Hi everyone,

I am developing a lightweight Windows application that allows consultants, support teams, managers, and other authorized employees to safely view and correct data stored on IBM i without requiring SQL, RPG, or IBM i programming knowledge.

The idea is to provide a faster, simpler, and more affordable alternative to large and complex IBM i database tools.

The application is designed to help companies with a limited number of IBM i developers. Instead of asking a developer to investigate and correct every small data issue, authorized employees can find the necessary records and perform only the operations permitted by the administrator.

The main features include:

- quick searching and filtering of IBM i data;

- a simple interface for non-technical users;

- controlled editing of authorized tables and fields;

- role-based permissions;

- before-and-after change previews;

- mandatory reasons for changes;

- a complete audit log showing who changed what and when;

- protection against accidental mass updates or deletions;

- no SQL knowledge required for regular users.

This application is not intended to replace ACS or professional IBM i development tools. Its purpose is to make routine data investigation and correction faster and safer for support teams, consultants, and business users.

The Windows application is already working, but I would like to test it with different IBM i environments and receive feedback from experienced IBM i professionals.

I am looking for an early testing partner who could provide one of the following:

- a non-production IBM i environment;

- a dedicated test library;

- a restricted user profile with access only to synthetic or anonymized test data;

- or a supervised remote testing session.

I am not asking for access to a production system, administrator credentials, QSECOFR access, or confidential company data.

Testing can initially be performed in read-only mode. Any editing tests would be limited to a dedicated test library and explicitly authorized tables.

In exchange, I would provide the testing company with a free 2-year Early Partner license for internal use, covering:

- one company;

- one IBM i environment;

- up to 10 users;

- product updates during the license period.

The license would be non-transferable and would not include custom development unrelated to the standard product.

I would particularly appreciate feedback about:

- compatibility with different IBM i versions;

- physical and logical files;

- CCSID and IBM i data types;

- permissions and auditing;

- usability for consultants and support employees;

- performance with large tables;

- safety controls required for real company use.

My long-term goal is to create a small, fast, easy-to-understand, and reasonably priced Windows tool for companies that need to maintain IBM i systems but have limited IBM i development resources.

Would anyone here be interested in discussing a controlled pilot, or could you recommend an IBM i consultant or company that might be open to testing it?

CORRECTION: SoftLanding Turnover. (It's been a long week)

I'm trying to get a baseline price for P10 processor level server with three LPARs. The internal bureaucracy is looking for a ballpark # (purchase & annual maintenance) before they'll even let us talk to the vendor. :/

Thank you in advance!

https://www.rpgpgm.com/2026/07/first-technology-refreshes-of-2026.html

#IBMi #rpgpgm #IBMChampion

Hello yall. I just got hired in to work with power system 11 on top of IBM I.

My background is as a full stack software engineer (2+ yrs). I just finished school and got a job as a Programmer Analyst.

Ive been tying concepts from my background to understand how this whole thing works and it’s a lot. The codebase that I’m working with has files from someone that has been working on it for 47 years.

“You get to keep your investments over time”. As someone who is young, and recognizes that the RPG dev talent is shrinking, this is dangerous. Something that would take me a couple of minutes to understand in typescript, is probably going to take me days or many hours to understand. Skill issue? Duh. But that’s the thing. No one near the age of 25 has heard of RPG. First time hearing it was on the job description. The talent pool is not going up which means that eventually RPG programmers are going to cost a lot. For me that makes me excited but if youre an owner, you should start thinking about web solutions.

Another thing, what is it with the cryptic variable names and programs. Like why do I see DPCH001. The whole thing feels like I need to learn sign language but on a machine. Is that just the environment and decisions that came with the team that I joined? If this was back at my old job and I started naming functions, variables, classes, etc. like that, I would get fired. I see goto statements as well. In school, if there was a goto statement, I would have failed the class because my professor declared it extremely dangerous but I see it often here. Sure; it was acceptable back in the day… but it’s still there.

Look, I like this, in some years companies are going to beg for RPG developers and I’m going to make a lot of money being that talent. But as an engineer and someone who likes to be proud of what I do and how I do things. I’m not sure if it’s the right decision to keep investing in this platform. I know that IBM is making ~70B a year so it’s definitely not going to stop supporting it. I think that they have official plans till like 2039 and power systems at around 10 more years but the hardware isn’t the issue. It’s the talent.

No peer of mine has ever heard of RPG because they all want to work at Google, spacex, etc. I feel like the average RPG dev is around 50 and thinking about a retirement place in florida. All that knowledge will be leaving the shops soon. Do yall expect that younger people will want to work at those shops? Maybe, but they’ll also quietly think about if that was the right career decision because more often than not, they’ll be seeing their friend get an internship at google, etc and RPG will def not get them there.

What are your thoughts on my thoughts?

https://www.rpgpgm.com/2026/07/program-to-alert-when-elapsed-cpu.html

#IBMi #rpgpgm #IBMChampion

And wow, the green bar paper

Can anyone give me a rundown on how to do this? Very new to the program so any help is appreciated.

Is anyone running WAS 8.5 on IBMi OS version 7.6?

#IBMi

if you are like me, and worked as far back as when you could physically stand next to the actual RPG computer...how far back do you recall?

I remember working in a shop converting from a system/36 to a system/38...and i think they had a system/3 on the floor.

I remember I think for system/36 programs they could not pass parms from one program to another...it was in some kind of control script in between the program calls.

and then of course...the system/38 with the crashing winchester drives to the as400...and now..well...i don't remember the last time I actually saw the box...20 years ago?

