• Profound Gets A Handle On Subfiles In Screen Scraper

  May 6, 2015 Alex Woodie

  When it comes to IBM i application modernization, subfile programs can present a dilemma. If you’re going the whole-hog route and getting rid of all 5250 and DDS underpinnings, you can convert subfiles into modern tables or grids. But what if you’re aiming for just a quick Web-enablement with screen-scraping tools? Keeping track of shifty subfiles here can be a challenge, but Profound Logic recently tackled the issue in an update to Genie. Genie is Profound’s fast and easy Web-enablement tool for 5250 interfaces. The company is not shy about calling Genie a screen scraper, which is exactly what it

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• BCD Cranks Up Its PHP Engine

  May 6, 2015 Alex Woodie

  It’s no secret that BCD Software likes PHP. The company, owned by Quadrant Software since February 2014, has supported the Web application programming language since it rolled out a special PHP version of WebSmart back in 2007. But with the recent launches of two new PHP bundles aimed at IBM i shops, as well as support for Zend‘s Z-Ray functionality, the company is taking its affinity for PHP to a whole new level. BCD used last week’s COMMON conference as a springboard to launch two new software bundles that combine the WebSmart development tools and Zend’s PHP software for

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• SAP HANA Now Available On IBM Power

  May 6, 2015 Alex Woodie

  After years of discussion and months of testing, SAP‘s HANA in-memory database is now officially supported on IBM‘s Power servers, giving joint SAP-IBM customers an alternative to running HANA on X86. IBM on Monday officially launched two special editions of its Power Systems servers designed to run HANA Business Warehouse software this week, while an announcement from SAP is expected soon. “I don’t think it’s a big shock to anybody that we’re entering the HANA space and that we’re doing it with a processor that was designed for big data and analytics,” says Vicente Moranta, IBM’s director and

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• Technology Refresh Highlighted By Development Languages And Native Flash Storage

  May 6, 2015 Dan Burger

  IBM‘s latest round of technology refreshments for IBM i 7.1 and 7.2 were announced last week, so I asked Steve Will and Alison Butterill to pick what they expected to be the operating systems’ most appreciated and readily implemented enhancements. Their agreed upon choices came down to support for popular development languages Java 8 and Python, plus expanded support for the data interchange format JSON, and native flash storage, which replaces virtual attached storage. Will, the chief scientist for IBM i, and Butterill, the IBM i program offering manager, have a great deal to say about what goes into

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• Ruby And Existing Databases

  May 5, 2015 Aaron Bartell

  Recently I came across a scenario for a customer where I was asked, “How do we interact with our existing DDS-based, composite key, database tables?” That’s going to be a very common trait of most all IBM i shops using Ruby, and this article will cover some common situations you will come across as you use Ruby to interact with existing DB2 for i tables. First things first, let’s lay out two tables defined with DDS, as shown below. Note how the ORDDTL table has a composite key. The ibm_db Gem follows the ActiveRecord pattern and that pattern expects surrogate

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• Formatting Dates with SQL, Take 2

  May 5, 2015 Hey, Ted

  I am trying to use your FMTDATE SQL function but the system tells me it can’t find it. I know FMTDATE is there. Can you help? –Robert Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here. I’ve received a compliment or two (at least) for the FMTDATE (format date) function I published back in 2009. (Can it really have been so long? How time flies!) I use it heavily, and I’m not the only one. If you’re not familiar with FMTDATE, please read Formatting Dates with SQL before continuing. To address Robert’s question, the reason the system

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• Pipelined User-Defined Table Functions In DB2 For i

  May 5, 2015 Michael Sansoterra

  Pipes are a fantastic invention as they are useful for conveying a substance in an efficient and well directed manner. Whether used for transporting sewage, carrying oil, or even bottling a duck (if you’re old enough to remember “The High and the Flighty” Foghorn Leghorn cartoon featuring the Ace Novelty company’s “Pipe Full of Fun Kit #7”); our world wouldn’t be the same without them. Not to be left out, starting in IBM i 7.1 TR9 and IBM i 7.2 TR1, DB2 for i now offers a “PIPE” statement that is used to quickly populate rows in a user-defined table

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• An Open Letter To IBM From A Developer

  May 4, 2015 Garry Taylor

  The only thing that I request from IBM, is the ability to develop software for their IBM i platform. Am I asking too much? I don’t think so. Allow me to elaborate. I have been developing on IBM i since 2008. In that time, I’ve used public systems, had the use of business partner’s machines, and way back in time I had my own 9401/150 developer system with all compilers installed. Recently though, I have been wishing to ramp up my efforts on IBM i, to develop more software, more seriously. Now, on any other computer platform I can

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• As I See It: Cold War 2.0

  May 4, 2015 Victor Rozek

  Russian history is one of repeated repression blanketing systemic failure. But it is also a history of a resilient people adapting to state-imposed limitations. Russia’s cultural achievements are a testament to intelligence successfully seeking expression, often against great odds. Defying state control over their lives and prospects, the exceptionally gifted gravitated toward arenas in which they could exercise a measure of control over their careers. Whatever flavor of oppression they were forced to swallow–Czarist, Stalinist, or Communist–creative minds found refuge in fields such as literature, music, dance, and notably chess–the only global domination communism ever managed to achieve. Move the

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• Cautious Optimism Pervades COMMON

  May 4, 2015 Alex Woodie

  It’s tough to have a bad day at Disneyland, which is officially “The Happiest Place On Earth.” But the IBM i community carries a lot of baggage, and some of it is blacker than a Maleficent curse. So when 1,000 of the community’s staunchest supporters descended upon the hallowed grounds of childhood dreams last week, unfettered joy was not a preordained outcome. But, as it turns out, the COMMON conference that took place at the Disneyland Hotel last Sunday through Thursday came off better than expected, at least as far as the future of the platform is concerned. While nobody

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