RDi Team Blog

4th Webcast in RDi Series: Application Diagram

yantzi — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:04:42 GMT

Tomorrow (Friday Jan 8) is the 4th webcast in the freee RDi series being run by Sirius Computer Solutions (on of our IBM business partners) and co-presented by me.

This webcast will focus on the Application Diagram, a tool within RDi that can generate visual overviews of the structure of a set of source members or programs / service programs. This includes:

A visual call graph for ILE RPG, COBOL, and CL source members
A visual graph showing the ILE bindings between modules, programs, and service programs

Here are the details for joining, this webcast is open to anyone and everyone (no need to be a Sirius client):

The call in number is 877-369-7289 (Canada: 210-918-1998) passcode 7653 and then 0108.

Topic: RDi webcast on Application Diagram
Date: Friday, January 8, 2010
Time: 11:00 am, Eastern Standard Time (GMT -05:00, New York)

Please click the link below to see more information, or to join the meeting.

To join the online meeting (Now from iPhones too!)

1. Go to https://sirius.webex.com/sirius/j.php?ED=113944632&UID=0
2. Enter your name and email address.
3. Enter the meeting password: (This meeting does not require a password.)
4. Click "Join Now".

The previous webcast and this webcast can be found for replay at the following URL:

http://www.mysiriuszone.com/component/option,com_docman/task,cat_view/gid,260/Itemid,488/

Setting the date field in Remote Systems LPEX Editor

yantzi — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:12:54 GMT

I get this question a lot: "can I set the set the Date field for a line or selection of lines in the Remote Systems LPEX Editor". The good news is that it's possible. The not so bad news is that you have to setup some simple preferences to make this happen.

First, to show the Date field in the LPEX Editor you need to right click in the editor and select Source > Show Date Area. You can also set the Show date area preference on the Remote Systems > Remote Systems LPEX Editor preference page so you don't have to do this every time you open a member.

LPEX ships a bunch of sample actions, one of which is setDate. This is the action that can set the date field for a line or selection of lines. Here are the steps to set this up:

1. Open the preferences dialog (Window > Preferences).

2. Switch to the LPEX > User Actions page. Enter the following values and click Set (don't forget to click Set or this doesn't add it to the table):

Name: setDate
Class name: com.ibm.lpex.samples.SetDateAction

3. Click Apply.

4. Now you need to assign a keyboard shortcut to the action so it's easy to invoke from the editor. Switch to the user key actions preference page. Enter the following values and click Set.

Key: c-s-t
Action: setDate

The c-s-t sets the keyboard shortcut to Ctrl + Shift + T. You can enter any keyboard shortcut you want here.

5. Click Apply and close the preferences dialog.

When you are inside the LPEX editor you can now invoke the new action. Position the cursor on the line you want to change, or select the block of lines to change. Hint: to select the entire file press Ctrl + Home, then hold down Shift and press Ctrl + End.

Then invoke the action by pressing Ctrl + Shift + T. A dialog box appears at the bottom of the editor prompting for the new date.

While we're on the topic, RDi 7.5 added a new Find Date action to LPEX. Press Ctrl + Shift + D to search for lines that match a specific date, are greater than or less than a date, or match a range.

Alternatively you could move to a change management system like Rational Team Concert for i and stop relying on Date fields to detect when things are changed

RDi Webcast Series

yantzi — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:06:09 GMT

Over the past 2 months I've been doing a monthly webcast series with Sirius Computer Solutions on Rational Developer for i (RDi). The format is generall 40 min deep dive on a specific topic, 10 min preview of the next month's topic, and 10 mins for Q&A.

So far we have covered an overview and a deep dive on RSE. The webcasts are being recorded and are available for playback.

The next one is this coming Friday (November 13th) and will cover the Integrated i Debugger; one of my favorite RDi topics because it's so easy to use and something I have to use often when coding RPG, COBOL, or CL

Here are the details for the upcoming call:

Topic: RDi webcast 3 - Debugger
Date: Friday, November 13, 2009
Time: 11:00 am, Eastern Standard Time
Meeting Number: 557 432 806

1-877-369-7289 passcode 7541 then you need to enter 2468.

