Method and system for providing a state model of an application program

An apparatus for providing remote access to a mainframe application over a communication network, comprising:

• a network interface device that interfaces with the communication network;
• a memory that stores computer executable instructions;
• and
• a processor that executes the computer executable instructions to:
• determine logical elements of the mainframe application;
• determine a state model in accordance with the logical elements of the mainframe application, the state model providing an association of logical elements of the mainframe application with corresponding states of the mainframe application;
• generate a remote access program in accordance with the state model, the remote access program updating the state model in accordance with data received from a user interface program and updating the state model in accordance with application data received from the mainframe application;
• provide application data generated by the mainframe application to a terminal emulator program executing on a server computer communicatively connected to a mainframe computer;
• provide application data from the terminal emulator program to the remote access program to update the state model and to generate application representation data;
• provide the application representation data to the user interface program;
• and
• generate the user interface program to enable remote interaction with the mainframe application.

A method for providing remote access to an application program via a computer network comprising:

• determining logical elements of the application program, the application program being executed on a mainframe computer connected to the computer network;
• determining a state model of the application program in accordance with the logical elements;
• providing application data generated by the application program to a terminal emulator program executing on a server computer communicatively connected to the mainframe computer;
• and
• generating a remote access program at the server computer in accordance with the state model, the remote access program:
• updating the state model in accordance with input data received from the terminal emulator program;
• generating control data in accordance with the updated state model and providing the control data to the application program;
• updating the state model in accordance with application data received from the application program;
• generating application representation data in accordance with the updated state model;
• and
• providing the application representation data to the user interface program.