Re: Does the eRPG SDK template system support JSON?

On 5/12/2015 3:13 PM, Jon Paris wrote:

For the most part Brad COBOL can do anything that RPG can - but it is more work.

Imagine RPG in the “bad old days” without Protos and the CONST keyword.

In RPG by using that one facility I can define a field as 60 long and pass a literal, a 20 char field, a varying field, a function, etc. etc.

In COBOL I would have to determine that I did indexed need an X(60) - set up a temporary one, and then move the value I wanted into it before passing the parm.

Similarly COBOL has no Options(*String) so any C-type function that requires passing a pointer to a null terminated string is a pain in the …

And on and on.

When I first had to go back and do this stuff “by hand” it may me appreciate just how much work the RPG compiler was doing for me.

The COBOL syntax is also rather verbose since without the protos you need to specify the way in which the parm is passed on each call for each parm.



Jon Paris

www.partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com

On May 11, 2015, at 8:58 PM, Bradley Stone <bvstone@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I wondered the same thing, Henrick.

I haven't done COBOL since the 90s but a search shows this answer from
Bruce Vinning:

http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/calling-rpg-proc-from-cobol-ile/

I guess I just assumed that with ILE things worked as ILE... If CONST ruins
that relationship maybe it should be more "publicized".  :)  I plan too
look further into this issue that's for sure as it's the first I've heard
of it.

Brad
www.bvstools.com

On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 2:03 AM, Henrik Rützou <hr@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I know nothing about COBOL interface to RPG service programs, what is
the difference (besides the /copybook) ?

On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 5:04 AM, Kelly Cookson <KCookson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Thanks Jon. There are a number of tools for mobile development on the IBM
i.

However, our shop has decided to develop mobile client interfaces using
responsive web sites and hybrid apps (Cordorva/PhoneGap). This is because
all of our current mobile developers are coming from a background of
Microsoft .NET web development. Our shop has spent years developing
websites that connect to the IBM i using web services written in .NET and
using the .NET Data Provider.

For our IBM i COBOL developers (including myself) to become web and

mobile

developers, we will have to use HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, AJAX, JSON and
Cordova/PhoneGap to develop client interfaces. I was hoping to use

Node.JS

on the IBM i to give our COBOL developers a path to web services without
having to learn .NET. Node.JS isn't going to work for us at this time.

But

we can: (a) use our shop's standard technologies to develop web and

mobile

client interfaces, and (b) hook up the client interfaces to web services
developed with COBOL CGI programs. This gets our IBM i COBOL developers
into web and mobile development without having to learn .NET, and it
leverages our existing expertise in COBOL.

I have designed an architecture for CGI programming on the IBM i that
conforms to REST architectural constraints as described in Fielding's
dissertation. I am now gathering information on tools available to help

us

with the COBOL CGI programming. Next step, proof of concepts...

Thanks,
Kelly


-----Original Message-----
From: WEB400 [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jon Paris
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2015 9:36 PM
To: Web400@Midrange. Web400
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Does the eRPG SDK template system support JSON?

For Mobile development with COBOL you should really take a look at

Lansa's

LongRange http://www.longrangemobile.com

I know that works pretty well with COBOL because I helped translate a few
of the RPG examples into COBOL.


Jon Paris

www.partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com

On May 10, 2015, at 8:00 PM, Kelly Cookson <KCookson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

wrote:

I will look for the template system in CGICBLDEV2 when I get it

installed and start playing around with it.

I literally just started looking at CGI tools. I recently learned that
our shop will not be adopting Node.JS on the IBM i at any time in the
foreseeable future. Kind of a bummer. But the same reasons for not
adopting Node.JS make CGI using COBOL programs an attractive
alternative. (Every shop is different, and I'm sure Node.JS will work
wonderfully for a lot of shops. It's just not a good fit for us at
this time.)

I'm still committed to helping our IBM i COBOL developers become web
and mobile developers as well. ;-)

Thanks,
Kelly

-----Original Message-----
From: WEB400 [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jon
Paris
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2015 7:30 PM
To: Web400@Midrange. Web400
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Does the eRPG SDK template system support JSON?

CGICBLDEV2 uses a template system too Kelly.


Jon Paris

www.partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com

On May 10, 2015, at 12:55 PM, Kelly Cookson <KCookson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

wrote:

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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http://powerEXT.com <http://powerext.com/>
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