To join the online meeting (Now from iPhones too!)

1. Go to https://sirius.webex.com/sirius/j.php?ED=112887842&UID=0
2. Enter your name and email address.
3. Enter the meeting password: (This meeting does not require a password.)
4. Click "Join Now".

Hope to see you in one of the upcoming webcasts.

Don.

RDi 7.5 Interim fix 001 for 7.5.0.3 is now available

eric.simpson — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:38:56 GMT

Interim fix 001 for 7.5.0.3 is now available.

This interim fix addresses the problem as described in APAR SE38319 (Java NPE in RPG Outline View when a data structure targeted by a LIKEDS has unnamed subfields.).

To install the interim fix, start the IBM Installation Manager and click on 'Update'.

RDi 7.5 Fixpack 3 (7.5.0.3) is now available

eric.simpson — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:49:33 GMT

Fix Pack 3 for RDi v7.5 is now available.

The fix pack contains enhancements and fixes to version 7.5.

To install the fix pack, start the IBM Installation Manager and click on 'Update'.

The fix pack is also available as a downloadable zip (500MB). You will find it on the Download section of the support site soon. You can also download the zip from:
http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/awdtools/rdi/v75/7503/zips/rdi-7.5.0.3.zip

Link to the RDi 7.5.0.3 Release Notes:
http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/awdtools/rdi/v75/7503/documents/readme/readme.html

The following corrections have been included in this fix pack.

SE34801: In the Error List view, clicking on an error from a compiler generated stmt (eg external file description) positions to wrong source line in Editor view
SE36276: CL prompter dialog appends duplicated parameter entries
SE36532: In the RPG Outline View, line number references will now be shown under the individual subfields for qualified data structure subfields.
SE36594: EVFF6009E when using CRTSQLRPGI command in RDi 7.1 and 7.5 and i5OS 610
SE36981: Incorrect outline view in RDi 7.5 when performing a verify
SE37116: Running a compare and then changing the source in RSE does not correctly update the file on the i server.
SE37302: The i Project push changes action pushes all members to the remote host even though there were no changes made to the members.
SE37332: CTRL-C and CTRL-V keystrokes in the i Project navigator do not perform copy and paste of i Project resources.
SE37440: In the Application Diagram View, for RPG modules, some procedure call reference links were not shown when they involved field or parameter definitions which depended on external descriptions.
SE37488: Copy of source member between different connections to same system loses text descripton in RDi v7.5
SE37606: Compile option UPDPGM doesn't function correctly
SE37658: Problem with set save.textlimit 92 with a continuation character
SE37688: The IBM-supplied iSeries Java DFU ListManager bean does not always function properly. A selected cell within a JTable or JFormattedTable will not always correctly update the database file or the table cell itself with the data that was typed into the cell.
SE37689: The i Project import remote objects dialog does not resize properly.
SE37750: Creating custom compile command in iProjects (WDSC 7.0.0.8 and RDI 7.5.0.2) and getting CPD1013
Loading an i Project from RTCi can intermittently cause Null Pointer exceptions.
Renaming a large i Project can sometimes take a long time.
Pushing a large i Project to the host can cause the workbench to freeze.
The properties of members that are newly downloaded to an i Project are pushed un-necessarily on a push change operation.
After compiling source members with embedded SQL, there may be an exception thrown during parsing of the events file, preventing the Error List view from being populated. In some other cases, double clicking on errors in the Error List view does not always embed the errors in the correct lines.
SE37803: Rational Team Concert for i assigned Client Access licenses do not display
SE38015: Rational Team Concert licenses lost every few days

The following enhancements have been included in this fix pack.

