• Easier Overloading of SQL Functions

  June 14, 2016 Hey, Ted

  In Formatting Dates with SQL, Take 2, you have shared a great technique. Function overloading is a real boon to SQL programming. Here’s another way to handle the same issue with what I believe is less code and less invasive (meaning you won’t have to recompile programs that use the FMTDATE service program). Leave your original FMTDATE function alone, but add the following to the SQL source: create function xxx/fmtdate (inDate varchar(8), inFromFmt varchar(8), inToFmt varchar(8)) returns varchar(10) language SQL specific FMTDATEA deterministic returns null on null input begin declare DateNum numeric (8,0); declare OutDate varchar(10); set DateNum =

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• Inline Table Functions In DB2 For i

  June 14, 2016 Michael Sansoterra

  In DB2 for i 7.2 TR4 and IBM i 7.3, IBM has made a special user-defined table function (UDTF) enhancement that should be shouted from the rooftops. This enhancement is referred to as an inline table function. Consider the simple example of this UDTF named Get_Customer_Orders: CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION Get_Customer_Orders ( @CustomerID INT, @StartDate DATE, @EndDate DATE) RETURNS TABLE ( SalesOrderId INT, CustomerId INT, OrderDate DATE, ShipDate DATE, SUBTOTAL DEC(19,4)) LANGUAGE SQL NO EXTERNAL ACTION DISALLOW PARALLEL SET OPTION COMMIT=*NONE,USRPRF=*OWNER,DATFMT=*ISO RETURN SELECT SalesOrderId,CustomerId, OrderDate,ShipDate,SubTotal FROM SalesOrderHeader WHERE CustomerId=@CustomerId AND OrderDate BETWEEN @StartDate AND @EndDate; What does DB2 do when

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• Talking IBM i Ecosystem With HelpSystems CEO Chris Heim

  June 13, 2016 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  There has been a flurry of acquisitions in the IBM i marketplace in the past several years–you might even call it a blizzard. That got me to thinking last week about the changes in the OS/400 and IBM i ecosystem that we have seen in the past several decades, which I talked about in an essay last week. HelpSystems has built one of the largest software business dedicated to the IBM i platform. Infor could have a larger one, and Vision Solutions might, too, but they are all private companies so we can’t tell. Fresche, with its recent

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• Fresche Makes Bold Move In IBM i Modernization Arena

  June 13, 2016 Dan Burger

  Another IBM midrange earthquake was reported last week as two of the big application modernization vendors joined forces to create a single source of a wide range of products and services. Throughout the IBM i community, windows rattled and light flickered as Fresche Legacy–now known simply as Fresche–announced it was purchasing Quadrant Software. According to Fresche, it now has a client base totaling more than 22,000 IBM i customers. Financial details of the acquisition were not reported, as both software companies are privately owned. Fresche’s CEO Andy Kulakowski said the purpose of this acquisition was to allow Fresche

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• Rocket Ties Analytic Database Into IBM i

  June 13, 2016 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops that are interested in extracting insights from their data under the guidance of automated statistical analysis and machine learning may want to check out a new offering from Rocket Software. Called Rocket Discover for IBM i, the new software combines data discovery capabilities with self-service data preparation, and is aimed at regular business users who find things like Tableau Software‘s products too geeky or difficult to learn. Rocket began building its Rocket Discover tool several years ago to serve the growing need for self-service tools that can handle the entire analytic spectrum–from data preparation and

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• Focal Point Emphasizes Security Assessments, Documents In The Cloud

  June 13, 2016 Dan Burger

  Focal Point Solutions Group, an IBM i-based managed service provider specializing in high availability, disaster recovery architectures, and security monitoring has expanded its services to include security assessments and document management in the cloud. Slowly but surely the word is getting around that IBM i systems are securable but not inherently secure. The distinction is that it takes skills and knowledge to secure the box. Security doesn’t just happen when you push the power button. More to security than locking down the network. Customers are realizing they need to know that security issues are being monitored and addressed when

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• The Server Refresh Cycle Loses Steam

  June 13, 2016 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  With one way of looking at it, the server market that drives the IT business is very mature and relatively flat, which shows demand for compute (and in some cases storage) remains steady and healthy. But in another way of looking at it, in a world obsessed by growth and often demanding it to drive revenues, profits, and stock prices, the server market has taken a dip and this is bad news. Which way is it? Like an electron, perhaps, it is neither and both at the same time. What we can tell you is that the box counters at

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• For Sale: IBM i Is A Buyer’s Market

  June 6, 2016 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  There is an old adage that it is 10 times as expensive to acquire a new customer as it is to keep an existing one happy. I think that whoever lived in those times and coined that phrase did not live in an economic period dominated by the cheap money that was made available–some would say necessary–to keep the global economy humming along or recovering relatively quickly when it falters. I think it is maybe a hundred or a thousand times easier to buy a company with a set of established customers than it is to acquire them one at

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• HelpSystems Fills Encryption Gap With Linoma Buy

  June 6, 2016 Alex Woodie

  Despite all the IBM i security vendors that HelpSystems has bought over the years–and there have been at least five of them–the company has lacked one key security capability valued by enterprises: encryption. With last week’s deal to acquire Linoma Software, the Minneapolis software vendor has finally obtained that encryption capability for IBM i. HelpSystems has been experiencing heavy demand for IBM i encryption capabilities, says CEO Chris Heim. “I wouldn’t say we lost sales because of it, but we definitely wanted to offer a full solution to our customers and that’s why we wanted to check that encryption

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• Modernization Prioritization Based On Observation

  June 6, 2016 Dan Burger

  Amidst all the chatter in the IBM midrange community, nothing rises above the catch-all category of modernization. Just about anything that’s done to the system, including brushing the dust off an old AS/400, seems to qualify as modernization. But, after separating the wheat from the chaff, there is real modernization being done and with it comes the realization that the IBM i is as modern as you allow it to be. After years of Earl Scheib paint jobs–We’ll paint your car for $99–modernization efforts have become better planned, better executed, and better suited for a future that extends

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