the tool Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The simplicity of the concept is key. By allowing business-oriented users to define the business rules of the application, LANSA frees the developer to concentrate on user interface and functionality. By providing a very intuitive and simple tool for UI design, it allows the developer to create complex web and windows applications without having to learn all the underlying programming languages. This increases productivity and decreases time to market. You can do anything with LANSA that you could do with other languages, just in a quarter of the time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It would be nice if the product could be integrated with Visual Studio or Eclipse which would allow development in multiple environments simultaneously. While it is not a detriment to rapid application development, it would be easier to coexist with non-LANSA developers in the enterprise. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

That the product is integrated with my ERP/Retail DB2 database. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

That I am unable to maintain the two websites in house - due to lack of trained personnel and cost. Lansa requires in depth training to be proficient. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Visual LANSA is unique in its history and approach of giving programmers the ability to program any size application or system, for Web, Windows, and 5250. With the productivity and ease of learning unlike any product we've worked with or seen to date. The data dictionary guides programmers and teams to standardize aspects of design and programming that other languages rely on department policy for. The language itself is simple and intuitive, and at the same time, able to do the most intricate things. As Well it's history is very impressive; A programmer creating some of the most modern applications with Visual LANSA could still read and maintain parts of their applications that may have been written 25 years ago. Nothing like this exists anywhere else. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Depending on the execution environment a company is targeting, whether it’s a Windows client to IBM i server application or a web application being served off of a Unix machine, the initial setup can be a bit tedious, if not tricky. But once that’s done, it really is and remains simple. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The development environment is easy to use, and provides immediate feedback on syntax and parameter questions or issues. The drag-and-drop functionality allows easy and quick development, with a minimum of code in many cases. The user experience of working with a LANSA application can cut down on the amount of training required on the application. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The only issue I have had is trying to manage the difference character sizes that are available via the Windows 7 and 10 settings. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Visual LANSA allows for learning 1 tool for developing applications to be deployed on many platforms. You can build web, windows or IBM i applications within the IDE. If you have done any programming in other languages, learning Visual LANSA is fairly quick and easy. It hides the complexity of needing to know so many languages within this one envelope. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Setup and maintenance of the LANSA Environment requires specific knowledge of the LANSA tool and its requirements. You (or your IT team) will need to spend a little time in understanding the inner workings at initial setup and for upgrades. I am not sure if this much different than most development tools, but LANSA Support has been great in assisting with these items. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

First off a caveat - I am working in a slightly older version of VL - 12.1. The current version is 14 - so this is related to a slightly older version. I've seen some things with v14 that are quite impressive but I can't speak to it firsthand.

At the core of everything - Lansa makes development easier by degrees of magnitude over other environments I've worked in. The repository hides a lot of development headaches seen elsewhere. And it does it all with a relatively simple language (RDML and RDMLX). So a single skill set can be used to develop across multiple platforms.

And Lansa seems to be good at keeping up with what is going on in tech. They've stayed current with the times. They aren't bleeding edge, heck they aren't even necessarily even leading edge. They wait for technology to be solid before they release it (usually just in time for the business world to realize that they want a new feature). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The editor is not as robust as Visual Studio and the basic visual frameworks (at least in 12.1) are a bit kludgy. (13 and 14 appear to have improved those issues but as I've said - I can't speak to that from experience.)

Because of the OAMs (object access modules - essential an interface program between files and programs), the performance is not as high as raw RPG (benchmark a read of 1M records in RPG vs Lansa and you'll see a difference in favor of RPG - but I'd argue the time savings on coding down the road mitigates the performance hit). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

LANSA introduced two complementary products for creating Web Sites when it introduced VL Web and VLF-One this year. VL Web product provides the capability to build a state of the art web site that scales from a mobile device, a tablet, to a desktop web page. VLF-One product is a framework that through a series of business questions will enable a team to quickly build a web site to present and maintain large amounts of ERP information. The reason this product builds quickly is because the framework handles the “plumbing tasks” such as user authentication, menus, tabs, updating multiple windows simultaneously, hiding and restoring windows, etc.

LANSA has delivered web products that truly insulate the developer from having to continually learn multiple skill sets. HTML, JavaScript, and CSS are all handled by LANSA. The VL Integrated Development Environment is a friendly windows environment for creating one’s application.

Lastly, the response times in our early development tests are impressive. LANSA has taken advantage of client side technology so the browser is doing a great deal of the tasks. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The VL products use Object Oriented programming to build the sites. While this is absolutely the best choice for developers, many LANSA developers and future developers will have a learning curve to master OO techniques. I have completed the LANSA eLearning which do a great job teaching web techniques and strategies. My recommendation to LANSA would be to create a few eLearning classes targeted at an audience that is acquiring these new skills. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.