ProData Updates DBU and Deleted File Retriever

July 10, 2012 Alex Woodie

ProData Computer Services last month unveiled version 10 of DBU, its widely used Database Utility for IBM i servers. With this release, users automatically get two plug-ins that were previously priced separately, including the remote database access tool that enables users to access SQL Server, Oracle, and other databases from DBU screens and the JD Edwards database access plug-in. The company also recently shipped version 4 of RDR, its Retrieve Deleted Records software.

DBU is a popular utility that makes it easy for programmers, administrators, and users to view and access any file in DB2/400, without programming. The software is useful for a variety of tasks that require full access to field-level data within a database. Over the last two decades, the company has sold tens of thousands of licenses of its flagship product, which features green-screen and graphical interfaces, and a plug-in for IBM‘s Rational Developer for Power Systems (RDP) development tool.

In 2007, ProData launched RDB, its Remote Database plug-in that allowed DBU users to access other databases, including SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, DB2 for LUW, Access, and PostgreSQL from the comfort of their DBU interface. The product required DBU, and cost an extra $1,995 when ProData introduced it.

With version 10, ProData is doing away with the separate license for the plug-in and making DBU RDB an integral part of the product. However, the company continues to separately sell a more powerful remote database product called RDB Connect. RDB Connect provides programmatic access to RDB’s features from RPG, COBOL, and CL programs.

Allen Hartley, owner of ProData, says the capability to access remote databases from DBU is the hallmark of DBU version 10. “This makes DBU even more valuable for all System i shops who have added servers other than IBM i to their mix,” he says in a press release.

ProData has also axed the need to separately purchase a license for its JD Edwards plug-in. This plug-in streamlines access to the particular database schemas used in World and EnterpriseOne databases, and is now included as part of a regular license for DBU.

DBU 10.0 brings several other enhancements, including new ways of handling multiple files. Users can now select multiple files, and DBU will display or process them in the order of selection. There is also a new multiple record mode feature that allows users to jump through multiple records with the press of a button.

ProData has refined its “sort by fields” command, and now allows the user to automatically build a permanent index based on the sort. The product’s DBUSQL command has also been enhanced, as have the search-for-field text and search-and-replace screens.

In March, ProData quietly announced RDR version 4. RDR helps to automate the process of recovering records that have been accidentally deleted. The software allows users to recover all the records from any member of a physical file that’s been deleted, and to recover records that fall between certain relative record numbers (RRNs).

ProData says it has upgraded the “guts” of RDR with version 4. The overhauled product can now recover records on “mega-large” files, and can do so significantly faster than older versions.

The tool successfully recovered 4 million records in a database of more than 14 million records in about one-tenth the amount of time it would have taken an older version, ProData says.