API Corner: Using the User Profile Exit Programs

July 20, 2005 Shannon O'Donnell

The code for this article is available for download.

One task that is common to every iSeries, regardless of the business it resides in, is the creation, deletion, changing and restoring of OS/400 user profiles. On some systems, only the Security Officer has the ability to create or make changes to a user profile. On other systems, there are a number of trusted individuals who have been given the authority to change or create a user profile. On almost every system, each user is given, at the very least, the authority to change their own user profile password.

With

Case-Insensitive Sorting and Record Selection with Query/400, Take Two

July 20, 2005 Dear Colleagues

Alert and astute reader Sarah wrote in response to the article, “Case-Insensitive Sorting and Record Selection with Query/400,” that the two sorting options I mentioned are not equivalent. After checking it out, I learned she’s right.

In the EBCDIC coding sequence, lowercase letters precede uppercase letters, which precede numeric digits. Punctuation and special characters are scattered throughout the sequence. See Chapter 9 of the V5R2 Query manual for more information. Sorting a file of item information by item class yields output of the following nature:

ITCLS  ITNBR     ITDSC         
 k8    A1120     WHOZIT NOZZLE 
 BU    D881      4" FLAPPITER  
 B1    D880      3" FLAPPITER  
 

Admin Alert: Three Keys to Better ODBC Library List Management

July 20, 2005 Joe Hertvik

For OS/400 data access, ODBC can be incredibly picky, especially when specifying library lists for ODBC connections. In configuring and reconfiguring many ODBC Data Source Names (DSNs), I have found that there are three items that must be understood and configured correctly or your desktop application programs may not find the data they need. To that end, let’s look at my three keys to ODBC library list success.

Please note that these items were tested by accessing an i5/OS V5R3 machine with the ODBC driver that comes with iSeries Access for Windows V5R3M0 (iSeries Access). While most of these functions