BCD at Nashville COMMON and other Upcoming Conferences
If you plan to attend this year's COMMON conference, make sure you drop by Expo booth 404 to pay us a visit. We'll be happy to chat about your projects for the coming year, and how we might be able to help you out with them. As always, you can sign up to try any of our products for free, so you can get a clear idea of what they'll do for you!
And while you're there, make sure you sign up for either of Duncan Kenzie's events where you'll get the opportunity to pick the brains of our CTO, and watch his engaging demonstrations of WebSmart ILE and, new for this year, WebSmart PHP too! On the morning of April 1st, Duncan will be leading a Lab entitled Rapid iSeries Web Application Development with WebSmart. In his lab you will get a hands-on introduction to building ILE RPG CGI programs using WebSmart, a charter member of the IBM iSeries Developer Roadmap. Duncan will also introduce you to the advantages of web deployment using the Apache web server which ships as a standard component of OS/400.
On Tuesday afternoon (3:30 - 4:45) Duncan will also be delivering a brand new session on Rapid i5/OS & Multi platform PHP Development with WebSmart PHP in Delta Ballroom B. Duncan will introduce BCD's WebSmart PHP development tool to show how you can quickly and easily build PHP applications that run on the System i or on other platforms. The session will cover topics such as WebSmart's intelligent templates, WebSmart's Rapid Development Workbench and how you use it to write PHP, HTML, JavaScript and CSS code. The session will also review the many benefits of developing PHP programs in an enterprise-quality development tool, including the use of SmartSnippets to minimize coding knowledge, built-in Change Management, real-time syntax checking, text and visual HTML editors, design previews and more. We will also discuss how you can leverage existing RPG code by calling RPG programs and/ or modules from PHP.
WMCPA Spring Technical Conference (Lake Geneva, WI)
BCD will also have a group at the Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association (WMCPA) Spring Tech Conference April 9-10 in Lake Geneva, WI. Visit the WMCPA website for conference details.
Northeast User Groups Conference (Framingham, MA)
The 18th Annual Conference of the Northeast User Groups Conference will be held April 14-16 in Framingham, MA. If you're attending the conference this year, you can also hook up with BCD there!
OCEAN Technical Conference (Irvine, CA)
The OCEAN User Group in Southern California will be holding their annual Technical Conference on June 30th at the Irvine Hyatt Regency. This is the biggest one-day i5 education day in the US, and BCD will have a booth at the Vendor Solutions Expo along with many others.
BCD at the IT Leaders Forum (Denver, CO)
BCD will have a booth at the upcoming IT Leaders Forum at Inverness Hotel & Conference Center in Denver, July 20-23. Visit the website for further information on the agenda and speakers, as well as hotel and registration details. Sign up before April 18 to get a $300 discount!
If you have any questions about these events, please drop us a note.
Catapult 7 Feature Profile: Redesigned Grab Rule Editor
The Grab Rule Editor is Catapult's most important interface, and in preparing this release we devoted particular attention to this area. Because we have rebuilt both the poller and grab rule editor for Catapult 7, we have pulled the design and execution processes closer into synch, so that as you build your grab rules you have a clearer sense of the actual flow of the process you are defining.
For example, the Extracted Data Values have been moved near the top of your process, reflecting the fact that while this feature has been recently introduced (and in Catapult 6 was near the bottom of your options), you can actually use values extracted from your reports in almost every other category of your rules. We have also brought together the distribution options for both the base document and split sections so that you can specify your distribution actions more easily and without having to jump back and forth between separate areas of your rules.
In addition to these useful changes to the flow of the rules, we have given the whole interface a makeover and improved labeling and organization of many other options.
Here is the Email Distribution category, illustrating the new look:
 The email distribution category in the Catapult 7 Grab Rule Editor.
From here you can see how we brought together the email options for the base and split documents.
When you create new rule, all the options are now organized into six basic categories:
- General. This includes the rule description and status, among other things.
- Acquisition. The grab rule selection criteria.
- Splitting. The option to split your reports into multiple sections, and the criteria you set to establish the split boundaries.
- Data Extraction. From here you’ll set up any values you want to extract from the spool files themselves (customer or invoice numbers, dates, passwords, etc.), so you have them ready to use in the rest of your grab rule.
- Transformation. Once you create your extracted data values, you can then move on to choosing the transformation options for your reports, including PDF conversion, bookmarks, etc.
- Distribution. Finally, you’ll set your distribution options (how to email, save, print or fax).
The progression from section to section smoothes the process of creating grab rules, and more effectively highlights the links between related sections.
