• SystemObjects SmartPad4i Mobilizes RDi

  April 3, 2017 Dan Burger

  As more companies find their way into the RDi development environment, more ISVs realize plug-ins to RDi are in demand. SystemObjects just joined the list by offering an RDi plug-in to its Web and mobile application development tool known as SmartPad4i. For situations where Web development skills are still evolving, SystemObjects is offering a route that bypasses the Java and HTML learning curve. And there are always RPG and COBOL programmers who don’t mind that detour.

  SmartPad4i is not new. But the plug-in to RDi and the built-in capability to create HTML files are interesting enhancements. IBM i developers with …

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• ACS Getting New Database Schema Functions

  March 29, 2017 Alex Woodie

  IBM is adding more functionality to the upcoming release of Access Client Solutions (ACS) that should make IBM i database engineers and database developers very happy, including a new capability that allows users to work directly with schemas.

  The database schema function was not on the list of new ACS features that IBM released back in February, when it first unveiled IBM i 7.3 TR2 and IBM i 7.2 TR6. IBM uses the major operating system and technology refresh (TR) announcements as a vehicle to also announce other products that aren’t part of the OS proper, but which are …

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• Ensono Emerges With IBM i Cloud Offering

  March 29, 2017 Alex Woodie

  When it comes to selecting a cloud provider to run your IBM i applications, you have a lot of options, including prominent business partners and well-known VARs in the midrange market. One fairly large IBM i cloud provider that you’re probably not aware of is Ensono, and it’s working to raise its profile in the changing market.

  The first thing that differentiates Ensono is its rich history. While the company’s name is just over a year old, it actually traces its business process outsourcing roots back 47 years to Downers Grove, Illinois, when the data services firm May & Speh …

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• Original Testing Pure HTML5 Emulator For 5250

  March 29, 2017 Alex Woodie

  Test automation specialist Original Software is developing a 5250 emulator that’s based entirely in HTML5 code, which enables it to run in the Web browser of any modern device. Prospective users are those IBM i shops who are frustrated with the emulator in IBM’s new Java-based ACS product, which Original says is difficult to test.

  When you think of the words “HTML5 and IBM i application development,” chances are good that what popped into your mind was an image of shiny new Web apps with all the latest screen widgets and UX gadgets designed to deliver a downright transformative – …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, March 29

  March 29, 2017 Dan Burger

  Technically, you don’t need SQL to survive. However, if you’re not using it, you should know what you are missing. Here’s a conversational introduction to SQL that can open the door to modern programming techniques that can modernize applications and databases by reducing the amount of coding and moving business logic to the database.

  This week’s Monitor also has articles about tech start-ups in unlikely places in the United States heartland, a new IBM Cloud and Red Hat Linux partnership built on OpenStack, IBM’s change of heart regarding work-at-home programs, and a piece on why people should and should not …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 12

  March 29, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  It is a bit quiet out there in PTF Land this week. But there has been some activity. There is a new HIPER group for each IBM i release that is currently supported, and there are tweaks to Backup and Recovery Groups for IBM i 7.2 and 7.3. There are also some anomalies on other groups.

  For instance, the Must Gather tools usually go along at a pace of updating every two weeks, but now it has been over a month since an update came out. Go figure. . . . The new 5733-OPS Open Source licensed programs have not …

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• The Bang For The Buck Of Entry IBM i Servers

  March 27, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In last Monday’s issue of The Four Hundred, I rounded up the feeds, speeds, and pricing of the new Power S812 Mini system that Big Blue started selling in the middle of March to IBM i shops with modest computing needs. We are talking one core running at just over 3 GHz and providing an aggregate of 9,880 units of performance on the Commercial Processing Workload (CPW) online transaction processing benchmark test used to gauge the oomph of Power Systems and their predecessors.

  This ain’t a lot of computing in 2017, people. Just pointing that out. And I will …

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• IBM i Shops Seeking More Services

  March 27, 2017 Dan Burger

  Many folks view managed services as a replacement for processes that company employees used to do. Like backing up data, for instance. Slow backups and nearly closed windows for planned downtime have more organizations looking at the managed service providers for improved efficiencies and the opportunity to add a disaster recovery plan that makes sense.

  That used to be a big part of managed services, but the definition has greatly expanded in the past few years. As IT complexity has soared, there are many pieces in the IT puzzle that are missing or a bad fit in organizations that struggle …

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• Guru: Sorting Options For CPYTOIMPF

  March 27, 2017 Ted Holt

  I hope that whoever came up with the idea for the Copy to Import File (CPYTOIMPF) command was well compensated. When I think of the time and effort that that command has saved me and countless others, I feel deep gratitude. The addition of the ORDERBY parameter increased the usefulness of CPYTOIMPF, and I’d like to share that with you.

  CPYTOIMPF copies a single-format database file (table, physical file, view, or logical file) to a stream file or physical file in a format that is acceptable to another system or application. Probably the most common use of this command is …

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• As I See It: The Politics of Self-Disclosure

  March 27, 2017 Victor Rozek

  It is quite possible that two of the most unexpected and consequential events of recent times had their origins with a student in Warsaw. Perhaps if he hadn’t been accepted to Cambridge University, the fates of two nations would not now be spinning off in unforeseen directions. But he was, and in Cambridge, the ripples of his fascination with psychometrics grew into an unintended tsunami. His name is Michal Kosinski, and there are a lot of people angry with him.

  Psychometrics is the reality-based branch of psychology, at least in so far as it is data-driven. It is rooted in …

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