The Rational Team Concert for i - Client has been updated to version 1.0.1.1 which includes enhancements from Rational Team Concert Version 1.0.1 and 1.0.1.1. For details see:
- https://jazz.net/downloads/rational-team-concert/releases/1.0.1?p=news
- https://jazz.net/downloads/rational-team-concert/releases/1.0.1.1?p=news
Note: It is highly recommended that you access Rational Team Concert for i Server using the same version level as Rational Team Concert for i client. For example, if you are updating Rational Team Concert for i client to version 1.0.1.1, update Rational Team Concert for i server to version 1.0.1.1 as well. Using mismatched versions may lead to undesirable results. For detailed installation instructions see: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27014187

SQL Tools and RDi

yantzi — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:57:59 GMT

We get a lot of questions about SQL tools and Rational Developer for i (RDi). While we didn't ship the Eclipse Data Tools Platform (SQL tooling) in RDi 7.1 or 7.5, they can be added in after the fact. This is one of the great advantages of an extensible, integrated development environment like Eclipse (which RDi is built on top of). Dmitry Baev, one of the RDi developers, has a new article published in IBM Systems Magazine on Using the Eclipse Data Tools Platform and SQL Tools with RDi.

RDi Webcast Today

yantzi — Wed, 13 May 2009 10:11:32 GMT

I'm presenting on RDi today as part of SystemiNetwork's free IBM i Development Essentials Virtual Conference today. I'll be presenting "RPG and COBOL Development in Less Time With Better Quality Using Rational Developer for i" at 4PM EST.

I've created most of this presentation from scratch and there should be some goodies for both new and experienced RDi users. Hope to see you there!

Business Value of RDi

yantzi — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:51:44 GMT

javajoe2000 asked a good question on the RPG discussion form: Why RDi 7.5?. I've written up a document with my opinions on why I think IBM i development shops should switch from SEU / PDM to RDi here: Why RDi 7.5

Please post discussion comments under Joe's original posting.

Updated RSE Pin-Up

yantzi — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:54:08 GMT

System i Developer (a.k.a Susan, Jon, Paul, and Skip) have updated their RSE Pin-up with 10 new shortcuts and new tips on customizing the RPG editor. These 10 new shortcuts now bring the total to 46; including what I would consider to be the core, must know, RSE keyboard shortcuts. Printing and posting this is a must for anyone using the RSE!

The joy of package groups

eric.simpson — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:21:51 GMT

The RDi install is fairly straight-forward. But one question that users have wondered about is the one on using an existing package group or creating a new one.

The notion of a package group is of a group of products that are integrated together. If you only have one product, then you create a package group just for the one product. If you have multiple products, you can choose to install them all into the same package group so that they are integrated (all their functionality being available in one IDE).

There are additional uses of package groups even if you only have one product. You can install the same product multiple times and choose different package groups. With the same product in multiple package groups, you have some possiblities:

when a fixpack for the product is released, you can update one of your package groups to the new fixpack and give it a try. This would not affect the other package group so there is no risk.

you can choose to install different options in the package groups. In one, you could just have the minimum features (RSE and iProjects). This would simplify the UI (since the other features would not be available) and might have some performance gains (since the other components are not being loaded). In another, you could have RSE, iProjects, Application Diagram, Screen Designer, and RTCi client.

Note: if you install RDi into package group A and then install RDi again into package group B, your disk space usage only increases slightly (it does not put another complete copy of RDi on your machine).

i Finally Did it

yantzi — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:05:36 GMT

I don't know how many times a day I have to hit Ctrl+z to undo Word or PowerPoint's "auto correction" of my i to an I (as in Rational Developer for I, Rational Team Concert for I, or IBM I). So I finally bit the bullet and removed those auto-correction rules since I don't generally write about myself in Word or PowerPoint. Honestly, i have no idea why it took me so long

RDi 7.5 Fixpack 2 (7.5.0.2) is now available

eric.simpson — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:47:24 GMT

Fix Pack 2 for RDi v7.5 is now available.

The fix pack contains enhancements and fixes to version 7.5.

To install the fix pack, start the IBM Installation Manager and click on 'Update'.

The fix pack is also available as a downloadable zip (240MB). You will find it on the Download section of the support site soon. You can also download the zip from:
http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/awdtools/rdi/v75/7502/zips/rdi-7.5.0.2.zip

Link to the RDi 7.5.0.2 Release Notes:
http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/awdtools/rdi/v75/7502/documents/readme/readme.html

Note: if you have other products installed, make sure they are updated to their latest fixpacks as well. For RBD, use version 7.5.1.1.

