Re: Does the eRPG SDK template system support JSON?

Thanks Jon. I am looking at CGICBLDEV2 as well. And I'm looking at other solutions such as the CGI interface to XMLSERVICE and iWebSrv.

The thing I like about eRPG SDK is the use of a template system to format data for return to the client. This seems to me a potentially intuitive way for developers who only do COBOL and DDS to deal with returning JSON data. Still, I am also looking at other options for JSON with COBOL (YAJL, PowerEXT, Redvers COBOL JSPN Interface).

The client interfaces we develop will using jQuery AJAX to make GET and POST requests, and they will be expecting data formatted in JSON as the response. By keep the contract between the client and the web service uniform (AJAX GET and POST requests, JSON responses) we can develop client interfaces that can easily switch between IBM i back ends and Windows back ends. We just need to point the client to a new URL to switch back ends. This is one of the benefits of the uniform interface constraint of RESTful architecture.

Thanks,
Kelly

-----Original Message-----
From: WEB400 [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jon Paris
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2015 10:23 AM
To: Web400@Midrange. Web400
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Does the eRPG SDK template system support JSON?

Kelly,

You might want to also look at the COBOL interfaces for CGIDEV2 (http://www.easy400.net/cgicbldev2p/start.pgm).

No disrespect to Brad's eRPG but some RPG-oriented interfaces can be very difficult to use in COBOL. Reason, in part, is that such routines tend to take advantage of the facilities offered by prototypes - for example the keyword CONST allows you to specify a literal instead of a variable. COBOL has no such option and therefore the fields usually need to be passed exactly as specified in the called routine. That usually requires quite a bit more work and makes the examples hard to follow. 

Giovanni has already done the grunt work and provided documented native COBOL interfaces to CGIDEV2 routines that make it much easier.

Just a thought.  Unless Brad has added a lot of new stuff to eRPG that I am unaware of, I think that the capabilities of CGIDEV2 are a close match.

 
Jon Paris

www.partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com

On May 10, 2015, at 10:46 AM, Kelly Cookson <KCookson@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Thanks Brad.
> 
> I assume I wouldn't have any problems implementing this in ILE COBOL. I've seen several tutorial examples of creating JSON in RPG, which is made easier by built-in functions (like trim) and by  the new += assignment operator. Unfortunately, RPG is not a standard language in our shop. So I'd need to use eRPG SDK in ILE COBOL.
> 
> Thanks,
> Kelly
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WEB400 [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bradley 
> Stone
> Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2015 8:10 AM
> To: Web Enabling the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
> Subject: Re: [WEB400] Does the eRPG SDK template system support JSON?
> 
> Hi, Kelly.
> 
> The eRPG SDK is a template designed system, so if you create JSON templates the eRPG SDK would work the same as if it was using XML, HTML, or pretty much anything else.
> 
> It doesn't know what type of data you're creating using the templates 
> and replacement variables.  :)
> 
> Brad
> www.bvstools.com
> 
> On Sun, May 10, 2015 at 2:15 AM, Kelly Cookson <KCookson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> 
>> Suppose I want to develop a CGI program in ILE COBOL using eRPG SDK.
>> 
>> Can the ILE COBOL program read a DB2 table and use the eRPG SDK 
>> template system to return a JSON string?
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> Kelly Cookson
>> IT Project Leader
>> Dot Foods, Inc.
>> 1.217.773.4486 ext. 12676
>> kcookson@xxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:kcookson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> 
>> 
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