DB2/400 Utility Gets New Goodies

September 16, 2008 Alex Woodie

Applied Logic‘s all-purpose DB2/400 product, File Edit Utility (FEU), learned a few new tricks with the release of version 16 last week. The Keizer, Oregon, company added new capabilities to FEU in the areas of merging files, conversion to XML, and printing as PDF. The product’s main file search capability was also improved.

FEU gives programmers and administrators for i-based Power Systems servers (formerly System i, i5, iSeries, and AS/400) a range of capabilities that come in handy for dealing with problems and situations that come up during day-to-day operations, including making changes to multiple files at once; recovering deleted files; reformatting spool files; generating DDS; distributing files via FTP; encrypting and decrypting files; and outputting files in PC formats, among many other capabilities.

At its core, FEU provides a direct and easy route for working with all sorts of files. This area has been improved with version 16, which brings a new capability to find fields that match specific criteria, saving IT workers from searching for the veritable needle in a haystack. This version also includes functionality for finding the minimum and maximum extents of a certain data type, as well as finding the average.

FEU version 16 introduces new actions users can perform on selected files. These include merging source physical files, and copying a physical file and unpacking its fields. The capability to convert spool files to XML, or to print reports directly in the PDF format, will also find countless uses, especially for document management projects.

FEU users gain the capability to pull up previously accessed files by simply pressing F9. And lastly, version 16 brings support for i 6.1 (formerly i5/OS V6R1).

FEU version 16 is available now. Pricing is set at $995 for single CPU, or $1,895 for an LPAR license. For more information, visit www.alcsoftware.com.