Is it Time to Retire AFP?

Our research (not scientific) indicates that managing forms using AFP is dreaded by 8 out of 10 programmers and the 2 who don’t dread it are self-proclaimed “old dogs” - “I’m an old S/38 and AS/400 dog (38 years)” said Michael from Binghamton, NY.

AFP has been used to create forms for a long time, and maybe it works well enough at the moment, but forms will change - maybe a completely new design, maybe incremental changes. As IBM i developers move toward retirement, the experience needed to manage AFP has been a challenge for some of our customers. Younger staff not familiar with the “old dog” methods prefer an easier way to create and modify forms. TLAForms provides a graphical interface, and no programming is needed to generate forms saving time and money in the short and long term. TLAForms is a future-proof solution to easily modify and update forms. We’ve helped customers with no programming experience set up a new form in less time than it takes to modify existing AFP printer files.

TLAforms provides functionality to create new forms using data from existing spool files. It’s easy enough to use that non-programmers can take over the forms design and modification. TLAForms provides myriad benefits over AFP including:

• Expanded font selections
• Full color
• Images
• Bar codes including 2-dimensional codes
• IBM i File data with SQL
• Conditioning of data and output
• Print to any printer
• Generate forms as PDF documents
• Automatically email forms
• No programming!!

Below is a more complete comparison table that shows the many benefits of moving to TLAForms. Start modernizing forms today and visit https://tlashford.com to request a fully functional trial!
 

Features	AFP	TLAForms
Output	Print Only to IBM i Printers	Print to Any Printer Generate Form as a PDF Archive PDF to any Network Location Automatically email the PDF
Color	Black and White	Full Color
Design Interface	Green Screen/Program Development Interface	WYSIWYG See your Form as you Design It.
Fonts	Courier Font	Expanded Font Selection
Barcodes	Barcodes, Difficult to do 2-Dimensional	Easy – Including 2-Dimensional
Overlays	Overlays – Very Cumbersome	Use Design Tools to Create Templates
Images	Images and Overlays are Static	Images can be Dynamic – Use an action to determine which image will print
Conditioning	Conditioning with Lots of Programming	Conditioning – show or hide items on your form based on certain criteria – ie. page number, or replace data as needed
Using IBM i File Data	Already uses data from IBM i files – additional access to IBM i files requires programming	SQL – easily create SQL statements within the designer to access additional IBM i file data.
Printer Alignment	Margins vary from printer to printer making alignment frustrating	No more worries about alignment. You can print your form perfectly to any printer.
Quality	Average to sub-par quality forms	Outstanding form quality
Programming	Programming time – sometimes for highly technical aspects, sometimes for mundane, repetitive, trial and error-type tasks like working with overlays.	NO Programming
Cost	Free, but with lots of labor costs for a finished product that looks just OK.	Low cost, feature-rich, easy to use, outstanding quality, industry recognized technical support