Re: [EXTERNAL] SQL RPG and Web API Consumption

The biggest problem with using any RPG oriented Service program routines (such as HTTPAPI) is that COBOL does not have an equivalent to prototyping. Many library functions make extensive use of those to manipulate the data before calling the routine. So from COBOL you have to manually null terminate strings and explicitly pass a pointer whereas in RPG you can take advantage of Options(*String) to do all the work for you. Similarly if the function takes a varchar you have to build the string (unless COBOL have added varchar support and I missed it).

It can all be done but it can be painful.

If it is known in advance that COBOL _and_ RPG will be calling the routines you can adjust the interface to make the COBOL calls simpler - but using anything designed initially for RPG use can be time consuming to convert,

I've done it many times so if anyone ever needs help in that area let me know.


Jon P.

On Feb 9, 2022, at 6:34 PM, Roger Harman <roger.harman@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

This was my first thought as well - just use them from your COBOL programs.
ILE modules should be relatively language agnostic, correct?
I can see possible concerns with matching data types but wouldn't that be about all?

Roger Harman
COMMON Certified Application Developer - ILE RPG on IBM i on Power



-----Original Message-----
< snip >
From: RPG400-L <rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of John Yeung
Sent: Wednesday, February 9, 2022 1:11 PM
To: RPG programming on IBM i <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: SQL RPG and Web API Consumption

On Wed, Feb 9, 2022 at 12:47 PM Kelly Cookson via RPG400-L
<rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

We are a COBOL shop. I'm not sure HTTPAPI and YAJL will work for COBOL.

This is an interesting question to me. As COBOL has an ILE compiler,
it should in principle be possible to link in ILE modules written in
other languages. But I don't know whether that interface is "exposed"
in the implementation of COBOL, whereas it clearly is in RPG and C.
< /snip >
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