If you happen to dabble with any sort of Web development (or even if you don’t), you have probably heard of Asynchronous JavaScript and Extensible Mark-up Language (XML)–better known as AJAX.

Depending on who you talk to AJAX is either “another flash in the pan” or “the greatest thing since sliced bread.” As usual, the truth probably falls somewhere in between.

In this, the first of two articles, I want to discuss what AJAX is and why you might want to use it. In the following article I will give a simple example of using AJAX with an RPG CGIDEV2

I am coding a .NET reporting application. The new .NET reports need to look like the old iSeries reports with the user name at the top. I am using the DB2 managed provider to connect to the data files.

My code for connecting is:

Public cni5 As iDB2Connection
cni5 = New iDB2Connection("DataSource=" + My.Settings.PTCValue)
cni5.Open()

When connecting, the .NET Windows application displays the Client Access sign-on screen just like the iSeries Access for Windows program does. I can see the connection on the iSeries side under the QUSRWRK Subsystem. It is called QZDASOINIT, user is QUSER, type is PJ (prestart

On behalf of Admin Alert reader Jean-Pierre, I recently challenged my readers to a contest to pimp my PC5250 font size in a consistent and validly cool manner. A number of readers responded and they solved Jean-Pierre’s problem, winning themselves no-prizes in the bargain. Here’s how our most recent challenge came about and how it was solved.

The Making of a Pimp Contest

Jean-Pierre wanted to change the default font size on his PC5250 sessions, but he couldn’t make the change stick. He was able to change and save the font size on his first session, but every time he