Podcast: Jon Paris Gives Thoughts on Open Access

Rational Open Access: RPG Edition has created a great deal of buzz in the IBM i community. In this podcast, Susan Gantner interviews Jon Paris about Open Access. Jon will give you his perspective on this new product. Click here to listen to the podcast. Here are some related links: RPGOA: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly COMMON's IBM i Requirements Page Special Report: Open Access for RPG: What It Is, How It Works, and Hands-on Experience by Vern Hamberg (Available April 2011)

PHP from an RPG Perspective, Part 5: Database Access

In this fifth article of a series, you'll learn about PHP database access on IBM i. Continuing the SQLite coverage in Part 4, this article examines the native APIs, and also those for DB2 and MySQL. By the end of the series you should feel comfortable tackling a PHP project head-on. Don't forget to check out the companion forum thread called "Homework: PHP from an RPG Perspective" in our e-Development forum at tinyurl.com/PHPHomework.

Podcast: MySQL: Blessing or Heresy?

Last year, I published several special RPG & DB2 Summit podcasts in which experts from the RPG & DB2 Summit conference discussed some of the hot issues that today's IBM i programmers face. Because these podcasts were very popular, we've decided to do it again! This podcast features Paul Tuohy interviewing Susan Gantner about using MySQL on i. Since we have our familiar integrated DB2 database, why would we ever want to use MySQL on i? To the IBM i faithful, is MySQL a blessing, or is it

Podcast: RPG Native I/O vs. SQL

Almost every RPG programmer who learns SQL asks the same question: Do I keep using RPG's native I/O operations, such as READ, CHAIN, and WRITE? Or should I replace them all with SQL? Which method will be the standard in the future? Which method performs the best? In this RPG & DB2 Summit podcast, Paul Tuohy interviews Susan Gantner about these very topics. Although there's no definitive answer to these questions, Susan gives you her opinion--and gives you food for thought. In the podcast,

Digging Deeper into D-Specs

Reduce Static Storage by Eliminating Unused Fields

Reduce Static Storage with Pointers to Arrays and Tables with Static Data

Reduce Static Storage with Pointers to Arrays with Changeable Data

Using ILE Activation Groups

Susan Gantner delves into Integrated Language Environment (ILE) activation groups and shows you how to protect your applications and make program activations quicker.

Integrate RI and Triggers into Your Apps

IBM's Susan Gantner tells you how to make sure your application programs can handle anything these new database functions throw at them. This article covers referential integrity and trigger error indicators and messages, how to ensure your programs can respond appropriately, considerations for eliminating duplicate code, and trigger limitations.