• The First Step In DevOps Is Not Tools, But Culture Change

  September 25, 2023 Andrew Clark

  The combination and automation of application development and IT operations, commonly known as DevOps, is itself like the processes it automates – it is a process of continual change through iteration and improvement. And so, like most things in life (other than vacation, maybe), it is a journey – not a destination.

  When people think about a DevOps roadmap journey, they are typically thinking about putting in some kind of DevOps tooling like git or Jenkins; this is really not the place to start – the first step on the DevOps roadmap, for most companies, is actually a culture change. …

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• Guru: Generating XML Using SQL – The Easy Way

  September 18, 2023 Bob Cozzi

  There are many verbose methods of generating XML. You can:

  • Write your own RPG code
  • Using a free or third-party API
  • Use SQL iQuery OUTPUT(*XML) option
  • Use the built-in SQL XML functions such as XMLELEMENT

  I’m sure there are others, but these seem to be the most popular.

  For years I had been using the XMLELEMENT approach; a rather verbose set of XML function built into Db2 for i SQL. In fact, SQL iQuery’s OUTPUT(*XML) is based on that feature. It simply regenerates your SQL statement using XMLELEMENT statements for each output column/field name.

  But if you’re using something IBM …

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• Profound Logic Explores AI Paths for IBM i

  August 23, 2023 Alex Woodie

  The burgeoning world of artificial intelligence may seem far away to IBM i shops, but in fact, the technology is quite accessible to the users. One vendor that’s helping to guide IBM i users through the growing AI jungle is Profound Logic.

  Profound Logic is best known as an application modernization vendor, and one that provides tools for developing Web and mobile interfaces for IBM i applications, as well as working with APIs on the platform.

  In a series of YouTube videos, Profound Logic co-founder and CEO Alex Roytman provides a rundown on the latest developments in the world …

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• MOVEit Vulnerability Yields Another 4 Million Breached Records

  August 16, 2023 Alex Woodie

  A zero-day security vulnerability in the MOVEit file transfer software discovered in late spring has been wreaking havoc across American companies this summer. The latest victims are people signed up for Colorado’s version of Medicaid, who had their data compromised when cybercriminals used the flaw to access their data in the IBM Cloud.

  The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing (HCPF) recently notified customers that a security incident took place that resulted in unauthorized actors having access to the protected health information of members involved in two of its programs, including Health First Colorado, which is the state’s …

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• Guru: Retrieving The Long And Short Object Name

  August 14, 2023 Bob Cozzi

  Many releases ago, IBM i received “Long SQL Names” for files and libraries. These new longer names (up to 128 characters) were well received by SQL enthusiasts, but largely ignored by the mainstream IBM i developer. As each version of IBM i emerged, more and more shops experienced one or more objects with a longer-than-10-character name.

  Recently I created a file named BOAT_TRAFFIC. This name is clearly longer than 10 characters. I used SQL DDL (the CREATE or REPLACE TABLE statement) to create the file. Using SQL DDL is the only real way to create an object with a long …

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• SAP Raises Costs, Slashes Innovation for On-Prem Software

  August 9, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Companies that run SAP on-prem, including all of its IBM i customers, will be left out in the cold following the German ERP giant’s latest moves, which includes a 5 percent increase in annual on-prem support costs and a pledge from the CEO that all new “innovation” only will be delivered in the cloud.

  SAP, like most enterprise software vendors, has been trying to get its customers to move to cloud versions of its ERP software for some time. Moving customers to cloud subscriptions not only smooths out the revenue stream for companies like SAP compared to the sporadic …

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• New GUI, Native SMS Come to Kisco’s iEventMonitor

  August 2, 2023 Alex Woodie

  There’s a lot going on inside your IBM i server – too much for a single administrator to track it all, let alone do so in real-time. One product that helps automate IBM i monitoring is iEvent Monitor from Kisco Systems. With the recent release of version 7, the company has added a new GUI, support for native SMS messaging, and monitoring for SQL security certificate expirations and thread waits, among other new features.

  Kisco Systems rolled out iEventMonitor back in 2015 as a budget-minded system monitoring tool for IBM i shops. Starting at just $400 for a single LPAR, …

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• Guru: Object Usage Statistics

  July 10, 2023 Bob Cozzi

  A long time ago in a system far, far away, IBM added the Date Last Used to the Object Description for all objects on the system. The term “last used” means different things to different object types; for *FILE objects it means the file was opened or its description was changed, for *PGM objects it means the program was called, for other objects it generally means what you might think it means (viewed, retrieved/read, updated, etc.) The only exceptions are Device Descriptions which get updated when a *DEVD changes from “Vary On Pending” to some other status.

  The Date Last …

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• Guru: Comparing IFS Directories Using SQL

  June 19, 2023 Mike Larsen

  I use SQL almost every day at my job. It may be just a query in ACS, or it may be embedded SQL in an RPG program. A few days ago, I needed to compare the contents of one IFS directory to another. Combining a few different table functions, I was able to develop a nice solution.

  Note: The code for this article can be downloaded here.

  In this example, I have a directory that has five text files in it. I have a second directory that has three text files in it, and they are the same documents …

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• Guru: Speeding Up RPG By Reducing I/O Operations, Part 2

  June 12, 2023 Gregory Simmons

  Legacy code. Often one admits they have legacy code either with a chuckle or a wince. Nonetheless, it usually is admitted with bad connotations. We must remember though – legacy code becomes legacy code because it works. It performs its tasks day in and day out for many years and is forgotten about. Only the squeaky wheel gets the grease, right?

  The problem with this code is that, while it works, decades slip by, and technology evolves. As these decades roll along, we don’t just end up with a few programs that fit this ‘legacy code’ stereotype, we often end …

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