Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here.

Writing subfile programs to display a list of data elements is a task most IBM i programmers have done countless times. It can be tedious and extremely repetitive, especially if you are listing information from the same file in multiple programs. Since the logic is nearly identical in all of those programs, wouldn’t it be great if we could put some or all of it into a service program that could be used in many places?

The part of the process that is common to all of those

Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here.

Here are a couple of code snippets containing a call to the QUILNGTX API that does a much better job than the DSPLY opcode. This API has been around for a long time (before/free), and we wrapped it into a service program procedure to make it easier to use.

As you can see from the included code sample, it only takes a character work variable to contain the text to display, and a call to the ShowText subprocedure to display a message. It shows a pop-up box

I read your article about changing iSeries disk caching batteries. You said that iSeries administrators should call IBM to send out new batteries, and then schedule an IBM service call for replacement. Is this considered standard IBM maintenance or are batteries a consumable item that is billable? I’ve heard rumors of changes in IBM’s policy, where they are starting to charge for batteries…

–Brian

With some help, I ran this issue past both an IBM Certified Engineer (CE) and someone in IBM CE dispatch. Both people said that it was just a rumor and that cache battery maintenance falls