RE: Programming with API's

SCarter wrote:

>1.  Are the system supplied api's useful?  
>     Is there any real business need to use these?

I find the APIs very useful.  "Real business need" depends on your business,
I guess.  I mean, if you never need to present a list of spooled files to a
user, you'll never need the "list spooled file API."

>2.  Where can I get a better description of what 
>     an API does than just looking at QSYSINC 
>     and QUSRTOOL?

There are many more APIs than just what you see there.  Look at the API
manuals for details.  QUSRTOOL doesn't really provide APIs, as much as
program code for tools that you can turn into APIs.

>3.  Where can I get API's other than IBM? 
>     Or are API's only supplied by IBM?

You write 'em!  Several people have posted that they are creating service
programs, so they will be non-IBM APIs.

>4.  None of the examples in QUSRTOOL are in 
>     RPG IV, should they be in RPG IV format and 
>     what do I have to do to get them in RPGIV format?

CVTRPGSRC will convert them to RPG IV.

>5.  And I am sure this has already been asked but.... 
>     Where can I get information, examples, books, etc.... 
>     about how to use API's with RPG IV.?(Not C )

The oft mentioned RPG Redbook is one place.  News/400 may have some books (I
haven't checked lately.)

Please note that an API is nothing special or fancy.  It's just a program
that you call to do something for you.  You probably use APIs already in
your own programming.  If you have a program that you call that calculates
the difference between two dates, then you have a data API!

An API can provide a service to you (Update On Hand for invoicing), or
provide information to you (List Customer Purchase History.)  Don't get too
hung up on terminology.  Older "list" APIs deliver their information into a
User Space - in fact, there are APIs to create, read and delete these
spaces.  If you want some example code, Mark Walter posted an example of the
List Jobs API.  You can find it at
http://www.geocities.com/starbuck5250/RPGIVsource/qusljob.txt

Take a visit to the Midrange FAQ and see if the references there are
helpful.  If you find more places that are helpful to you, please add an
entry to the FAQ so that other new API users can be helped in the future.

Here's a link to the FAQ searching for API:
http://faq.midrange.com/index.pl?cmd=search&file=1&_search=API&_minMatches=

Buck Calabro
Commsoft; Albany, NY
Visit the Midrange archives and FAQ at http://www.midrange.com
"The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions"
  -- James Russell Lowell
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