3rd Annual Plex/2E Worldwide Users

Conference

5D – Advanced Search for Plex RPG Using SQL

Mark Murphy

STAR Base Consulting, Inc.

2 8/20/2007 Advanced Search for Plex RPG using SQL

Bio

> Mark Murphy

> STAR BASE Consulting, Inc.

> Cincinnati, OH

> Started with AS/400 and 2E in 1989

> Using Plex since 1997

> Experience in Warehousing, Distribution, Retail, Manufacturing and Business Services markets

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Overview

Scenario: You have been asked to build a Customer Inquiry function that will sort customers by Customer ID, or Name. In addition it needs to be able to filter the customer records based on a portion of the Name, the State, or Zip Code. The environment for this inquiry function is iSeries.

The Problem: While this would be a good task for a custom SQL query, the Plex generators will not embed SQL within RPG.

The Approach: Using a little source code and language SQLRPG we can build a function that executes a custom SQL Select as part of a Block Fetch.

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Components

> There are just a few components needed An SqlBlockFetch function

Some User Source to embed the SQL in RPG

A function to build the SQL statement

A few messages to contain the static portion of the SQL

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SQLBlockFetch

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User Source

> There are 7 necessary User Sources Declare Variables

Declare SQL Statement

Declare Cursor

Prepare Statement

Open Cursor

Close Cursor

Fetch

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User Source – DeclareVariables

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User Source – DeclareSqlStatement

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User Source – Declare Cursor

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User Source - PrepareStatement

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User Source - OpenCursor

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User Source - CloseCursor

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User Source - Fetch

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SQL Block Fetch

> Data Access gives us the processing shell

> Only three places to add code Initialization

Position

Fetch

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SQLBlockFetch - Initialize

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SQLBlockFetch - Position

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SQLBlockFetch - Position

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SQLBlockFetch - Fetch

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SQLBlockFetch - Fetch

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Tying It All Together

> Two things left Replace BlockFetch with SQLBlockFetch in grid function

Add a function to build your SQL Statement

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Function Replacement

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The Action Diagram

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The Action Diagram – Part 2

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One Way to build the SQL Statement

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Resources

E-mail: mmurphy@starbaseinc.com

Phone: (513) 245-0400

The Edge: edgeusergroup.pugmarks.net

Plex Wiki: wiki.plexinfo.net

2E Wiki: wiki.2einfo.net

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Synopsis

SQL support for iSeries development in Plex, and for that matter 2E is limited at best, and designing reports that perform acceptably can be a daunting task when the requirements are complex.  This framework provides a way to easily develop high performance reports for your iSeries without the need for creating a lot of extra access paths to support your reports.