IBM Cranks Up the Performance for Run SQL Scripts
April 24, 2024 Alex Woodie
Access Client Solutions (ACS) users who are tired of waiting for database fields to resolve in the Run SQL Scripts (RSS) facility will be happy to hear that IBM felt their pain and RSS will return data much more quickly to return data with ACS version 1.1.9.5, which IBM shipped earlier this month.
The speed-up of field resolution time was listed as a concern to at least one IBM i user, who took to IBM Power Ideas Portal to voice his or her concern. “Simply put the resolution of potential field makes content assist almost unusable,” the user wrote. “I can usually find the field information faster by switching to an emulator session and looking up the fields faster than it comes back.”
The request was first logged in April 2021, back when the IBM Ideas Portal was still called by its previous name, Request for Enhancements (RFE). “It just needs to be at the same speed as other database query utilities,” the user wrote. “Would make the Run SQL Scripts so much nicer . . . . I’m not sure why this takes as long as it does.”
Another performance-related request from 2021 had to do with the speed of the F4 prompt in RSS. It was just too slow, one user wrote.
“On the IBM greenscreen the prompt is instant. I knew it would be slow on the PC side but not this slow,” the user wrote. “We prompt several, several times while creating a single SQL statement and the ACS app takes about 10-15 seconds each time (sometimes it has been 25-30 seconds) to display the field list for us to choose the fields we want to use. . . If IBM wants us to use this tool it needs to be faster.”
IBM said the ideas had merit, but classified them as low priorities. Three years later, the ideas were finally acted upon with ACS version 1.1.9.5, which IBM released on April 11.
Other enhancements to RSS were also based on requests IBM i users have made through the Idea Portal, including:
- The capability to copy the text of from the job log viewer;
- The capability to set a default for the type of view the user (list or details) is presented when selecting files from a PC;
- And the capability to connect to another database that’s not limited to the databases listed in Systems Groups when starting up (IBM made a similar change with the IFS too).
Another enhancement was added to the Visual Explain component of ACS, which is used for troubleshooting slow database queries. IBM has added several new toolbar buttons to Visual Explain that make it easier to adjust the view when analyzing queries.
This enhancement was also the result of an RFE dating all the way back to 2018. “In my case, I need View. . . Arrow Label. . . Estimated Rows, Estimated Time, Actual Rows and SMP Degree,” the user wrote. “Others may want to choose their own that they would prefer.”
The schemas component of ACS was also bolstered with the capability to generate SQL Data Manipulation Language (DML) statements for tables and view. On the data transfer front, IBM added an option to automatically adjust columns when downloading to XLS or XLSX files.
On the printing front, IBM now lets users change the system connection in ACS Printer Output directly within the tool, eliminating the need to go to the main ACS window.
The 5250 emulator received several enhancements, including the capability to display host code page on the 5250 screen; the capability to run an ACS macro from the command line environment; and the addition of configured Hardware Management Interfaces to the Actions dropdown menu.
The 5250 print emulator has been updated to automatically set the page orientation for JPS print sessions to be the same as the orientation for PC5250 GDI-based printer sessions on the old Access for Windows product, according to IBM.
The final new feature called out by IBM is an update to the open source package management component that allows users to adjust the timeout. IBM made several other minor changes with ACS version 1.1.9.5, as well added all the fixes and security updates that have been released since version 1.1.9.4 shipped in November.
For more info, see the IBM Support page for ACS.
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New Run SQL Scripts Features in ACS Update
All I want is for the ‘Previous Tab’ function in the ACS keyboard mapping is to stop clearing my clipboard. If I copy a value from any window on the PC it remains available if I go to an emulation session and then use the assigned ‘Next Tab’ key, but if I use previous tab, it is cleared and no longer available to paste. Been this way as long as I can remember.