• Admin Alert: Cracking the Obscure CWBLM0029 PC5250 Error

  October 20, 2004 Joe Hertvik

  One of the strangest iSeries or Client Access for Windows’ PC5250 errors you will ever run into is the CWBLM0029 error. This error stops a user from signing on to an i5, iSeries, or AS/400 machine, providing only an obscure message box that reads, “CWBLM0029–The product or release level is incorrect for 5769XE1.” Needless to say, this isn’t very helpful.

  

  In my experience, CWBLM0029 usually occurs when there’s a problem with the user profile trying to sign on. It’s more likely to occur with the PC5250 program provided with older Client Access Express for Windows configurations than with the newer

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• Anatomy of a P-Field

  October 13, 2004 Dominic Lefevre

  It may appear that text-based screens are dead, but looks can be deceiving. Text-based interfaces, or “green screens,” are still very widely used, and not just on iSeries systems. What’s more, text-based systems are not going away anytime soon, because they’re effective and easy to develop. As long as we still have to write them, we might as well have a little fun, right? One of the ways to have fun writing green-screen programs is by using P-fields.

  

  LOOK, MA, NO INDICATORS!

  P-fields are one-byte codes that control the color and attributes of a field in a display file. Before

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• Use System Naming Convention and Library List with .NET Managed Provider

  October 13, 2004 Michael Sansoterra

  The iSeries .NET managed provider, first released in iSeries Access V5R3, lacked the ability to specify a library list and the SQL naming convention in connection strings. We were stuck with the defaults. However, with the introduction of service pack SI15176, in early September, IBM has enhanced the provider to set the library list and naming convention in the connection string.

  

  For those unfamiliar with the concept of a managed data provider, it is .NET’s plug-in equivalent to an ODBC driver in the Windows world or a JDBC driver in the Java world. Each database manufacturer creates a .NET provider

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• Handling Oversized Numbers Gracefully

  October 13, 2004 Hey, Ted

  These MCH1210 errors are driving me nuts. We run packaged software and a lot of the database fields are bigger than we need them to be. I often use smaller fields on displays and reports in order to save room. Then one day, for some reason, a field has a bigger value than I expected and an EVAL command blows up with MCH1210 (the target for a numeric operation is too small to hold the result). Is there any way in all this new-fangled RPG stuff to tell the system to print hash marks and keep on trucking?

  

  –Dave

  RPG

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• A Generic Command Choice Validity Checker

  October 6, 2004 Bruce Guetzkow

  The code for this article is available for download.

  

  In my previous article I created a generic program that you can use to display command parameter choices that are stored in a file: a command choice program. While that program is very useful, it is only part of the story. This time I’ll show you a procedure and service program that you can include in a validity checking program to ensure that parameter values entered are valid. With this second part, you will be able to validate parameter entries based on values stored in a file.

  THE VALIDITY CHECKING

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• Conditional Sorting with SQL

  October 6, 2004 Hey, Ted

  We are a small business in Ohio. Most of the people we do business with are also in Ohio. Is there a way we can retrieve a list of clients with the Ohio clients listed first, followed by all others, in order by state?

  

  –William

  SQL/400 can handle this task for you. Use a CASE structure in the ORDER BY clause.

  select custnbr, custname, ccity, cstate
    from customer
   order by 
     case cstate when 'OH' then 0 else 1 end,
     cstate, ccity
  

  The first sort field is a case expression. For records that have a state value of OH, this

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• Admin Alert: Make User Profiles Go Cross-Partition with OpsNav

  October 6, 2004 Joe Hertvik

  The iSeries Navigator (better known as “OpsNav”) has a lot of nice hidden features that make life easier for administrators. One valuable feature is that you can use OpsNav for propagating OS/400 user profiles from one i5, iSeries, or AS/400 partition to another, while retaining the same profile information in each environment. Here’s how you do it.

  

  First, if you are going to use OpsNav to transfer user profiles (or other OS/400 objects, such as libraries) between different systems, you need to have a Management Central network set up that connects all your different AS/400, iSeries, and i5 machines. Management

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• A Generic Command Choice Program

  September 22, 2004 Bruce Guetzkow

  The code for this article is available for download.

  

  I’ve had many opportunities to create my own commands on the AS/400, iSeries, and i5. Although you can use the VALUES or SPCVAL keywords to hardcode valid values, changing valid values requires changing the command source. On occasion I’ve created a command with a keyword for which valid values are already stored in a file. By specifying the CHOICE and CHOICEPGM parameters on the PARM, ELEM or QUAL statements, you can create a program to display the list of valid values stored in that file. The following is an example

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• Optional Parameters and CL Procedures: Valuable Info from IBM

  September 22, 2004 Hey, Ted

  In “Optional Parameters and CL procedures,” you said that ILE CL procedures can handle unpassed parameters by monitoring for message MCH3601. While it’s perfectly safe to test for omitted parameters (those for which the caller specified the special value *OMIT) by monitoring for MCH3601, it’s dangerous to depend on MCH3601 for unpassed parameters. RTV-type commands are also safe; they work like *OMIT parameters by passing null pointers.

  

  It is possible for the system to fail to send MCH3601 when a parameter was not passed. This failure occurs when the system still has a pointer to a parameter from a

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• Using the SQL Features in Operations Navigator

  September 15, 2004 Joel Cochran

  A couple of years ago, I fell in love with SQL. Okay, maybe not in love, but definitely in appreciation. Initially it was a hate/hate relationship. Like most people in RPG land, I had been weaned on native file access and was shocked to discover as I ventured into languages on other platforms that there really is no equivalent. I learned SQL out of necessity, and in the process I’ve become a true believer, even something of an SQL evangelist within my tiny sphere of influence. This article introduces you to using some of the SQL features available in Operations

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