• Admin Alert: Making Run the Same Run the Same On IBM i Access 7.1 On Windows 7

  July 11, 2012 Joe Hertvik

  One of my clients is working on a new build for their Windows 7 computers. They are deploying IBM i Access for Windows 7.1 (IBM i Access) on Windows 7 for the first time, and I’ve been evaluating using the product on that platform. Here are some issues and observations I’ve seen with the Personal Communications (Pcom) product that comes with version 7.1. Run The Same May Not Run The Same In IBM i 7.1 Like IBM i Access for Windows’ predecessors such as Client Access Express for Windows, iSeries Access for Windows, etc., IBM i Access ships with a

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• Protect Your Intellectual Property: Obfuscate DB2 For i Source Code

  June 27, 2012 Michael Sansoterra

  Every “old timer” IBM i developer knows about the compiler option to include or exclude source statements within an OPM or ILE program. The CL compilers even have an option to allow CL source to be retrieved from the Retrieve CL Source (RTVCLSRC) command. While high-level language programmers can decide whether or not to include source statements with their objects, DB2 SQL developers had no such option because anyone could use a tool like iNavigator to retrieve the SQL source. Thanks to the IBM i 7.1 technology refresh 4 update, SQL developers now have the option to obfuscate their

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• Another Way To Skin A Generic Cat

  June 27, 2012 Hey, Ted

  I am writing in response to your recent article, Add Powerful Generic Processing to Your Applications, regarding generic processing. I have another, simpler technique that you should share with my fellow readers of Four Hundred Guru. –D D’s technique is to use the Remove Link (RMVLNK) command. Here’s the example he (she?) gave me: RMVLNK OBJLNK('/qsys.lib/dug*.devd') This command deletes device descriptions with names that begin with DUG. Notice that RMVLNK requires objects to be specified in the IFS naming convention. You may use RMVLNK or its two aliases, DEL and ERASE, for objects other than libraries. For libraries,

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• Admin Alert: Finding TCP/IP Interface History And More On The NetServer GO Nets Installation Library

  June 27, 2012 Joe Hertvik

  For this week’s column, here’s some interesting information I found about discovering the history of your TCP/IP interfaces and how to retrieve the QUSRTOOL library for installing the IBM i NetServer GO NETS menu discussed in last week’s column. Displaying The History Of Your IBM i TCP/IP Interfaces If you’re on i 6.1 or above, here’s an easy way to determine when and how your TCP/IP interfaces were last started or stopped. You can do this by looking at the job log history of the TCP/IP control job, QTCPWRK (formerly named QTCPIP in V5R4Mx and below). Whenever TCP/IP

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• The New Basics

  June 13, 2012 Jon Paris

  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,

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• DB2 For i XMLTABLE, Part 1: Convert XML to Tabular Data

  June 13, 2012 Michael Sansoterra

  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

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• Admin Alert: Of Course, Everything I Know About NetServer Could Change

  June 13, 2012 Joe Hertvik

  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

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• Preparing To Install IBM’s RUNSQL Command

  May 30, 2012 Rob Berendt

  I’ve often needed to run a SQL statement from within a CL program. I knew I could by calling a RPG program with SQL embedded in it, or by executing RUNSQLSTM, but I really didn’t want to go to that much trouble to run one simple SQL statement. IBM has given you a way to run an SQL command within a CL procedure if you’re running IBM i 6.1 or 7.1. It’s a new CL command called RUNSQL. For 7.1, you must order level 14 or higher of DB2 PTF Group SF99701. For 6.1, order level 25 or higher of

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• Eliminate The Legitimate Use Of GOTO

  May 30, 2012 Ted Holt

  Today I want to share with you some of the ugliest RPG code I’ve ever seen. It is to me the programming-language equivalent of Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame, and I am its progenitor. Then I will tell you why I wrote this code, and why, despite its ugliness, the code was correct. Last, I will tell you how to “prettify” it. The ugly code of which I speak is in a template source code member for file maintenance programs. It is similar in structure to this example: P MoveItem b D pi D inItemID 6a const D inWhsID

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• Three Ways To Fix NetServer Access Problems

  May 30, 2012 Hey, Joe

  I tried mapping a Windows drive letter to the root folder (/) of my Integrated File System (IFS) by using an IBM i NetServer file share. But I can’t get the drive to map. My cubicle buddy can map her drive. Why can’t I map my drive? –Phil Just as your IBM i user profile can be disabled from signing on to the system after a set number of incorrect sign-on attempts, the system can also automatically disable your user profile from IBM i NetServer access after you exceed the maximum number of sign-on attempts when trying to access a

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