If you currently own Catapult 6 and would like to participate in the Catapult 7 beta, please get in touch. Also, if you are currently evaluating Catapult and haven't yet implemented myriad mission-critical distribution rules, you are ideally suited to participate in the beta - you can enjoy all the benefits of the new release, without any of the risks! And if you have any questions, please drop a note to Technical Support.
Better Spool File Management Can Result in Big Savings
Christ Smith has written a timely article in MC Press Online discussing the benefits of automating electronic document distribution from the iSeries, and Catapult 7 in particular. Read the whole article online at the MC Press website.
WebSmart 6.8: Preview Release Overview
The preview release of WebSmart 6.8 is now available by request, and includes several useful new features:
- Support Multiple Environments
- Option to use Green Screen Debugger
- New Function Retrieves Current Time
- Custom Variable Name Options
- V6R1 Support
Below is an overview of the first three features; the last is described in the next article below, the latest installment in our series on editing templates.
Support Multiple Environments
In WebSmart 6.8 you will be able to set up multiple development environments, encompassing multiple systems, FTP connections and databases. If you are developing applications for different systems or customers, you will find this feature very useful.
Option to use Green Screen Debugger
By popular acclaim, we have re-enabled support for the green screen debugger. While it has been possible to use both the interactive and green-screen debuggers all along, it required some manual configuration changes. This has now been addressed.
New Function Retrieves Current Time
WebSmart 6.8 includes a new currenttime() function, which you can use to return the actual current time in the form of a 6 digit number, at any point during a program's execution. The current time program field, which you may have used in the past, holds the job start time, not the current system time. Also included is a new current timestamp function: currenttimestp().
Custom Variable Name Option
This option is intended for clients outside North America whose language contains valid variable name characters that aren't traditionally supported in the English language. This new functionality will allow individual users to specify their language's special characters as valid for use in a variable name.
V6R1 Support
And finally, WebSmart 6.8 is ready for V6R1.
The WebSmart 6.8 preview will be available shortly; log in to myBCDsoftware.com for details, and to request it when it becomes available. If you have any questions about upgrading to WebSmart 6.8, please contact Technical Support.
WebSmart Example Programs and KB Articles
The Technical Support team has added another example to our burgeoning list. The latest is Example 149, which describes how to generate a single-series SmartChart with WebSmart PHP.
And while in recent times the WebSmart Example Programs have stolen the limelight from the more 'mature' Knowledge Base, this doesn't mean that the KB has stopped growing or is any less valuable. Three particularly useful additions to the KB in the last couple of months include:
- KB 6863 - Read this article to learn how to call existing RPG programs from your PHP application, either by hand-coding the call or by using the WebSmart snippets and Smartsnippets.
- KB 7093 - Article 7093 describes two approaches to controlling the libraries and library lists you need to use in your WebSmart PHP applications.
- KB 7094 - This article outlines the PHP i5 functions you can use to work with data areas in WebSmart PHP.
So any time you are wondering how to do something, remember to check both the example programs list AND the online Knowledge Base. Both are completely searchable, so it'll only take you a few seconds to find what you need. If you have any questions about any of the example programs or KB articles, please email Technical Support.
Remember that we're always on the lookout for ideas for new examples, so if there's something you need to add to your website that you're finding a little challenging and which you think others might also want to use, drop us a note and we'll take a crack at building it for you!
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Upcoming WebSmart ILE Training
The next WebSmart ILE Fundamentals training course will be held June 2-5 in Greensboro, NC. There are only 5 seats available, so if you're interested in attending, please fill out our online training request form as soon as possible.
Our local contact vouches for Greensboro's great downtown nightlife and restaurants, and there are a couple of great micro breweries you can visit in the evenings. Also recommended is the Greensboro Grasshoppers, a minor-league baseball team with a new stadium. And history buffs will want to visit the Guildford Courthouse Military Park, site of the "largest, most hotly-contested battle of the Revolutionary War's Southern Campaign". The hotels that are most convenient to the training location are the Homewood Suites and Embassy Suites, though there are many other choices in the area as well.
Course Content
The WebSmart Fundamentals class is a comprehensive course that will give you a working knowledge of all the areas you need to be familiar with in order to begin developing applications with WebSmart. The course begins with an introduction to HTML (page structure elements, tables, images and links), then continues on to creating simple WebSmart programs. As you familiarize yourself with the tool, you'll add more features to your application: passing parameters between programs, customizing file access, and then prompting users for input and validating what they enter.
The class concludes with some exercises in securing applications, SQL, WebSmart’s Change Management interface and the new interactive debugger integrated into the WebSmart IDE.
