Session Listing
Here is a list of sessions that Aaron can present for us. Review the list and description. At the bottom of this page you can vote for the session you'd like to see.
HTML5 for RPG Programmers
Level: Beginner
HTML5 is the new preferred direction for all new web development and is being pursued instead of things like Adobe Flex/Flash and Microsoft Silverlight because it isn't proprietary. Learn of the new features in HTML5 along with a brief history as to why they were needed. See realworld examples of HTML5 being implemented on the UI with RPG/IBMi as the backend. Gain insight as to what out-of-the-box frameworks you can use to build your web and mobile applications more easily without having to have an in-depth knowledge of HTML5.
RPG Droid - Developing your first Android application
Level: Beginner
I recently switched from a Blackberry to a Motorola Google Android (aka Droid) for my mobile device. While sitting in an airport waiting for a delayed flight I decided I would see how
much work was involved in creating a simple Android application from scratch. Turns out it only took about 45 minutes and that included downloading the entire Android development
environment! That got me excited because I realized I could not only develop something that ran on the Droid platform but also that it could easily communicate with RPG on IBM i using the
OpenRPGUI free and open source framework.
This session will guide you through setting up the Droid development environment on your PC. Then we will develop a “hello world” Droid application and run it in the provided emulator – this
means you don't need to own a Droid phone to test this out! Lastly we will walk through a full working example showing how to have the Droid phone talk to OpenRPGUI via HTTP.
Why would you want to learn how to write Droid applications? Because the Google Android platform is fast becoming one of the most popular mobile device platforms in existence. More and
more people are using their mobile devices for things normally done from a laptop or desktop. This means your customers or other internal employees (i.e. C-level executives) will soon start
expecting you to offer them the capability to communicate with your data through mobile devices.
OpenRPGUI - The Intro
Level: Beginner
I have always been intrigued with how RPG can create modern looking applications – in particular, Internet browser based applications. Along with that I have found there is an art of
sorts in taking efforts of getting RPG to talk with the browser and finding the right tools to use. This session describes the journey I took in my most recent open source solution titled
“OpenRPGUI” (aka Open RPG User Interface - www.OpenRPGUI.com). I will walk through the motions I took to discover what tools are available and how I put them together to create
OpenRPGUI (free and open source!!). Many things will be discussed including how to setup a simple Apache configuration, talk about the high-level concept of communicating with the browser,
and how messages are passed back and forth. The current implementation of OpenRPGUI focuses on ExtJS (www.ExtJS.com) which is the most popular client side render kit in existence today.
www.SureYouCanHaveTheKeys.com
Level: Intermediate
I got a wild hair the other week and decided to buy domain www.SureYouCanHaveTheKeys.com because I am on a mission to prove to IBM that all these Java tools they keep coming out with aren't giving my RPG shop what I need to keep my business at the highest level of the market competitiveness - too many layers of technological bureaucracy to do simple business applications.
My mantra is there is very little RPG can't do. So why not put that mantra to the test by creating an application for Android and web?
Picture this: Your child gets their first Android phone, and you would like to know where they are and what they do with the family vehicle, so you install a small application that uses the phone's GPS capabilities to feed coordinates to an IBM i server on the internet. The IBM i server is running Apache and RPG to receive the data into DB2. All the while the parent logs into a web interface, built using only RPG on the server side, and review, in near real-time, where their child is located by watching a GoogleMap. Pretty cool, eh?
This session will guide you through the steps necessary to develop both the Android and server side RPG code to accomplish the project. All tooling utilized to create the project is free and open
source!
Linux/Mac Desktop For RPG Programmers
Level: Beginner
This past year I have completely migrated all of my work and personal computers over to Linux and Mac as an effort to move away from Microsoft Windows. Attend this session to learn
all about how an AS400 developer (both RPG and Java) can make the transition successfully. I will be going over the different free tools I use to develop code and also how I exist in a Microsoft
world. Linux on the desktop has become much more simple to install and use than it was even three years ago – heck I even switched my wife over to it and she loves it!
