Re: ODBC from the i-Series

Rob, you just get up earlier then I do - of course, being in Indiana....

<verndor response>
Iain, we (RJS Software Systems) have a product called RPG2SQL Integrator. It is basically a software development kit for RPG and COBOL that gives you functions for connecting to and working with remote, non-iSeries databases in real-time. It also has Excel functionality, not using SQL but real Excel functions. It doesn't use embedded SQL - you need a DRDA connection for that, as Rob pointed out. Those do not exist, other than the one for Oracle, who want all the sons IBM left over for the privilege. (Recently spoke with an IBMer about their product, and it is $35,000 to get started.)

I'm happy to show the product to you, 30-day supported evaluations are available. If interested, look us up at http://www.rjssoftware.com or call toll-free to 888.rjs.soft and ask for Vern (me) or Richard, or, if neither of us are available, ask for sales (shudder!! actually, they're nice people).
</verndor response>

Regards
Vern Hamberg

rob@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

That's a multipart problem. But let's start with the general. The i only supports being an ODBC server, not a client. It chose a different standard - DRDA. Published standard and all that rot but which only IBM seems to use (think token ring). Common no cost route that people often choose is JDBC and there have been numerous articles on how to use JDBC from your i to SQL Server. We contracted with Joe Pluta years ago to do this once. Really wish we had done it in house because we now have another need. But we were so busy at the time...

There are a number of commercial products to do this also. IBM only requires the first born male children of everyone in your village for their product. There are numerous others that participate on this list and it stuns me that they've missed an opportunity to hawk their product.

To talk to Notes from DB2 we use LEI or Lotus Enterprise Integrator. But then, a vast majority of our Domino servers are all i based. Vice versa, to talk to DB2 from Notes is like using ODBC.

To talk to a different i is done a number of different ways:
- DDM or Distributed Data Management. See CRTDDMF. These are not usable by SQL.
- By adding the appropriate entries in WRKRDBDIRE and using SQL's CONNECT TO. Biggest drawback is that you cannot be connected to local and a remote at the same time. Many people work around that by using RPG's RLA or Record Level Access to traditionally Read, Write, Update and then use SQL's CONNECT TO for the remote.
- For large batches you may want to save the data to a save file, ftp that over, restore that, and process that.

Rob Berendt