• Away With The SQL Slash Separator

  June 19, 2013 Michael Sansoterra

  One potentially confusing aspect of programming SQL in DB2 for i for non-IBMers is the use of the forward slash character to qualify an SQL object with a schema. IBM i devs don’t have a problem with the slash because we recognize it as the character we use when qualifying objects while tooling around the i/OS green screen. Others database devs may wonder what sophisticated function the slash serves. However, in IBM i 7.1, IBM introduced a change in DB2 Group PTF SF99701 Level 15 that is worth noting. When using the system naming convention, developers can now

  …

  Read more

• Removing Members From And Deleting An i OS Group Profile

  June 19, 2013 Hey, Joe

  We’re cleaning up some of our IBM i operating system user groups and we need to remove 100 users from a group profile. Is there a way to do that without having to go into each user profile and individually remove their group memberships? We also need to delete some of the group profiles themselves. I’m on i 6.1. –Jack This is really easy to do if you use the System i Navigator (OpsNav) program that comes with IBM i Access for Windows V7R1M0. Here’s how to use OpsNav to: 1) remove a group of users from an IBM i

  …

  Read more

• When Is A Source Member Not A Source Member?

  June 5, 2013 Susan Gantner

  I do my coding using Rational Developer for Power Systems (a.k.a. RDP). Most of the time, I open the source code in the editor in RDP much like SEU users would, in the sense that I open my source directly from a member in a source file in a library on IBM i. When I save from the RDP editor, the source is saved back to that same member. Below is a picture of what my screen looks like when I’m working with RDP as described above. Note the highlighted library, source files, and members in the “Remote Systems” view

  …

  Read more

• Conditional SQL I/O

  June 5, 2013 Ted Holt

  If an RPG programmer has a best friend, it may very well be the CHAIN opcode, which performs a random read on a keyed database file. It’s common programming practice in information-processing shops to read one file sequentially and to chain to read a host of others randomly. SQL handles this sort of thing differently. With SQL, joining is the proper way to retrieve data from two or more tables and/or views. The difference is even more pronounced when some of the random processing may or may not take place. Suppose you’re responsible for a database that contains customer orders.

  …

  Read more

• Admin Alert: Renewing A Default *System Certificate

  June 5, 2013 Joe Hertvik

  In an earlier column, I described how to solve problems when loading digital certificates into your IBM i Digital Certificate Manager (DCM). This week, I’ll review another DCM problem where the default certificate in the system certificate store (*SYSTEM) expires, and the system starts refusing connections from clients that use digital certificates. This week, let’s examine what happens when a *SYSTEM default certificate expires and how to renew that certificate in DCM. Getting The Terminology Correct To untangle what’s happening here, let’s first look at some terminology regarding your partition’s DCM. A system certificate store, designated by *SYSTEM in DCM,

  …

  Read more

• Search SQL Source Using System Catalogs

  May 15, 2013 Michael Sansoterra

  The green screen PDM and the GUI Rational Developer for i (RDi) tools provide developers an easy way to search through source code to find a specified text literal. But what if these tools don’t have access to all your code, in particular the SQL code? Many developers may not be keeping an up-to-date source copy of their SQL persisted stored modules (functions, procedures and triggers) and further, may not be keeping a copy of the source at all. If this is the case in your shop, never fear, for DB2 for i maintains a record of the source statements

  …

  Read more

• Bind By Slash-Copy

  May 15, 2013 Ted Holt

  I advise, recommend, urge, admonish, and even cajole RPG programmers to quit using subroutines and start using subprocedures instead. Yet I still hear from people who work in shops that allow the use of RPG IV (a.k.a. ILE RPG), but do not allow binding to modules and service programs. Today I offer two ways to use subprocedures that do not require ILE binding. But first, let’s have a quick review of ILE binding of subprocedures into programs. 1. Bind by copy The object code of the subprocedures of a module is copied into the object code of a program

  …

  Read more

• Adding A Job Queue To A Batch Subsystem

  May 15, 2013 Hey, Joe

  I want to add another batch job queue to my QBATCH subsystem for submitting reporting jobs that take a long time to process. I want to put them in their own job queue so they can just chug away in QBATCH without interfering with my other batch work. How do I add another job queue that I can submit these jobs to? –Bob Adding batch job queues to QBATCH is easy. All you have to do is perform the following steps and you’ll be able to create another QBATCH job queue in no time. Check to see how many jobs

  …

  Read more

• Copy Source Members Between Systems Without FTP

  May 1, 2013 Bob Cozzi

  Moving source code between systems is critical in a multi-system environment. Using save/restore is one way to accomplish this task, but not everyone has save/restore authority. Using FTP is another popular way to move one or more source members between systems, but the downside is that the SRCSEQ and SRCDAT fields are thrown out. Only the SRCDTA field is sent, similar to sending a plain ASCII text file. Maybe I’m late to the party, but I found a better way. The better way is one of those things that causes me to think that I must be the last person

  …

  Read more

• Odds and Ends

  May 1, 2013 Ted Holt

  It’s been awhile since we had an issue of odds and ends. Today seems like a good day for it. I hope you find something of benefit here. Hey, Ted: I tried to use the sed command in a CL program to replace [ with [n (newline). I tried many ways to get it to work. I finally gave up and used tr to translate from [ to n. I was really hoping to keep the bracket. When running Qshell commands in a CL procedure, how can you force a continuation line for a sed command? How can you insert

  …

  Read more

Previous Articles Next Articles