Every time I teach some of the more recent additions to RPG, such as XML parsing or Open Access, I find that I need to include some “remedial” education on some of the D-spec enhancements that have been made to the language over recent releases.

Most of these enhancements came into the language many years ago, but if you had no immediate need for them, they may have passed you by. After all, even the most avid reader of this newsletter has probably forgotten most of what they read here 10 years ago if they didn’t use it. And yes,

DB2 for i 7.1 brought many new features including the ability to compose and decompose XML data. However, decomposing an XML document in DB2 for i 7.1 requires quite a few steps and creates, sometimes unwanted, permanent objects. Further, for all of the XML processing features, one lacking feature is the ability to easily and dynamically shred XML. Fortunately, that missing feature is now present with the technology refresh 4 update, which adds the XMLTABLE table function to the SQL developer’s arsenal. In this article, part 1 of my series on DB2 for i, we will look at how

In my last column, I explained why people lose IBM i NetServer access, discussing some common ways to restore NetServer access to a user profile. Little did I realize that I had barely scratched the surface of this topic. Thanks to alert reader Tony Cusack, I learned some new NetServer tricks I didn’t even know existed. Here’s what Tony taught me and how it can help you better manage your NetServer configuration.

In Our Last Episode. . .

Last time, I provided the following information on managing IBM i NetServer user profile access.

• A user’s NetServer access can be