Re: iSeries source management ideas.

Hi Everyone,

I was hoping someone might be able to point me the correct direction on
researching the subject of iSeries source management.

A little back ground.

We are a small shop with only 3 programmers and one of them works only on
the "Java" side.  The other two of use are RPG type programmers working on
our web skills.

We are currently using WSAD and WDSCi along with CVS to work on our source
JAVA stuff (when I say JAVA what I mean really is pure web applications that
connect to our iSeries database to include JAVA, HTML, Java script, Struts,
JSP's etc. etc.)

We are experimenting with using WDSCi and CVS to do iSeries Projects.

In the past on the iSeries we haven't done anything too technical in the way
we handle source code.  We have a Test library for source and objects, a
production library for source and objects and a "Versions" library to move
production source into when it's being replaced.

We are getting to a point now that we almost need a new way to handle source
on the iSeries.  For instance a recent problem that we ran into was that we
were working on version 2 of a web application that we developed that uses
procs that were written in RPGLESQL on the iSeries.  We needed to make
changes to some of these procs for version 2.  So I made these changes in
test like I'm use to doing.  Well, while this was going on over several
months we also needed to make a few small bug fixes to the Web Application.
Well, these needed to be tested too so we ran them against our test system
but they needed the previous version of the procs that were being changed
for Version 2 of our Web app.  See where my problem was, one test library
but a need for 2 different versions of the proc object.

Another problem that I ran into was when I was ready to roll out all the
version 2 iSeries changes on this project and had to work hard to get all
the correct source files moved into versions and production and compiled in
production.  Since I wasn't the only programmer working on code for this I
missed a couple source files on the first try.  I'm pretty sure using WDSCi
and CVS and iSeries projects will help out on this part though.

The last issue I had was in moving over all the database changes into
production.  This wasn't too bad because there wasn't a lot of changes to
existing files but I could see how it would be easy to miss things if the
"Java" programmer had made use of SQL to create tables (physical files to
me) and views (Logical files to me) on the iSeries.  I'm thinking that I'm
going to have to stop him from doing that all together and only create
iSeries database objects with DDS source files in an iSeries project so that
when something is moved from test to production all we have to do is either
a PF create or change and then compile all the logicals.

Well, I've thought about making a 4th library for source and objects on the
iSeries that would be like a test library but would be used for bug fixes.

I've also though about creating a complete version system for your source
and object libraries but that seems cumbersome, especially for work on our
legacy iSeries only applications.

Our new Web Application actually ties into the old legacy system so keep
them separate is not an option.

Do you have any thoughts on this subject or ideas on where I might get
either books or online material on the subject?  Also any ideas on where I
can get info on WDSCi and iSeries projects info would be greatly
appreciated.

Thank you so much for your time.



John.

John C. Wallroff
Senior Programmer/Analyst
IBM Certified AS/400 Programmer
UNIVERSITY OF NE FOUNDATION
1010 Lincoln Mall, Suite 300
Lincoln, NE 68508-2886
(402) 472-0109
jwallroff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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