RDi Elevator Pitch

yantzi — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:55:13 GMT

I'm getting ready for an RDi customer demo for Monday and my co-presenter asked what are the main points I normally cover for RDi. Since I typed up the email, I figured I'd post it here as well. So here is my RDi elevator pitch (provided it's the CN Tower elevator):

Modern Eclipse / Rational SDP tools for the IBM i RPG and COBOL developers.
- SEU / DPM tools are old and don't have even the basic features that developer on other platforms take for granted.
- Things as simple as the ability to undo and redo changes.
- Things as advanced as the ability to generate a visual overview of the structure of an application.
- RDi can do the things green screen tools can do and more.
Improved productivity
- RDi tools are tightly integrated to improve productivity.
  - On the green screen developers have to open SEU to edit, then close and run the compile command. After the compile completes, developer has to open the compiler spool file and look for the error messages. Find the error message and note the line number. Then re-open the member and position to the line number corresponding to the error.
  - In RDi, you open the member in the editor, launch compiles directly from the editor without closing. When the compile finishes, the errors are automatically downloaded and displayed in the Error List view. Double clicking on an error automatically positions the editor to the corresponding line.
  - Open multiple members at the same time, split screen editing of different members, or the same member.
  - Language specific help is integrated with editor (F1 help and content assist)
  - Run remote searches, and results are automatically displayed in the search results view, double click to open editor and position to search result line.
  - Easily attach the integrated i debugger to any job using service entry points (batch, interactive, stored procedures, programs called from the Web)
  - Tools to help developers better understand their large, monolithic source members
    - Color tokenizing lets developers quickly see what are comments, keywords, fields
    - Outline view provides high level overview of source, file records and fields, and makes navigating the source a lot easier.
    - Filtering, searching, and visualizing block nesting are just a few of the editor features
    - Application Diagram can generate a visual representation of the structure of the application. This includes a call graph for CL, COBOL, and RPG source and a binding diagram for ILE programs and service programs. Using split screen editing you can see a visual representation while editing the source!
  - Screen Designer provides visual layout and editing for display files screens
Designed to make the transition easier
- RDi was designed to make the transition from SEU / PDM easy
- Filtering is similar to WRKLIBPDM, WRKOBJPDM, WRKMBRPDM
- Editor supports prefix commands, source prompting, format line
- Object table view provides PDM like view for those not comfortable with the tree view
First step in moving forward
- Adopting RDi for RPG and COBOL development is the first step in enterprise modernization.
- Allows developers to learn the new tool while doing the same tasks they normally do.
- Then they can branch into other areas of enterprise modernization tasks like Web development, Web services, Java or EGL development.
- As well as new tools like Rational Team Concert for i for change management

RDi 7.5 Fixpack 1 (7.5.0.1) is now available

eric.simpson — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:09:03 GMT

Fix Pack 1 for RDi v7.5 is now available.

The fix pack provides documentation for the Rational Team Concert for i - Client feature.

To install the fix pack, start the IBM Installation Manager and click on 'Update'.

The fix pack is also available as a downloadable zip (2MB). You will find it on the Download section of the support site soon. You can also download the zip from:
http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/awdtools/rdi/v75/7501/zips/rdi-7.5.0.1.zip

Link to the RDi 7.5.0.1 Release Notes:
http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/awdtools/rdi/v75/7501/documents/readme/readme.html

Faster Connecting: Default User IDs

kjdoyle — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:49:53 GMT

With RDi V7.5 come some changes to the default user ID for connection types. In previous releases when you would connect to IBM i, Linux, etc. the user ID field would be empty. Now the user ID field is pre-filled with your Windows login ID.

If your Windows login ID matches your connection login ID then this is good news and will make logging in quicker. However for those that don't have them matching, like myself, you can manually change the default user ID. Since for IBM i connection types I have the same login ID for all my machines, I changed the preference setting to be my user ID for IBM i connections from my Windows login. However for Linux connections, my ID is different on each machine, so I set the default user ID for Linux to be empty. If I had Windows or Unix connections I could easily set the default for those as well.

To change your default user ID for IBM i follow these steps:

1. Go to Windows -> Preferences.
2. Select Remote Systems.
3. Select the cell for row IBM i and column Default User ID.
4. Enter the new Default User ID you desire.
5. Click OK.