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  3. May 2015

Re: Does the eRPG SDK template system support JSON?

Kelly - Jon can speak more to this - my post has a very simple idea for using the templating - it can get somewhat fussy using that method, like handling values and arrays as values and the other things that JSON can be. One way to do it there would be to have different CGIDEV2 "sections" for the different kinds of JSON structures you need, then populate the substitution variables as needed.
I don't have experience with YAJL - I see that Scott Klement has a port of it on his site - 

http://www.scottklement.com/yajl/

HTH
Vern

On 5/13/2015 11:25 AM, Kelly Cookson wrote:

Thanks, Jon. This gives me some direction for learning.

I'll begin exploring these three options in the order of YAJL, CGICBLDEV2 templating, and rolling our own solution.

Thanks,
Kelly


-----Original Message-----
From: WEB400 [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jon Paris
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 11:15 AM
To: Web400@Midrange. Web400
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Does the eRPG SDK template system support JSON?

Either:

1) Use the templating built into CGICBLDEV2 to generate the JSON strings or

2) Use YAJL to generate and parse the JSON or

3) Build you own routines.

Personally I'd use #2
Jon Paris 

www.partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com

On May 13, 2015, at 8:06 AM, Kelly Cookson <KCookson@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


I don't pretend to understand everything being said, but what I'm hearing is that JSON may be the biggest obstacle to overcome in using COBOL to develop CGI web services. It's important to our shop that we be able to maintain a uniform interface (AJAX HTTP requests, JSON responses) for our web services.

What do folks recommend for working with JSON using COBOL on the IBM i?

I know there are several JSON tools that have been written with RPG, but the comments on this thread lead me to think we may have difficulty using these RPG tools with COBOL. Are some of these tools more COBOL-friendly than others? Are there any good JSON tools out there written in COBOL? Should we hire a consultant to help us develop an interface between COBOL and the RPG-based tools? Should we hire a consultant to help us develop a JSON tool written in COBOL specifically for our shop?

Thanks,
Kelly


-----Original Message-----
From: WEB400 [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kevin
Turner
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 2:11 AM
To: Web Enabling the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Does the eRPG SDK template system support JSON?

Yes, apart from the fact that cgicbldev2 has no built in JSON support as such - you would have to roll your own. Building JSON strings for output is not difficult - it is parsing inbound JSON strings that is tricky.

Sent from my iPad


On 13 May 2015, at 06:28, Kelly Cookson <KCookson@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The comments in this thread lead me to think that CGICBLDEV2 would better help us leverage our existing COBOL skills because CGICBLDEV2 is written in COBOL, eliminating some of the problems of trying to use CGI packages written in RPG.

Am I mistaken in this view?

Thanks,
Kelly


-----Original Message-----
From: WEB400 [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jon
Paris
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 3:14 PM
To: Web400@Midrange. Web400
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Does the eRPG SDK template system support JSON?

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
-
f
rom-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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