• Special Files Can Do It All, Part 2

  June 6, 2007 Hey, Ted

  I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your real world ideas and examples. They are the kinds of ideas that can really help smaller shops do the practical, bulletproof kinds of jobs we need to do. I have used your special files technique to replace some old System/36 #GSORT sales analysis programs. I know, it takes us a long time to convert, but some of these programs have not changed in 15 years. We have S/36 OCL procedures that display a screen to ask for parameters, use #GSORT to create an address-out file using the parameters for

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• Load a Spreadsheet from a DB2/400 Database

  June 6, 2007 Hey, Ted

  I know from my reading that it is possible to make an Excel spreadsheet read from an iSeries database. I’ve been an RPG programmer for years, and I don’t know where to start. Can you point me in the right direction? –“D” I’ll do my best. I have some Visual Basic code that I’ve used for years that I can share with you. I wish I could give credit to the original author, but I don’t remember where I got it. First, crank up a new Excel spreadsheet. Pull down the Tools menu, select Macro, then Visual Basic Editor. The

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• Admin Alert: Weird i5 User Profile Sign-On Secrets

  June 6, 2007 Joe Hertvik

  i5/OS can be a little quirky when it comes to user profiles. There are little-known facets to System i profile management (some call them loopholes) that allow users to perform system sign-on tricks that are technically not allowed by the operating system. This week, I’ll focus on a few i5 quirks you may not have known about and how they can affect your user sign-ons. Quirk #1: You can’t create a system i user profile name that starts with a number but you can sign on with a user profile name that begins with a number. In several systems besides

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• Maximum Availability Shakes Up Business Plan

  June 5, 2007 Alex Woodie

  It can be a very tough business competing in the global i5/OS high availability software market. One company that’s learned some lessons is Maximum Availability, which launched its *noMAX product around the turn of the millennium. While the New Zealand company initially intended to wage an air war by relying on the Internet to sell, service, and support its product, it’s increasingly finding that nothing beats boots on the ground. The company’s vice president of marketing and sales, Andrew Mansfield, recently discussed the company’s changes with IT Jungle. Maximum Availability never fully expected to rely on its Web

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• SEA Delivers Web and Mobile Consoles for absMessage

  June 5, 2007 Alex Woodie

  One can never be too rich, too thin, or too young, as an old saying goes. When it comes to systems management tools for the i5/OS server, perhaps one can never have too many ways to interact with and control the server. One vendor embracing this concept is Software Engineering of America, a developer of tools for System i and System z servers, which recently introduced two new interfaces for absMessage, its message management utility for i5/OS servers, bringing the total number of product interfaces to four. SEA is a relative newbie to the System i systems management space,

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• Aldon Boosts Identity Tracking in ALM Tool

  June 5, 2007 Alex Woodie

  Aldon simultaneously strengthened and streamlined the authentication process for its change management tools last month with the introduction of a new identity access management (IAM) component. By automatically tracking which objects a given person can access and what they can do with them, the new IAM component should make life easier for Aldon’s customers, as well as the auditors trying to gauge their compliance. Change management software, by its very nature, is very process oriented. It’s also generally at least somewhat aware of its users’ identities. After all, no change management product that’s correctly configured would allow a disgruntled former

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• Quadrant Bolsters FastFax with Dynamic Line Allocation

  June 5, 2007 Alex Woodie

  Users don’t have to worry about missing incoming fax orders during hectic workdays thanks to the new “dynamic line allocation” feature in FastFax/Enterprise version 4.7.2, which was announced this week by Quadrant Software. With dynamic line allocation, FastFax/Enterprise automatically takes fax lines normally assigned for outgoing faxes and uses them for incoming faxes. FastFax/Enterprise is an enterprise-grade fax server software product designed to integrate with i5/OS ERP systems, such as J.D. Edwards and BPCS. The software offers users the capability to send documents generated by their ERP system as faxes or as e-mail, and to do so from the

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• HiT Software Delivers ADO.NET 2.0 Data Provider for DB2/400

  June 5, 2007 Alex Woodie

  HiT Software last week unveiled a new version of Ritmo/i5, its data provider product connecting Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 to DB2/400. With Ritmo/i5 version 4, HiT is providing support for Visual Studio developers using the latest ADO.NET 2.0 techniques to pull data from their System i database into their Windows applications. The result is the “smoothest” integration between System i and Microsoft’s development tools yet, HiT says. ADO.NET 2.0 debuted in late 2005 with the release of the .NET Framework 2.0, Visual Studio 2005, and SQL Server 2005. Version 2.0 implemented a base-class provider model that brings a number of

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• Lawson Launches QuickStep Program for Asset Management

  June 5, 2007 Alex Woodie

  Lawson Software last week unveiled Lawson QuickStep Enterprise Asset Management, a new offering based on its M3 (formerly Movex) suite that arrives mostly preconfigured by Lawson, which can cut the implementation by up to 50 percent compared to traditional EAM applications. The EAM application category is relied upon by organizations that make use of mechanical assets, including trucks, busses, cars, planes, trains, heating and air conditioning, and building equipment. Because capturing and tracking information about these types of assets can be a tricky business, organizations rely on this cousin of ERP to do the job for them, while generating all

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• DVD Retailer Integrates iSeries With Alpha for MMS, POS

  June 5, 2007 Dan Burger

  Replacing a merchandise management system (MMS) and point of sale (POS) system that was prone to error and cumbersome to work with has led the world’s largest DVD retailer to Alpha Retail Technology, and its MMS and POS software. The new software integrates with an iSeries server, which manage financial, catalog inventory, and other business applications. Infinity Resources, the parent company of the DVD retailer DVDPlanet, made its software search contingent on a product that could manage cyclical trends and replenishment profiles based on factors associated with each title, such as release date and seasonal demands. It required the

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