Please visit our website for further information on the Course Content, or if you have any questions about any of these classes drop us a note or give us a call at (250) 655-1766.
WebSmart 6.7 New Features Video
Hard on the heels of our recently-initiated webinars, we are working on another free educational tool: videos. Our first video is an introduction to the new features in WebSmart 6.7.
If you have recently upgraded to WebSmart 6.7 or are planning to do so soon, email us and we'll send you a link from which you can download the video overview of this release.
Marcel Sarrasin is currently working out of Winnipeg, Manitoba as BCD's Technical Sales Manager and Dealer Liaison. Marcel has been with BCD for 7 years now, having started out at our Victoria office in support, and then moving into the support team manager position. A few years ago he moved to Toronto where he took advantage of his new Eastern time zone location to get a jump on support issues from our international dealers and overseas clients. With his move Marcel also shifted to working more on the marketing and sales end of our company, using his strong technical background and years at our support and development office to provide a new flavor to the sales team.
And if you've participated in any of our webinars, you've also heard his voice there.
Marcel was born and raised in Winnipeg, the coldest city in the Western Hemisphere with a population over 600,000. He grew up as part of the largest French-speaking population in Canada outside Quebec, and did all his schooling in French. He ultimately completed a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in both Marketing and Management of Information Systems.
Prior to coming on board with BCD Marcel traveled extensively, including hiking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal, sailing from Mexico to Hawaii, surfing in Costa Rica, and visiting Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Tikal in Guatemala. Closer to home, he enjoys camping and highly recommends the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario.
Marcel also enjoys sports of all kinds, and as a hockey player he's a member of a large and distinguished group of Canadians - those who have lost their front teeth to a hockey puck. He also competed in the last company squash tournament using his left hand (and didn't win, thankfully).
Now that he's settled down and started a family, we'll be looking forward to many more years of Marcel's contribution to our company!
Current
BCD Software Release Levels
These are the current release levels for all our products:
If you have any questions about how to get to the latest versions, please contact
Technical Support.
Summary
List of Recent Updates
Nexus 3.35 - NX33504 & NX33505
Nexus 3.35 updates 4 and 5 include a couple of new features and address a few other reported issues:
- Update NX33505 corrects an erroneous authorization message when adding sub-groups to a parent group.
- The ‘Open in a new window’ button on a search result from the top-right corner search box no longer changes the parent page.
- The login password last changed date and time fields are now updated in the user master file SMUSRF.
- All emails that remind Nexus users of their password now include the site’s name in the email.
- Resolve an issue where ECM purging wasn`t working properly.
- Distributing spool files from Catapult to the ECM over large amounts of data now works correctly.
You can download the latest version of Nexus from our website, or go to the Nexus Updates page to read more about this update and previous ones.
WebSmart 6.70 - Revision 2394
There is a new PC-side update for WebSmart 6.70. This version includes all previous updates, and requires that you have version 6.7 installed on the server, with all server-side updates. Revision 2394 resolves an issue where restoring an archived definition in the WCM caused the IDE to close, and another problem where fixed format definitions could also cause the IDE to fail.
You can download the latest PC and server versions of WebSmart from our website, or go to the WebSmart Updates page to download just the client side, and read more about this update and previous ones.
Organizations
that Recently Purchased BCD Software
Arvin Sango • Asian Life Financial Assurance • Clallam County - Central • Clay County • Columbia Machine • Congoleum Corp. • Data House • Food Services of America • GE Energy PS España • Guild Mortgage • Hans Johnsen Company • Hard Rock Hotel and Casino • Hayleys Ltd • Inox Mare srl • Interface, Inc. • International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers • J & J Industries • J & R Schugel Trucking Inc. • J2C Informatica • LGI, Inc. • MBPI • Napa Balkamp, Inc. • NSCSA • Ouachita Baptist University • Peppler & Associates • Plumbers Local Union 3 • Prime Inc. • Schiff Food Products • Simonds International • Skills • South East Express • Textile Care Services • Tidi Products • Tietex Corporation • TOP The Opportunity Partners • Tredit Tire & Wheel • Unicolor • United Dairymen of Arizona • Village of Arlington heights • Vishay Vitramon • Walton County Courts • Zimag Logistics•
Organizations
That Have Recently Contracted BCD Professional Services
Demco • Swift Transport • Hans Johnsen Bikes • Compass Technologies • Cosyn Software New Zealand • QuickPayNet • Vermont Information Processing • Wenger Corporation
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Getting Started with Clover Query
