What is Open Access for RPG

Recently IBM and some ISV presented at COMMON the new Open Access for RPG.

Educational sessions presented by IBMers and sessions presented by ISVs such as Profound Logic and looksoftware were filled with interested programmers.

For those who are not familiar with the open access feature, it uses the native RPG I/O access methods for accessing the native database (DB2/400 or DB2 for i) and outputs information to screens or other applications written in other languages and then allows that data to be presented in a browser rather than a 5250 screen.

To accomplish this requires the use of a "handler," a different kind of data stream. IBM and the third-party vendors have created similar pathways for this end result for years, but this native method for using RPG is new. It's a different way to interface with XML docs, Web services, spreadsheet programs, databases, or cloud computing facilities beyond the iron that runs the RPG applications.

Perhaps the greatest appeal is that it allows RPG programmers to use familiar I/O access methods to build the handlers that communicate with a variety of external devices.

As far as I know, Open Access for RPG is not based on any particular third-party software tool that is being grafted onto the RPG compiler. What I can see is that tool vendors are going to have to have a very close look at the performance of Open Access for RPG and decide if they want to use IBM's plumbing or keep building their own.

I have no idea how IBM is licensing Open Access for RPG, but if this is an open (meaning free, not source) set of tools, this could really shake up the application development and modernization tool space here in i-Land. It could also spur a whole new crop of tool vendors, who specialize in creating these intermediary transformation programs that can link RPG applications compiled in the updated tools so they can feed screens running on various kinds of devices.

You can read more on yhis subject at:

The Possibilities for Open Access for RPG

Open Access for RPG Grabs Attention at COMMON