Start testing the new date rule

Since the beginning of time on OS/400, the beloved ancestor of IBM i, six long dates have always used the "1940 rule" to determine the century.

If Year >= 40 then Century = 19
If Year < 40 then Century = 20

2039 is not that far in the future, only 17 years away, IBM has developed a replacement rule, "1970 rule".

If Year >= 70 then Century = 19
If Year < 70 then Century = 20

As part of the IBM i 7.5 announcement IBM has said that the new rule will be implemented in a future release or Technology Refresh.

IBM is giving a foretaste of the new rule in 7.5. I used the word "foretaste" as the "1940 rule" has not been replaced, but the new rule can be implemented on top of it, if you so desire. The rule can either be applied to your entire system, which I do NOT recommend, or it can be implemented just to the current job.

TR PTFs for 7.4 and 7.3 available today

The PTFS for the two new Technology Refreshes:

• IBM i 7.4 TR6
• IBM i 7.3 TR12

Are now able for download as PTFs from IBM Support website.

Start planning to download these into a test partition, and get ready for the testing process to validate your applications with these TRs. Don't forget the database (SQL) and RPG PTFs come separately.

<whispers> It might be time to get the latest CUM PTFs to ensure you get all the available PTFs for your release </whispers>

New way in RPG to monitor for errors

In RPG we have been able to monitor for errors, using a Monitor group, for years. Until IBM i 7.5 and 7.4 TR6 we could only monitor for program and file status codes. I have always preferred CL’s MONMSG that allowed me to monitor by message id instead.

As part of the new release, or new TR for 7.4, there is a new RPG operation code, ON-EXCP, that can be used within a Monitor group to monitor for a specific error message or messages. The syntax is very similar to that of the ON-ERROR operation code:

monitor ; Something on-excp 'CPF1234' : 'RNX1234' : 'RNQ1234' ; Do something else to mitigate the error endmon ;

I am going to give some examples below so you can understand how ON-EXCP works. Here is my RPG program’s source code:

New TR for IBM i 7.3

I am certain in all the videos of the announcements for IBM i 7.5 and 7.4 TR6 we were told there would be no more Technology Refreshes, TR, for 7.3.

Well, it appears that there is to be another Technology Refresh for 7.3, TR12. I found it on the Technology Refresh information page for 7.3 here.

It is available on the same day, May 24, that 7.4 TR6 is.

What is available in this TR for 7.3?

Making a list of journal receivers with the detach date

I wanted to write a program that would delete old journal receivers, ones detached from the journal and more than a certain number of days old (to be determined later). I can see the detach date when I use the Display Journal Receiver Attributes command, DSPJRNRCVA, but I can only do this for one receiver at a time, and the command only allows for display or print. Looking at my chart of SQL Views and Table functions I found that is not one for Journal Receivers. Alas, this leaves me having to use an API to get to this information.

The information I desire is:

• Journal name and library
• Journal receiver name and library
• Attach date (timestamp) of the receiver
• Detach date (timestamp) for the receiver

There is an API that will return to me the information. It comes with the long name: QjoRtvJrnReceiverInformation. Before I go into the example of using this API let me get started with how I made a list of all the receivers in a library. Here I can use a SQL Table function, OBJECT_STATISTICS. I use the following statement to display a list of all the receivers in a library.

SELECT OBJNAME,OBJLIB FROM TABLE(QSYS2.OBJECT_STATISTICS(<library name>,'*JRNRCV','*ALLSIMPLE'))

IBM i Merlin demo

Demonstration of IBM i Merlin that was announced yesterday as part of IBM i 7.5 and the latest Technology Refresh for 7.4, TR6.

New version 7.5 announced

Most of us knew it was coming, so there is no surprise that a new release for IBM i has been announced. The new release, 7.5, accompanies a Technology Refresh update for version 7.4 TR6. As only two versions of the IBM i are supported with TRs it does also mean the end of TRs for version 7.3. If you are using a partition with 7.3, and you can upgrade, this should be the time to consider doing so to at least 7.4.

IBM i 7.5 will only run on Power 9 and 10 servers.

Many of the new features of 7.5 will not be supported by 7.4 TR6. I will make note here of which are additions or changes that apply to 7.5 only.

Placing SQL functions into the SQL Insert statement

To write the posts for this website I need to have examples DDL tables. I often use a Table whose first column contains the row number and a second contains some kind of random number.

While I was illustrating how to fill one of these tables it struck me that there was an easier way to do this, having all the logic in the Insert statement itself.

This is the source code for the Table I commonly use:

01 CREATE TABLE MYLIB.FIRST_TABLE 02 FOR SYSTEM NAME "TABLE1" 03 (FIRST_COLUMN FOR COLUMN "FIRST" VARCHAR(10), 04 SECOND_COLUMN FOR COLUMN "SECOND" SMALLINT, 05 UNIQUE (FIRST_COLUMN)) ;

Printing information about SQL RPG programs

I am using the word "program" in a generic way here. In reality what I am writing in this post can also be used for SQL packages (object type *SQLPKG) and service programs too.

What I wanted to know was which SQL statements executed within a program, and the tables and indexes these statements used. Fortunately, there is a command for that: PRTSQLINF, Print SQL Information. Before I show what this command can do, I need to have a table and program I can use to create the information that the command will return.

First I need a table. I know I will not win awards for originality of this table's name; I have called it TESTTABLE.

01 CREATE TABLE MYLIB.TESTTABLE 02 (FIRST_COLUMN FOR COLUMN "COL1" CHAR(10), 03 SECOND_COLUMN FOR COLUMN "COL2" INT) ;

ACS improves by 0.0.0.2

A couple of times a year IBM gives us a new release of Access Client Solutions, ACS. It would appear that Scott Forstie, Db2 for i Business Architect, has a similar sense of humor as mine, as I was amused by his announcement of the new release:

IBM i Access Client Solutions just improved by 0.0.0.2!

The previous version was 1.1.8.8 and now we have the brand new 1.1.9.0!

You can check which release you currently have from the "Access Client Solutions" window. Click on "Help":