Presenter:Jon Paris

Topic: Using Special Files to Simplify Your RPG

This session introduces a coding technique that can greatly simplify how your RPG programs interact with modern interfaces such as web services, browsers and more. It allows you to access these interfaces through native RPG I/O operations such as READ, WRITE, UPDATE, etc.). This support is enabled by using RPG's SPECIAL Files, a feature that has been around for years, but has received very little attention to date.

That attention has recently increased dramatically now that the new IBM tool RPG Open Access is here. Open Access builds on the original Special File support.

No need to wait for Open Access, though. You can gain many of the benefits today that Open Access offers by using SPECIAL Files. What kinds of things can you do? How about changing a report program to output to a browser with only a few changes to the existing code? Perhaps sending an email by simply WRITEing the data. Or processing IFS files and directories with nothing more than a READ or WRITE? Even invoke PASE functions using WRITE and getting the results back using READ!

A SPECIAL file is actually a program that receives and reacts to I/O requests on behalf of another RPG program. Once written, it can be used by any program merely by identifying it on the F-spec and coding the appropriate READs and WRITEs etc.

This session will provide you with an understanding of the basic concepts and give you a few examples to get your creative juices going on how you can exploit this capability in your shop today.

The concepts learned in this session will be especially helpful if you plan to attend the session "Open Access for RPG" which follows it.