Mapepire Q&A

A friend in the IBM i vendor community asked me about Mapepire from a popularity and security perspective. He had read about Seiden Group’s support for the Mapepire Db2 for i driver. I have provided his questions and edited versions of my answers below.

Do you think this new db connectivity method will gain a lot of traction on IBM i?

I believe Mapepire will get traction. Like most new ideas in the IBM i community, adoption will be gradual. We do have clients using it in production.

I am recommending that developers consider Mapepire when connecting to Db2 for i from Node.js. I have observed long-standing problems with node-odbc. Mapepire is newer, and may have its own bugs, but it is lightweight and open source, and works with the very stable JDBC back-end. I feel it has potential to be a winning solution.

How is Mapepire being used today?

Cloud data and AI services can often connect to Db2 for i via Mapepire more easily than via ODBC. Because Mapepire is hosted on the IBM i server, no client-side driver needs to be installed. Example: the IBM i guide to AI mentions Mapepire for access from Python programs. JDBC is another good option, but, like ODBC, requires the JDBC driver to be installed on the client.

Code for i’s Db2 for i extension already uses Mapepire for connectivity. In that case, Mapepire is installed in a limited way to run inside the same SSH job that Code for i connects with.

What about security?

Mapepire has a slight security advantage over ODBC. Mapepire requires only one port to be open (configurable) instead of the multiple standard database / server ports. Mapepire also, by default, enables an encrypted connection.

As to exit points: since Mapepire is a proxy over JDBC, the standard JDBC/ODBC exit points apply, as do any vendor tools that manage these exit points.

How do we install and use Mapepire?

Basic installation and usage guidelines can be found here:
https://mapepire-ibmi.github.io/guides/sysadmin/

More on Mapepire

As Mapepire evolves, we’ll keep you posted. As always, if you’d like advice on whether or not Mapepire is right for you, or if you’d like to discuss Mapepire support, just let me know.