• Guru: RPG’s New DATA-INTO

  June 18, 2018 Jon Paris

  In this tip I’m going to give a brief introduction to the latest addition to the RPG language. The new DATA-INTO op-code. DATA-INTO is IBM’s response to the oft-asked question: “When is IBM going to introduce JSON-INTO so we can process JSON as easily as XML?”

  DATA-INTO provides this capability, but IBM has very cleverly given it functionality that goes way beyond what a simple JSON-INTO op-code could ever have done. DATA-INTO is effectively a cross between XML-INTO and Open Access. Like XML-INTO it uses the names of items and their hierarchy to unpack the document into RPG variables. Like …

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• Profound Logic Shows Off Innovation At PowerUp

  June 11, 2018 Alex Woodie

  The recent COMMON PowerUp 18 conference was a tour de force for Profound Logic, which not only showcased major enhancements to its flagship Web and mobile development tool for IBM i, Profound UI, but also swept the IBM Innovation Awards with two customer success stories.

  Let’s start with the Innovation Awards. Every year, IBM and COMMON highlight the innovative work that two companies do with their IBM i systems, including first and second place. While IBM i modernization vendors are usually well-represented in the nominations and eventual winners, we’ve never seen clients of the same modernization vendor take both first …

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• Keep Your IBM i Baby, Not The Bathwater

  May 7, 2018 Alex Woodie

  In the quest to modernize computer systems, some IBM i shops cease being IBM i shops. Wholesale migrations or complete rewrites of applications on different operating systems are sometimes necessary and beneficial, and sometimes they do more harm than good. When King III Solutions set out to enhance its advanced replenishment system, it managed to create a modern Web front-end that resonates with millennials without giving up its rock-solid IBM i back-end.

  Based in Marietta, Georgia, King III Solutions, or K3S, develops software that helps wholesale distributors and retailers better manage their inventory, in part through a collection of …

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• Guru: Refactoring into Routines

  May 7, 2018 Ted Holt

  In RDi and Refactoring, I illustrated the process of refactoring by taking code of a very old style and converting it little by little into something modern. I promised to write more about the subject, and today I fulfill that promise.

  The things I did in that first article — removing indicators, removing the COMP op code, removing GOTO, and renaming variables — are great, but they are not the only refactoring techniques. One of the best ways to refactor is to create new routines or improve existing routines, especially routines that can stand alone.

  To illustrate, I’ll begin …

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• Guru Odds and Ends: Readers Respond

  April 30, 2018 Ted Holt

  I appreciate the comments and feedback that readers have contributed. Some of you sent it my way via the Contact page at IT Jungle. Others emailed me directly. Yet others left comments at the end of the articles themselves. I am always grateful for your knowledge and wisdom, however I receive it.

  Knowing that you are very busy and don’t have time to revisit the articles we have published, I’ve collected some of that feedback for your edification. Please feel free to add to the body of knowledge.

  ---

  Had to chuckle when I read Sorting Options For CPYTOIMPF, …

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• Modernize Your Apps, Leapfrog The Competition

  April 23, 2018 Alex Woodie

  The IBM i server has a well-deserved reputation for reliability and low cost. It also has a reputation for not being the most agile and cutting-edge platform on the market (which is also well-deserved). However, thanks to innovative modernization techniques, IBM i shops can get the benefits of innovation and perhaps leapfrog competitors who wasted resources buying middling tech along the way.

  City Furniture faced this predicament recently. The South Florida chain of furniture stores wanted to extend into the showroom the same type of experience that customers first encountered while perusing the company’s website. The company figured that putting …

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• Tesla Teases IBM i Software Vendor Into Some Experimental Coding

  April 16, 2018 Dan Burger

  First of all, let me assure you this is not Car & Driver. You’re going to hear about a car and a driver, but the resemblance stops there. The driver is Alex Roytman and the car is a Tesla Model 3. I’d describe the car as a “cross-over” because it appeals to driving enthusiasts and technology geeks. I’d describe Roytman as an enthusiast, more so in the second category than the first.

  Loyal IT Jungle readers are familiar with Roytman because he’s the CEO of Profound Logic, an IBM i modernization company specializing in Web and mobile application …

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• Profound Rolls Out Node.js Development Services

  April 11, 2018 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops that want to get into Node.js development but lack the technical know-how to work with the language may be interested in a new professional service unveiled by Profound Logic last month in which the company will do the actual development work for you.

  Node.js has become one of the most popular development languages for a variety of reasons, including the way it unifies JavaScript for back-end and front-end work, the modular nature of Node.js apps, and the overall agility it gives to developers, particularly those building real-time apps that need to run across multiple platforms. The fact …

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• What A Concept: Distribution Software Aimed At Real SMBs

  April 9, 2018 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Time may pass in the IBM midrange, and systems and business practices have evolved, but the one thing that does not change is that some companies, especially those on the smaller size with limited resources to devote to IT hardware and software, want a simple system that just lets them do the work they need to do.

  The simplicity of the System/3X family, which has its start way back with the System/3 in 1969 and runs up through the System/38 in 1979 and the System/36 in 1983, up through the AS/400 in 1988 and up through the iSeries, System i, …

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• Guru: Dealing With Non-Normalized Data

  April 9, 2018 Jon Paris

  From time to time, many of us have to find solutions for handling our old non-normalized tables in an efficient manner. It would be nice to have the luxury of redesigning and normalizing these databases, but real life is not like that. This is particularly true when the tables in question are part of an application package where you have no control over the file layout.

  I should point out that by “efficient” in this context I don’t necessarily mean processing speed, but rather in terms of the number of lines of code needed to perform the necessary manipulations and/or …

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