Alan Seiden

How to Protect Secure Websites & APIs from Certificates Expiring

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API & web security on IBM iIf you have encrypted your website, API, Telnet server, or other service with TLS (SSL), good for you!

Now, do you know when those certificates will expire? If they expire without renewal, your service could become unavailable without warning.

In the past, to find expiration dates for digital certificates on IBM i, you’d either have to look in the Digital Certificate Manager (DCM), call the Retrieve Certificate Information (QYCURTVCI, QycuRetrieveCertificateInfo) API, or keep extremely good notes!

CERTIFICATE_INFO, an IBM i service recently delivered by IBM, solves all this. This SQL table function, documented here, returns a result table that contains information about server or Certificate Authority (CA) certificates, including their expiration date.

Here’s how to use CERTIFICATE_INFO to find expiring certificates.

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Dawn May

Simplify with Subsystems

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IBM iA major differentiator of the IBM i operating system is the use of subsystems to separate workloads, often for managing memory and optimizing performance. While those are still valid reasons for separating work into multiple subsystems, today’s large memory sizes and fast processors reduce the need to optimize performance in this way.

In this article, I’ll explain how subsystems can make today’s web-oriented application workloads much easier to manage. Read more →

Alan Seiden

Git for All Your Code

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IBM i + GitGit has become the de facto standard for open source version control. Nevertheless, while your team may be using Git for open source code, your traditional IBM i programs and other code may use no version control at all, or be stuck in a repository that is difficult to access.

In this article, we’ll cover why you might want to move code to Git and suggest tools that make the move practical for IBM i teams.

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Liam Barry Allan

VS Code for IBM i — Tips and Extras

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Visual Studio Code 1.35 iconVisual Studio Code is a widely used IDE in the non-IBM i world. Recently we released Code for IBM i, a freely available extension for VS Code that supports RPGLE and COBOL development for IBM i. You can read about the basics of Code for IBM i and about code coverage functionality in my previous posts.

Today I’m going to cover three additional tips for using Code for IBM i. Of course, for any of this to work, you need to install Code for IBM i.

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Alan Seiden

Db2, SQL, and Open Source Languages on IBM i

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db2 sql open source ibmiPresentation Handout

The ever-expanding capabilities of Db2 for i can simplify development in open source languages such as PHP, Ruby, Node.js (JavaScript), and Python. These languages, known for their effectiveness in building web and mobile applications, can tap into the power of SQL.

So why complicate them with repetitive code that distracts from their power and simplicity?

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Alan Seiden

#OceanTech17: Three Days of Inspiration in July

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July 20-22, 2017, Costa Mesa, CA

I always look forward to participating in the OCEAN Tech conference. It’s an impressive example of a local user group bringing affordable education to its members.

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Alan Seiden

Use an IBM i Service to Find Your Technology Refresh (TR) Level

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IBMi Technology RefreshWith another new IBM i Technology Refresh upon us, here’s a quick reminder how to find your server’s current TR level.

It’s getting easier and easier to do. An IBM i Service using DB2 and SQL provides the TR level more cleanly than older approaches. I love that we can use the universal SQL to expose the innards of our beloved system!

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Alan Seiden

Let’s Meet Up at COMMON, May 6-10, 2017

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The Seiden Group team is headed to Orlando May 6-10 to participate in COMMON 2017. In addition to teaching sessions and workshops on best practices for using PHP and other open source technologies on IBM i, we’re looking forward to meeting up with our clients and friends.

One of our favorite opportunities at COMMON is to meet professionals at all levels of the IT organization. Understanding the challenges faced by each member of the IT team — from admin to CIO — strengthens our ability to build effective solutions that are easy to use, easy to extend, easy to maintain.

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Alan Seiden

RPG & DB2 Summit: March 21-23, 2017, in Orlando

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In just two weeks I’ll have the pleasure of joining some of the top IBM i development experts in Orlando for the RPG & DB2 Summit. Run by Susan Gantner, Jon Paris and Paul Tuohy, this conference is full of big personalities who create a warm, friendly environment that’s perfect for learning.

I enjoy the community feeling and how excited everyone is to solve development problems and share tips and techniques.

The RPG & DB2 Summit is one of the few training events that focuses exclusively on topics of interest to IBM i developers. That includes PHP and SQL, of course!

Check out the session grid and pay special attention to the Hands-on PHP Workshop on Monday, March 20, followed by several PHP and open source sessions given by yours truly and Zend’s Mike Pavlak, plus a whole array of SQL sessions. And maybe a few on RPG.

I think they should change the name of the conference to the RPG, PHP, SQL & DB2 Summit, don’t you?

Come join us!

Alan Seiden

Video promo for COMMON conference May 15-18, 2016

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Join me for the 2016 COMMON Annual Meeting and Exposition, May 15-18, with pre-conference workshops May 14. Don’t miss New Orleans!

Learn about IBM i 7.3, open source languages, security, and more.

Alan will speak about PHP, SQL, performance, and how to relax your neck, back, and shoulders at the keyboard. Also looking forward to spending time with the gang from “Club Seiden.”
https://www.common.org