RDPi Tidbits of Goodies
Level: Intermediate
Have you been using RDPi (aka WDSC/RDi) and are looking for the little tidbits to make you even more productive? Or maybe you are looking for THEE reason to actually switch over
from SEU? No matter the cause, come and see 40+ tips about what I love best in RDPi and how I customize it to best suit my needs. If you have a tip for your fellow RDPi RPG programmer please bring it with to this session and let your voice be heard!
Easy Email Using RPG
Level: Beginner/Intermediate
Learn how to easily send email from your iSeries RPG programs using open source software RPGMail. Make your boss happy and take this code home to gain immediate NHMUG ROI. Not only will you have a free utility (RPGMail) to put on your iSeries after leaving this session but you will also get a full understanding of how the guts work in conjunction with
Sun's JavaMail API's to send email directly to your mail server (i.e. Microsoft Exchange), completely by-passing the problematic iSeries MSF (Mail Server Framework).
SOA for RPG Programmers
Level: Beginner
The term "Service–Oriented Architecture" has become quite popular in the recent year or two, but what does it really mean? How is it related to Web Services? How can we RPG
programmers embrace it to our organizations advantage? Get answers to these questions and more from industry expert Aaron Bartell!
Attend this session and you will gain insight on the basics of a Service–Oriented Architecture and what it means to us RPG programmers. Learn everything from the basics to best practices for SOA development and how it can create huge possibilities for RPG programmers!
See programming examples illustrating the concepts of RPG and SOA using a variety of technologies including Java, SQL Stored Procedures, and Web Services.
RPG Chart Engine (Pie, Bar, and XY Line charts)
Level: Intermediate/Advanced
Users are always wanting more eye-candy in your deliverables to them. Learn how to easily create graphical charts using RPG and Java open source utilities – something you can gain
immediate ROI as a take home for your shop. As we dive into the guts of RPG calling Java we will talk about the snail paced startup of Java applications incurred during JVM (Java Virtual Machine) initialization and address it by adding a data queue messaging layer between the RPG and Java. This creates an environment where the JVM startup occurs only once per machine allowing your Java to run entirely in batch!
SOAP, XML, WSDL, XSD, HTTP - what the?
Level: Beginner
There are so many acronym technologies out there in the new web service paradigm, like SOAP, WSDL, XSD, etc. How does one make sense of them all, and how does one know how
they fit together to accomplish a web service task? Attend this session and you will learn how these technologies work together from an RPG programmers perspective. You will quickly realize
that there is no magic going on but instead the same practices of programming that have been going on for decades - it just has a new face now.
RDPi - The First Kiss
Level: Beginner
Don't let your first experience with RDPi (aka WDSC/RDi) be your last kiss goodbye. Learn the quickest path to successful use of RDPi for RPG programmers. In this session we will
cover initial startup, creating/editing/compiling RPG programs, how to "customize" your environment, and much more! Learn from somebody who has been using it for the past 8 years!
RPG Talks To The Desktop
Level: Intermediate/Advanced
Every so often, I see the mailing lists address the topic of how to automatically open desktop applications from RPG when the user presses a key in a 5250 session. Usually, the need is
to open a browser window and deep link into a Web site by passing a long URL string (e.g., http://ups.com/trackpackage?packageid=Z123412341234). The standard answer is to use one of the
features in Client Access (i.e., STRPCO or STRPCCMD). While that works in some cases, an alternative approach is to spin your own wool. That's where I come in.
This session provides instructions (and actual code) for integrating your RPG programs with the desktop by using a relatively small amount of Java. The basic concept is that you provide a nonintrusive Java application on each PC that needs to receive calls from RPG, and when you start the Java client, it just sits in a wait state to receive commands from your RPG program. When I say "commands," I really mean any value you want to send down to the PC; the key is to have Java handle it appropriately. The Java client receives commands and executes them using rundll32, which is a nifty tool on your Windows PC that allows the execution of command-line access programs.
You can only vote for one session. So make sure you pick the right one!
