The 2015 COMMON annual meeting and expo, now in its first day, is helping speakers and attendees create innovation through IBM i integration: open source, closed source, IBM and vendor solutions. For example, of my six presentations during this conference, two are collaborations:
The Art of Performance Diagnostics, with IBM’s Dawn May, allows us to show, among other topics, how IBM i’s integrated performance tools complement green-screen tools and third-party tools (in this case, Zend Server) to pinpoint and solve performance issues (here, PHP-and DB2-based applications).
PHP Tricks for RPG Developers, a talk jointly created by RPG and SQL expert Birgitta Hauser and me, combines RPG, PHP, and DB2, allowing RPG to achieve graphical (charts and graphs, PDF and Excel files) and internet (json-based web services, flexible email) functionality using native functions.
Conferences such as COMMON serve a need that’s difficult to replicate back at the office—brainstorming and sharing possibilities among interdisciplinary peers, or sitting side-by-side with like-minded colleagues who work for different employers, to try something new. This week, for example, some of us plan to share knowledge on compiling binaries in PASE and to further the potential of open source on IBM i. I’m looking forward to presenting my talks (both joint and solo) and helping to realize new ideas with forward-looking colleagues during the conference.
Birgitta Hauser and Alan Seiden collaborate on their talk at COMMON 2015
COMMON Innovation Award 2015
/1 Comment/in PHP /by Alan SeidenMy colleague and friend Chuk Shirley’s employer, Sabel Steel, just won COMMON’s Innovation Award for an application created by Chuk. According to IBM’s Alex Gogh, Chuk’s application won because of its innovative business process improvement that saved money and prevented errors, while integrating Sabel’s core IBM i-based application, based on RPG and DB2, with traditional industry tools such as a scrap-metal weighing scale and newer technology such as an ID-card scanner, iPad, and PHP.
Chuk Shirley accepting COMMON innovation award on behalf of Sabel Steel, April 26, 2015
Collaboration at COMMON
/0 Comments/in db2, IBM i, iSeries, Performance, PHP, PHP toolkit for IBM i, RPG, System i, Web development /by Alan SeidenThe 2015 COMMON annual meeting and expo, now in its first day, is helping speakers and attendees create innovation through IBM i integration: open source, closed source, IBM and vendor solutions. For example, of my six presentations during this conference, two are collaborations:
The Art of Performance Diagnostics, with IBM’s Dawn May, allows us to show, among other topics, how IBM i’s integrated performance tools complement green-screen tools and third-party tools (in this case, Zend Server) to pinpoint and solve performance issues (here, PHP-and DB2-based applications).
PHP Tricks for RPG Developers, a talk jointly created by RPG and SQL expert Birgitta Hauser and me, combines RPG, PHP, and DB2, allowing RPG to achieve graphical (charts and graphs, PDF and Excel files) and internet (json-based web services, flexible email) functionality using native functions.
Conferences such as COMMON serve a need that’s difficult to replicate back at the office—brainstorming and sharing possibilities among interdisciplinary peers, or sitting side-by-side with like-minded colleagues who work for different employers, to try something new. This week, for example, some of us plan to share knowledge on compiling binaries in PASE and to further the potential of open source on IBM i. I’m looking forward to presenting my talks (both joint and solo) and helping to realize new ideas with forward-looking colleagues during the conference.
Birgitta Hauser and Alan Seiden collaborate on their talk at COMMON 2015
Vote for a Mac edition of RDi
/4 Comments/in IBM i, RPG, System i /by Alan SeidenRational Developer for i (RDi), the modern editor for IBM i RPG, COBOL and other languages, runs on Windows and Linux, but not Mac.
IBM has shown some willingness to port the product to Mac. They have posted a poll to allow users to vote for this enhancement or to comment on the proposal: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=13454
Those wishing to vote will find a “vote” link near the bottom of the poll page.
Video promo for WMCPA IBM i conference: March 10-12, 2015
/0 Comments/in Announcements /by Alan SeidenJoin me and 20 other speakers at the Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association (WMCPA) spring technical conference, March 10-12, 2015, at the Lake Lawn Resort on the shores of Delavan Lake.
