400times.co.uk

Wayne O Evans Consulting, Inc

The following article has been reproduced from an article by Wayne O. Evans who is an Independent Security Consultant. Wayne kindly granted us permission to use this text on the grounds that we make a donation to charity. We are proud to report we have made a donation of 50GBP to the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) in the UK.

We would urge anyone who uses this information or information from Wayne’s web site to do the same. Together we can make a difference! Continue reading AS/400 Security Consulting and Education

The Utilities That Developers Forgot

RPG on the iSeries. Throughout the incarnations of the first RPG based midrange machine to today’s iSeries, RPG for many has been the language of choice. Even now with RPGIV and Free Format RPG, it remains as one of those languages that surpasses all others, in terms of functionality and clarity. Continue reading Product Review – RPGToolBox by Linoma Software

Cool Spool

One of the most prolific areas of systems products that I get to review is within the arena of Spool File management, and I am always amazed at the number and variation of utilities that come to market. From the number of utilities available it can be deduced that while technology moves in different directions and speeds, spool file management remains a problem area that people are only too willing to provide a solution to. Continue reading Product Review – SpooliT by Asymex

400times Hot Product Version Tested 3.11 Earliest OS/400 Release V3R1/V3R6 400times Score 9/10 So Cool – It Hurts! Question: What’s the main source of problems for your IT department?  If you cried “Our users!” you may be right.  Well you can’t expect them to be computer literate, but many of them have a hard enough time trying to explain what their problems are, let alone solve them. Continue reading Product Review – Remote View (& change) www.precosis.com

Version Tested   2.6.3

Earliest OS/400 Release   V3R1/V3R6

400times Score   10/10

Visiting An Old Friend

My first look at RPG-Alive was one of the first articles I wrote and RPG-Alive, like my writing skills, has come a long way in the 12 months since the first posting. Continue reading Product Review – RPG-Alive www.rpgalive.com

XML – the savior of read anywhere data formats, the biggest thing since the text file, and the replacement for EDI formats around the globe. Yet to most of us, almost useless. 

In the AS/400 world we relied heavily on standard data formats (EdiFact, Preminos to name but a few) to transmit data in recognisable formats for years. The standard was not hard to follow and served its purpose well. These days nearly all systems have XML interface sockets that allow you to plug in data as required. Within these pages we have discussed using XML and XSL to relay spool file data, but so far we have not been faced with a real application that makes our eyes open in the AS400 iSeries arena. Continue reading At last! A serious application for XML

Nick Barnes, System Analyst of South Africa writes: I saw you had a thing on changing source colours, I didn’t see anything on your site pertaining to this but I found that using exit point was quicker to use since you can do it while editing source. Continue reading Top Tip – SEUCOLOR by Nick Barnes

À*====================================================================*
À*   Usage:     To use, move the date you wish to convert into        *
À*              the correct field (eg MOVE ddmmyy to PDDATE)          *
À*              and move the convert from identifier into PDCVTF      *
À*              (for Calendar 'C' which allows YYMM99 to get month    *
À*              end dates, for Julian 'J', for Hundred Year 'H',      *
À*              for *ISO 'I', for YMD 'Y', for MDY 'M' and for DMY    *
À*              use 'D').                                             *
À*              The translate values will then be returned to the     *
À*              calling program as fields:                            *
À*                    PDDATE = 6 Char Date format in                  *
À*                    PDDATH = Hundred Year format                    *
À*                    PDDATJ = Julian format                          *
À*                    PDNAME = Day Name                               *
À*                    PDDSAA = *ISO format (yyyy-mm-dd)               *
À*                    PDDJOB = *JOB format                            *
À*                    PDDAY# = Day Number                             *
À*====================================================================*
 Continue reading cvtdat

Product Review – WebSmart www.progenwebsmart.com

400times Hot Product
Version Tested 1.20
Earliest OS/400 Release V4R2
400times Score 9.5/10
Need an AS/400 web site in a hurry?

ProGen WebSmart is the latest web application tool to land on the 400times test system. This new tool allows you to build dynamic web pages that hook up to your AS/400 database with all the ease of writing a query. Unlike Websphere which requires you to use a new skill set, and FreeStyle which allows you to use pure RPG, WebSmart combines both the design editor and an RPG generator into one bundle to provide quick and easy web sites. Continue reading ProGen WebSmart

An invention that turns development on its head.

Last month, we mentioned that something had been brought to our attention that we felt could and should change the way we develop applications, and that that something was ERROS. 

This month we look at what ERROS means to us and how the concept holds the above statement true. For this month’s introduction to ERROS, we have been allowed access via the Erros PLC web site to conduct an initial investigation.  Continue reading ERROS – A new era?