Archive for category: PHP

Exact name is required when calling a service program’s procedure

Some developers make a common mistake when calling a procedure in a service program using the PHP Toolkit for IBM i or any toolkit based on XMLSERVICE. It’s easy to supply the wrong procedure name, or the right name in the wrong case (upper/lower/mixed). Using this example of calling a procedure using the toolkit, we find the following (correct) program/procedure call:

$result = $conn->PgmCall('MYPGM', 'MYLIB', $params, $retParam, 
                         array('func'=>'myproc'));

The procedure name ‘myproc’ must be given exactly as it is, not ‘MYPROC’ or ‘MyProc’, because under some circumstances the name may be case-sensitive.

How to determine the correct procedure name

Run the DSPSRVPGM command, using your desired library and program names as parameters:

DSPSRVPGM SRVPGM(MYLIB/MYPGM) DETAIL(*PROCEXP)

The above command will return service program information, including the names of all procedure exports. For example:

        Display Service Program Information                       
                                                    
Service program  . . . . . . . . . . . . :   MYPGM                           
  Library  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :     MYLIB                          
Owner  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :   PROGRAMMER                        
Service program attribute  . . . . . . . :   RPGLE                             
Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :   *PROCEXP                          
                                                                               
                              Procedure Exports:                               
                                                                               
Procedure Name                                       ARGOPT 
myproc                                               *NO    
orderHeader                                          *NO

This service program contains two procedures: ‘myproc’ and ‘orderHeader’. Thus, to call the former, we’d supply array(‘func’=>’myproc’) in the PgmCall method. If we wanted to call the second procedure, we’d use array(‘func’=>’orderHeader’), observing case sensitivity, which often matters (a topic for another day).