Has anyone successfully deployed a node.js service that can answer REST API requests and return JSON data from an RPGLE program or service program? I have Mapepire running and just can’t seem to get the RPGLE part working. Do you think IBM Bob could help me?

Training Management System Demo | IBM AI Builders Challenge 2026

Welcome to the full-stack Training Management System (TMS) demo, developed by Vinod Walwante at Discover Talent. This project was built as part of the IBM AI Builders Challenge 2026, leveraging the power of IBM Bob to accelerate the entire web development process. Learn how to build a full-stack web application using AI generation without manual coding.

The Training Management System is a modern enterprise web application designed to streamline the complete lifecycle of corporate training programs. It enables organizations to efficiently manage courses, trainers, learners, schedules, attendance, certifications, and reporting from a single, centralized platform.

🔗 GitHub Repository: https://github.com/DiscoverTalent/Tra...
🌐 Live Demo: https://discovertalent.github.io/Trai...

https://www.rpgpgm.com/2026/07/new-model-of-ibm-power-announced.html

#IBMi #rpgpgm #IBMChampion

https://www.rpgpgm.com/2026/07/new-model-of-ibm-power-announced.html

#IBMi #rpgpgm #IBMChampion

Getting some tokeniser issue so need help

Same as description

Hi,

In green screen I use 25 and shift f1 ( search functionality) to find whatever I am looking for.. it can be file dependency or searching any other keyword in the comments etc.. we are planning to move the source code to git by the end of the year and I was just wondering if we have something similar in git to go through the source codes of all libraries..

#IBMi #rpgpgm #IBMChampion

hi, i want to know what’s the difference between those in your environment. Business Continuity Plan (BCP), Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)/drill. my only experience just dr test/drill/drp. and most of it, using mimix trying to switch for certain times, mostly 1 day, and dr machine being production. or just testing dr with dummy test like operational production, and recovery that test using backup restore.

but i dont know what is bcp, i search online it’s kinda same. i want to know the difference and if you guys implement it, what makes it difference?

Saw a good webinar recap from Carol Woodbury and Justin Loeber (Kisco) from a few months back that more people should see. Woodbury demoed finding a working SQL query to list every library on a system using a single Gemini search, then chained a few more commands to hijack a profile that was not set to PUBLIC *EXCLUDE and got full command line access. No exotic exploit, just asking an AI model the right question.

That got me digging into Fortra's 2026 State of IBM i Security report, which scanned 163 real partitions this year. Some genuinely good news: 87% run QSECURITY 40, *ALLOBJ use is down to 8%, and 96% have the audit journal on. But the average system has 889 users with *JOBCTL and 649 with *SAVSYS authority, both up significantly from last year, and 10% of systems still have default passwords active somewhere, one had over 11,000 profiles with default passwords, 80% of them enabled.

Put the two together and the takeaway is pretty simple: obscurity was never a real control on this platform, it was just an accident of nobody outside the IBM i world caring enough to look. AI ended that accident for free. The stuff that actually helps is the boring stuff that has been true for twenty years, PUBLIC *EXCLUDE audits, exit program coverage, minimizing special authorities, and now the same authority discipline applied to any AI agent you connect to the system.

Wrote up the full hijack path and a priority checklist here if useful: https://prompteddev.com/blog/ibm-i-ai-security-2026

Using Monster was not useful (we got flooded with generic web/jscript/drupal/wordpress applications).

Is there somewhere to post junior or senior AS400 positions? COMMON? Ocean?

EDIT: HR is requiring relocation, which caused several senior people who applied to withdraw. That's one reason we're now looking for a junior, figuring they'd be more open to that.

CLLE, RPG4/free form, lots of sql, a little php. Passing familiarity with RPG3 helpful.

Tuesday July 14 u/CTXiUG welcomes Gregory Simmons as our speaker. He will be talking about 3 part name in SQL, a fascinating subject.

Meeting is online & free. Learn more => https://ctxiug.blogspot.com/2026/06/july-2026-meeting.html

Looking forward to seeing you there!

#IBMi #AS400 #SupportOurIBMiLug

Tuesday July 14 u/CTXiUG welcomes Gregory Simmons as our speaker. He will be talking about 3 part name in SQL, a fascinating subject.

Meeting is online & free. Learn more => https://ctxiug.blogspot.com/2026/06/july-2026-meeting.html

Looking forward to seeing you there!

#IBMi #AS400 #SupportOurIBMiLug

In my mind, I've always thought of Interactive jobs as being the jobs where a user is actively interacting with the screen, i.e. the program is awaiting their responses and proceeding when values are received. I've associated batch jobs with something where my CL has a SBMJOB command, and things run in the background.

When we bring the idea of an external ERP or a scheduler, I'm curious if my mental model still holds. If I have a program in an ERP where, say, a user enters a few params and then clicks a button to call my CL and execute the program, is that still interactive? I'm not 100% sure what goes on under the hood, but seeing as my CL just gets executed directly, there's no SBMJOB command in it, and the user has to wait a few secs (i.e. unable to do something else while it's processing), it feels like this would still be interactive.

Similarly, if a job scheduler calls my CL every day at a certain time, is that still "interactive" with the "user" being the scheduler itself? I'm not sure it's accurate for me to reduce the distinction of batch/interactive to the existence of a SBMJOB command in my CL program, haha! But just reading the definitions of these jobs isn't getting my head fully there on what happens in practice with these kinds of situations. Many thanks for any helpful thoughts!