Features lacking in Data Studio (to the best of my knowledge), where the features I miss the most are listed first, that would be nice to see in RDi:
1) Navigator like ability to run a CL command by preceding it with a "CL:" in the run script window. I want that to easily set a library list, or to run CHGQRYA, CHGJOB, CHGPFCST, CHGPFTRG, ENDJRNPF, STRJRNPF, and occasionally a handful of other CL commands. I already have SQL table and scalar user defined functions that will execute CL commands as parameters, so I can work around that by typing more verbose commands. However, the CL: Navigator ability returns command execution result messages in some cases that come in handy at times, and that behavior might be difficult for me to mimic from SQL UDTF's inside RDi (i.e. message feedback area including CL execution messages). I could fairly easily return those CL command execution messages in a result set window from a UDTF that executes CL using the JOBLOG_INFO UDTF I suppose, but if this functionality were built-in it would likely perform faster than calling JOBLOG_INFO.
2) Double Click option to run a single SQL statement inside a longer SQL script (like Navigator supports). Perhaps Data Studio supports this and I've not figured out where to apply said setting.
3) Visual Explain for System i (I use Visual Explain in Navigator occasionally, in particular for the Index Advisor).
This next feature may be a bit much to wish for, but I'd like the ability to call the SQL Script feature in RDi from an external application, and to be able to pass the modified SQL script back to the caller after making changes and performing testing. This next paragraph, one of my current use cases, explains why this would be beneficial to me, but I'm not your bread and butter RDi user since I use SQL functions to run SQL scripts (i.e. I'm not using RPG to run SQL):
I use a Microsoft Access application to maintain database migration SQL Scripts in a System i SQL script host-side database, which works great, except for the fairly primitive Textbox control editor built into Access used to maintain the SQL script column in the script database. When I have a large, complex script that requires extensive editing, I copy and paste it over into the RDi / LPEX editor, make my changes there, copy/paste it into Navigator to test, and copy/paste it back into Access to save the final result to the host. My ideal world is where I had an Access button "Edit in Data Studio or RDi", where I could call the external SQL Script feature and have the SQL script pop up in a Eclipse tab to perform editing and testing, and when I was done, hit a save button where the results were transparently sent back to Access. My gut tells me that is probably possible but it would likely take me a lot of time to write or find a custom plug-in to handle the interprocess communication. My ideal world for an SQL feature includes LPEX caliber editing, coupled with configurable SQL formatting, with advanced SQL build assist, with robust SQL script execution including some of the Navigator features that aren't currently in Data Studio (mainly those listed above plus Navigator like buttons Run All, Run from Selected, Run Selected), with Visual Explain for i, coupled with the ability to call said function from an external application with an SQL script as a parameter, and the ability to send the modified SQL script back to the calling application.
I also spend a fair amount of time working with System Catalog metadata so I need fast, preferably integrated access to that data inside Data Studio or RDi, but I've not yet taken the time to see if that is possible in Data Studio. Some of the System i System Catalog objects are fast and some have performance issues, so I suspect "fast" access to all of them will require significant host side changes. If RDi had a feature or plug-in designed for efficient slicing and dicing of a System i System Catalog I'd likely gain productivity from its use as long as performance was good.
Mike
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