Understanding how to enter DDS specifications into a source file and compile them into physical and logical files is really as far as you need to go for 90% of the tasks involved in running a 400. Yes, nowadays you see alot about using DDL (essentially SQL) to create tables but I am still a fan of DDS and do create views using SQL statements when it makes sense to do so.

Recently I have been working on a tier three ERP system from one of those conglomerated software consolidation companies. Chances are you have heard of them if you have been around ERP systems in the last few years. 

The one thing I really hate about this system (which uses a mainstream database on the backend running on a Win32 platform) is how clunky the report writing process is. It’s not elegent, and it’s not tightly integrated into the system itself. In short I think it sucks.

This is precisely an area where the AS/400, iSeries and System i shines. You have so many native tools and applications to work with the underlying database. You have tools like Query/400, Query Manager, direct SQL and so much more that simply plugs right in and goes. You don’t have to learn a bunch of complicated syntax to use programs like Query/400 either because its entirely menu driven.

Many people these days are frowning on “green-screen” based programs.

My take is always to use the right tool for the job and sometimes that is a query report or interactive lookup screen using runqry or query definition. The command line and perhaps a small CL program allows this to be transparent to the user, so who cares if the resulting data is displayed on an old fashioned green-screen.

So to get started writing reports check out the following short list of commands/programs:

WRKQRY
STRQMQRY
RUNQRY
Operations Navigator (allows you to execute and thoroughly examine SQL statements)

One area that used to be lacking on the AS400 was report manipulation or report mining tools. People used to print out thousands of pages of reports (and many still do) just to pull out a couple pages with the pertinent details and then throw the rest away.

But nowadays there are so many third party tools that will take your spool files and convert them into plain text for your PCs. Even Operations Navigator has had this capability for many years. It even allows you to search through files and outqs. End users can even do this with a little bit of training on Operations Navigator, it’s not that difficult and they will love you for it.

There really aren’t many excuses for getting the most out of your systems today. We aren’t living in the stone age where data extraction and reporting writing for the AS/400 is complicated thanks to the myraid of tools that have been available for many years now.

There is a large misconception running about the user community these days that the AS/400 and iSeries platform are old antiquated machine as scarce as the dinosaurs and just as hard to use with its crummy looking text only interface commonly known as the green screen.

This is a major sticking point for business looking to buy an AS/400 and especially for some system administrators that have been groomed on a Windows based environment with point and click ease of use and a built in wizard to do just about everything.

But there is really good news for those people who absolutely hate the old fashioned green-screens that the AS/400 and iSeries platform is known for… there has been a tool available to make maintenance and administration tasks easier. That cool graphical user interface tool is called Operations Navigator, it comes along with your regular licenses so it doesn’t cost any additional money and it has been available now for many years.

That’s right I said that the operations navigator utility is a GUI you can use with your AS/400 and iSeries systems. With it you can maintain users, catalogue system patches and program temporary fixes, watch jobs, administer printer output queues and more.

You want to run an SQL query to delete some data sets or run a quick and dirty report and export the results into Excel? Operations navigator has you covered. Want to copy files from your computer over to the integrated file system on the AS/400? Operations navigator can do that too.

If you are into keeping a watchful eye on the health and performance data of your system, once configured, operations navigator will spit out great looking charts and graphs of important performance metrics.

Did you know that you can also download your reports as text or pdf files from your AS/400 or iSeries with operations navigator, this very feature alone can replace you dependency for expensive third party software packages you may currently be using.

One of the greatest features not otherwise available until operations navigator came around is the ability to diagnose SQL statements and present them in a graphical diagram with each of the steps the system used to execute it in very thorough detail.

There is also a whole feature set available that will collect performance data on your programs and files and record how often temporary indexes are built, you then simply go back and review this data after running a collection and it will recommend indexes to build that will improve the performance of your reports and queries dramatically.

Eventually you may find yourself having to perform some tasks in the command line environment, but as time moves on more and more of features are being built natively into operations navigator with each new release slowly removing the dependency on the green-screen. Who knows though, you may even become a convert like some of us old 400 folks and start to use the command line interface instead of the GUI.

Nonetheless oprations navigator has such a rich set of tools and its ease of use make it an excellent tool to administering your AS/400 and iSeries systems so it is definitely here to stay.

This is where report mining comes in.

You may not have heard the term “report mining” before but essentially report mining is just taking your printable reports from your AS40 or iSeries and bringing them over to your PC into a program like Excel, then scrubbing them up a bit.

Maybee you need to calculate some additional fields or condense the data into an easy to read format. This is where report mining can really come through.

Getting data off of your AS400 to a PC used to be a major hassle back in the dark ages… in fatc people hated it so much that software vendors sprung up all over to accomplish this now routine task.

If you have the luxury of having a programmer on staff that can write reports all day long then your in luck. But some places can’t and hiring an outside consultant to write reports at $175 dollars an hour adds up quickly.

Another option is using the excellent tool you might have is Query/400. This allows you to write simple reports joining together data from one or more files. 

Unfortunatley Query has limited logic capabilities that are handled better by regular programmed reports, but for probably 80% of the reporting needed it will suffice.

Anyhow, back to report mining. If the data you want to get at is already a part of an existing report then you are in luck. No need to write a query since you can just mine that report to get what you want.

The process is really simple and takes only a few mouse clicks.

Using Operations Navigator you can simply browse the printer data on the system then drag and drop any report on your As400 or iSeries onto your desktop. The software then automatically converts it into a text file.

Now this works with reports that are still in an outq on the system. The best way to handle this is to have your spool files go to your own output queue that is not attached to a writer.

After copying the file over to your PC, simply open up that text file with the Excel data import wizard, add the column breaks, clean up the report headings and you are off to the races.

This really is a poor mans way to generate reports, but its really simple and you should already have all the tools to do it installed on your computer.

All you need is Operations Navigator (aka iSeries Navigator) and Excel.

If you need something more complex then look into the other options out there like writing reports using Query or the Excel Add-in.