Re: Programming alternatives to the AS/400 FTP command.

Have you tried automated eMail?

It's easy to send & receive files from / to the AS/400.  It also easily 
supports the concept of batches of information.  We have used it in several 
of our applications for several years with great success.

A good starting point is the RedBook   SG24-4703   AS/400 eMail Capabilities

Hope that this helps!

John Myers
IBM Certified Specialist - AS/400 Technical Solutions
IBM Certified Specialist - Advisor for e-Business
Strategic Business Systems, Inc.
17 S. Franklin Turnpike, Ramsey, NJ 07446  USA
E-mail: mailto:jmyers@sbsusa.com   Phone: +1 (201) EASY 400   x131
Web:    http://www.sbsusa.com      Fax:   +1 (201) 327-6984

Get and route intelligence from your IBM AS/400 web site - WebSurvey/400
      http://www.WebSurvey400.com

Systems supporting the distribution operations of Motor Vehicle manufacturers
     http://www.VehicleSystem.com


At 05:07 AM 10/13/00, you wrote:
>Hi guys,
>
>I am writing an AS/400 application for a client that needs to place data
>(customers and products etc) on their ISP. This data will then be downloaded
>from the ISP via a dialup connection to a database on a laptop computer
>(using FTP on their laptop). The data will then be processed on the laptop
>and another file (orders and changes) uploaded from the laptop to the ISP
>(again using FTP) from where the AS/400 will collect and process it. This
>will be done on many laptops.
>
>To avoid files being overwritten they will be in unique batches, and to
>avoid the AS/400 downloading files while they are still being written to,
>the PC will add a suffix to the batch after it has uploaded it. The AS/400
>will only download batches with the correct suffix and then delete batches
>it has processed. The AS/400 will also leave an acknowledgement file so that
>the PC knows the batch has been process and can delete it itself.
>
>All in all quite a complicated comms handshake but it should be very
>effective.
>
>My problem occurs with the AS/400 FTP command. This is a very clumsy way of
>doing things. At the moment my design is for the AS/400 to write out the FTP
>commands required (open, user, put, get, close etc.) to a source member at
>run time and then use this member as the input for the FTP command. The FTP
>command will output to an error member which my program will read after the
>completion of the FTP command. If there were any errors the program can the
>write a new FTP member to retry them etc.
>
>What I want to know (finally!) is if there is a smarter way of doing this?
>
>Can I, for instance, in ILE RPG open a connection to an ISP and then put or
>get data, rename and delete files etc? This would hopefully give the
>feedback I require as each operation executes, so that I don't for example,
>delete a file that I have failed to get.
>
>Any ideas? Any examples?
>
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