Paul Tuohy returned to NHMUG on Tuesday September 19th, 2017!

It is with great excitement that we had a return visit from Paul Tuohy on Tuesday September 19th, 2017.
Paul is a world renowned speaker and well known throughout the IBM i community.

Paul presented the following sessions:

RPG on the Move: Mobilize Your i

Choices and challenges in the world of mobile applications

Mobile applications are the hot topic of the day and your old RPG green-screen skills and tools are just not going to make the grade. In this session Paul discusses some of the factors you have to consider when embarking on the development of your first mobile applications.

Topics to be covered include:

• Design considerations for mobile - from F-keys to touch sensitivity
• Platform options - iPad? iPhone? Android? Blackberry? Tablets?
• Local processing or server/browser based?
• Can you do it with RPG? And what are your other language choices

Introduction to AJAX for RPG Programmers

Although it has been around for a number of years Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) has suddenly become a hot topic. What is all the fuss about? What relevance does AJAX have for the RPG programmer?

AJAX provides a means of having a web page communicate with a server, either synchronously or asynchronously. Combined with CGI programming techniques (CGIDEV2 is used in the presentation), you now have a means of dealing interactively with a web page i.e. changing the contents of a web page without having to re-write the whole page.

And best of all, it is already installed on every PC, all you have to do is use it!.

In this session you will learn:

• The background to AJAX
• How it works
• Examples of how to use it

I Didn't Know You Could Do That With SQL

You have started to master SQL but you have a sneaky suspicion that there might be more to it.

In this session you will learn valuable and time saving techniques with SQL that let you avoid writing code. You will learn how to use SQL Subquery or Subselect in an SQL SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE or CREATE TABLE statement to reference multiple tables without having to do a join of the tables involved. You will see how to use CASE and UNION statements, Common Table Expressions (CTEs) and where to use Full Outer Join and Hidden Time Stamp columns.

This session is based on the SQL function available in V5R4, V6R1, and V7R1 of OS/400 or i5/OS, assumes you have a basic understanding of relational database concepts and SQL.

Externalizing Database Processing in RPG IV

One of the major considerations for the ongoing modernization of applications is how to make functionality accessible to multiple interfaces. But no matter how the application interfaces may change (green screen, web, client server, mobile phones etc.) or how data may arrive on the system (FTP, EDI, XML etc.) you can be sure that all of the data is going to end up in a database.

Externalized database processing provides a means of encapsulating database access. This session discusses why you may want to externalize database processing in RPG IV and how to do it.

Biography

ComCon is a company owned and run by Paul Tuohy. It specializes in consultancy, software development and training for the IBM i (System i, i5, iSeries and AS/400).

Paul Tuohy has worked in the development of IBM Midrange applications since the '70s. He has been IT manager for Kodak Ireland Ltd. and Technical Director of Precision Software Ltd. As well as being CEO of ComCon he is also one of the co-founders of System iDeveloper, a consortium of top experts and educators on i technology. He has been teaching and lecturing since the mid-'80s.

Paul is the author of "Re-engineering RPG Legacy Applications", "The Programmers Guide to iSeries Navigator" and the self teach course "iSeries Navigator for Programmers".

He also writes regular articles for most of the industry publications and is one of the quoted industry experts in the IBM Redbook "Who knew you could do that with RPG IV?".

As well as speaking at renowned RPG & DB2 Summit conferences and other conferences around the world Paul is also an award winning speaker at numerous US Common conferences.