Speakers: Aaron Bartell, Rob Bestgen, Larry Bolhuis, Tom Cremieux, Floyd Del Muro, Raymond Everhart, Margaret Fenlon, Susan Gantner, Charles Guarino, Scott Klement, Chris Koppe, Jon Paris, Mike Pavlak, Jim Ritchhart, Debbie Saugen, Alan Seiden, Dr. Frank Soltis, Robert Swanson, Robin Tatam, Jeff Tickner, Steve Will
Details: http://wmcpa.org/index.php/conference-2015/ibmi-conference-2015
Overcome 8-character user profile limit in SSH for IBM i
/0 Comments/in IBM i, iSeries, PHP, System i /by Alan SeidenBy default, IBM i’s Secure Shell (SSH) rejects connection attempts from user profiles longer than eight (8) characters. When long user profiles are rejected, error messages will vary, but users of Zend Studio, for example, will see “Failed to connect sshd on “<some ip address>.”
Since IBM i release 6.1, IBM i has supported an SSH setting, ibmpaseforienv PASE_USRGRP_LIMITED=N, to permit user profiles longer than 8 characters. IBM i 7.2 brought improved support for this capability.
For details, see Zend Support specialist Rod Flohr’s article about how to remove the 8-character limit on user profiles when connecting via SSH.
(Dec. 3, 2017) Update for IBM i 7.3 and beyond: The path of sshd_config remains /QOpenSys/QIBM/UserData/SC1/OpenSSH/etc, unchanged from the IBM i 7.2 path in Rod’s article.
Free webinars sponsored by COMMON Europe (open to all)
/0 Comments/in Apache, Events, IBM i, iSeries, Performance, PHP, PHP toolkit for IBM i, RPG, System i, Web development /by Alan SeidenStarting January 27, 2015, I’ll be giving three free Tuesday webinars:
All three one-hour webinars will be held at 14:00 Central European Time (CET). That’s 8 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST). The registration page includes a time zone converter.
Details and to register: http://www.data3.se/?p=5287
Thanks to Torbjörn Appehl of Data3 (COMMON Sweden) for organizing these.
Youngiprofessionals.com transition to new server
/0 Comments/in Announcements, PHP toolkit for IBM i /by Alan SeidenUpdate as of Jan. 26, 2015: youngiprofessionals.com now redirects to the new server.
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The youngiprofessionals.com site, which hosts XMLSERVICE, has been moved to a new server. Till the domain name can be directed to the new server, use this URL: http://yips.idevcloud.com/wiki/.
January newsletter
/0 Comments/in Announcements, IBM i, iSeries, PHP, PHP toolkit for IBM i, System i, Web development /by Alan SeidenI’ve relaunched my PHP and IBM i newsletter. Here is the January 2015 edition, out today.
To subscribe and receive this free newsletter each month, go here: alanseiden.com/tips.
Comments welcome. Happy 2015–
Alan
Learn to combine RPG+PHP at Toronto user group, Jan. 21, 2015
/2 Comments/in Events, IBM i, iSeries, PHP, PHP toolkit for IBM i, RPG, System i, Web development /by Alan SeidenI’ve recorded a special message about my upcoming presentations at the Toronto Users Group for Power Systems evening meeting on January 21, 2015:
In the video, I discuss the two sessions I’ll be presenting:
Hope you can make it to the Toronto meeting, Jan. 21, 2015, Markham, Ontario. Details: http://tug.ca
Free PHP still exists on IBM i (Zend Server Basic Edition)
/5 Comments/in IBM i, iSeries, PHP, System i /by Alan SeidenI’ve been hearing from people confused about Zend Server editions on IBM i. Yes, Community Edition was removed with Zend Server 7/8, but Zend replaced that with the no-charge “Basic” edition. The Basic edition exists only on IBM i. It requires registration but at no cost. Zend Server for IBM i can be downloaded here.
While I often recommend the Professional or Enterprise editions of Zend Server for the value-added tools and for Zend’s professional support, rest assured that free PHP still exists, with the Basic edition.
For more information, here is the current list of Zend Server editions for IBM i.
[Update: See PHP 7 and Free Basic Zend Server Edition for IBM i ]