Oct 4, 2021
Alex Woodie
It is indisputable that the Db2 for i database is the beating coronary heart of the IBM i system. There were no earthshattering enhancements to this databases in the latest batch of Technology Refreshes for IBM i 7.3 and 7.4 that IBM announced and transported previous thirty day period. But there were being a handful of things value mentioning that delivered in the Db2 PTF Team, which includes new HTTP commands for calling the database by means of Relaxation and new SQL-centered instructions for querying the protection audit journal.
The top rated new Db2 for i function arguably is the new established of functions for HTTP requests to take in Web expert services. According to IBM, these new features will help SQL programmers to use Representational State Transfer (Relaxation) approaches and protocols right by way of SQL, together with SQL embedded inside of RPG and COBOL.
Relaxation, of class, has supplanted the Easy Item Application Protocol (Soap) as the predominant strategy for contacting and consuming World-wide-web companies in excess of the Net. Most Relaxation phone calls return knowledge encoded in Java Object Notation (JSON), and IBM i’s Relaxation capabilities are no different. Relaxation and its frequent GET, Put, Post, and DELETE instructions have come to be the de facto conventional for remotely contacting APIs and participating in the vast earth of Website solutions and microservices, and IBM i suits right into this API globe.
To that end, IBM has manufactured available a collection of features for calling the Db2 for i database about HTTP, which includes QSYS2.HTTP_GET(), QSYS2.HTTP_Post(), QSYS2.HTTP_Set(), and so forth. You can get the whole listing in the Db2 for i entry on the IBM support web-site.
“These HTTP functions exists in QSYS2 and have decreased overhead than the SYSTOOLS HTTP capabilities,” Large Blue explained in the IBM assist webpage. “Additional positive aspects of the QSYS2 HTTP capabilities are HTTP authentication, proxy help, configurable redirection tries, and configurable SSL alternatives.”
The new Relaxation tactics are quicker simply because they really don’t depend on Java, as the existing Rest instructions in SYSTOOLS do, stated IBM i main architect Steve Will.
“When you want to eat a World wide web provider today from in just SQL, for case in point, you decide on from this JSON desk,” Will mentioned in a Net presentation sponsored by Frequent final month. “This is bunch of JSON that has been stored in a CLOB [character large object] and you can query it. You can get information and facts from it. That is how you do it in advance of this announcement.”
Developers can nonetheless use the outdated Java technique, of course. But he expects they will put into action the new QSYS2 method mainly because it’s more rapidly.
“There’s absolutely nothing connected with that Java motor that is necessary” in the new instructions, Will ongoing. “But you can even now get accessibility to the info which is in that JSON CLOB file information. So [it’s] slimmer, less difficult, and essentially significantly a lot more like it’s done in other platforms and other languages.”
You can discover much more particulars about these new HTTP Rest capabilities below.
Also incorporated in the Database Group PTF are 14 new IBM i Solutions, together with 12 in SYSTOOLS that are made to enable customers get extra valuable info from the audit journal method, and two that reside in QSYS2.
In accordance to IBM’s documentation, the new QSYS2-dependent IBM i Companies provide comparable performance that end users previously received through CL instructions and APIs.
For example, the new QSYS2.Collection_Expert services_Information command returns the configuration houses for Assortment Products and services in substantially the similar method that the Configure Perf Collection (CFGPFRCOL) CL command and the Retrieve Selection Providers Attributes (QypsRtvColSrvAttributes) API did. Customers would use this command to see the place many parts, these kinds of as PowerHA, safety expert services, or spool companies, are storing collections.
Equally, the new QSYS2.WORKLOAD_Group_Info command returns values for workload teams that are related to what a person would get with the DSPWLCGRP CL command and the Retrieve Workload Teams Information and facts (QLZRTVWC) API, IBM claims. That features the identify of the workgroup, any processor boundaries, and so forth.
The new SYSTOOLS products and services need to support SQL-loving people, builders, and engineers get additional info from the audit journal, which is notoriously challenging to work with. “The spotlight of these variations,” IBM states in its announcement letter, “is the audit journal function, which gives table capabilities one of a kind to specific audit journal entry sorts. Not only do the table functions return the simple audit journal depth, but they also extract the entry-distinct detail into quickly consumed return columns.”
According to the IBM assist site, these 12 new SYSTOOLS products and services permit customers to use SQL to get at numerous kinds of audit journal entries, like use of command strings (CD sort), make item (CO), person profile alterations (CP), delete procedure (DO), environmental variable (EV), generic report (GR), action to program worth (SV), and many audit journal entry types relevant to Db2 Mirror procedure (MO, M6, M7, M8, and M9).
These IBM i Solutions can be accessed via Obtain Customer Remedies (ACS) and the new IBM i Navigator. They can also be employed by distributors to simplify access to sure info in the IBM i. The new audit capabilities, in distinct, can be used by both end users and sellers, Will mentioned.
“We’ve acquired a bunch of different security sellers who make their living producing instruments about this, and then we have received shoppers who want to do much more of it on their own,” Will instructed IT Jungle in a briefing. “We’re making an attempt to make it possible for both sets of prospects to more very easily get that data if they want to code it by themselves. We figure out that just working with individual APIs and show objects out to print, et cetera – it is too cumbersome either way, whether you are a safety seller or no matter whether a person making an attempt to do outside the house the stability applications. But yeah, we’re striving to make it simpler.”
Associated Stories
IBM Provides General public Cloud Targets For IBM i Cloud Backup
IBM i Open up Resource Gets Far better With Drop 2021 TRs
IBM Increases Operate SQL Scripts with ACS Update
Surprise! It is IBM i Engineering Refresh Time
New Nav Places SQL Providers Within Reach
Methods Software program Stack Gets A Refresh With Electricity10
In The API Globe, No person Appreciates You Are An IBM i