AS400 and VB 4

[tcorrigan]

I need information on how to set up a VB program to communicate with an AS400 system. Is there, for instance, an ODBC driver available that will let me access data from an AS400 or is it more complicated than that? Any information will help.

 

[DougP]

There is a Forum on this site called &quot;IBM servers Forum&quot;<br>
they may help you better<br>
<br>
the ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) driver if you need one will be for the &quot;Database&quot; you work with Not the Operating System.<br>

 

[MikeLacey]

tcorrigan - in most cases doug would be right - but in this case the operating system and the database are the same thing - so you just need an ODBC driver for the AS/400<br>
<br>
We used one a while ago - but couldn't get the performance from ODBC - you might like to look at IBM's Client Access product<br>
<br>
mike<br>
<p>Mike Lacey<br><a href=mailto:Mike_Lacey@Cargill.Com>Mike_Lacey@Cargill.Com</a><br><a href=

http://www.cargill.com/>

Cargill's Corporate Web Site</a><br>

 

[tcorrigan]

Thanks for the information, guys. Doug, I looked for the IBM Servers Forum on this site, but couldn't find one by that name. Could you possibly let me know how you drill down from the home page to that forum.<br>
<br>
I did find a product from NetManage that seems to do what I need, but if anybody out there has any experience with this package or anything else, I'd like to hear from you.<br>
<br>
Tom Corrigan<br>

 

[Ghost]

Not much posting in there now, but the IBM Servers forum is located in the Hardware, Server Rack, Servers area of the site. FYI.<br>
<br>
Ghost

 

[VB400]

Hi Tom,<br>
<br>
The project that I'm currently working on is an AS/400 client/server one. We use VB as the front-end and DB2/400 as the database. The middleware we're using to access the AS/400 is called ACE/400 from <A HREF="

http://www.missystems.com"

TARGET="_new">

http://www.missystems.com</A><br>

<br>
This product gives us record level access to any physical or logical file, record locking, remote commands, commitment control, etc. You can read files in a similar fashion to RPG processing such as SETLL, READE (different command names of course) or you can use SQL statements (e.g. SELECT CUSNO, CUSNAM FROM CUSLIB/CUSMST WHERE CUSSTS = &quot;A&quot. We use both methods. Performance is basically a non-issue as it is very fast.<br>
<br>
There are a couple of glitches with connections that are being worked on as we speak and I hope to get a fix from them soon (not a show stopper). <br>
<br>
There are other products that do similar things, give or take a couple of features:<br>
<br>
<A HREF="

http://www.asna.com"

TARGET="_new">

http://www.asna.com</A>

-- Database Toolbox<br>
<A HREF="

http://www.teca.com"

TARGET="_new">

http://www.teca.com</A>

-- Data400<br>
<A HREF="

http://www.SystemObjects"

TARGET="_new">

http://www.SystemObjects</A>

-- ActiveObjects/400 for VB<br>
<br>
There are many other products out there, some that give you TCP/IP (like the above mentioned) and others only give you SNA connectivity.<br>
<br>
I would highly recommend downloading trial versions (they all have them), design a small test application and check for speed, reliability and ease of use -- oh yeah, and cost (-:<br>
<br>
Hope this helps!<br>
<br>
Tarek

 

[MikeLacey]

have a look at <A HREF="

http://www.as400.ibm.com/clientaccess/oledb/"

TARGET="_new">

http://www.as400.ibm.com/clientaccess/oledb/</A><br>

-ml <p>Mike Lacey<br><a href=mailto:Mike_Lacey@Cargill.Com>Mike_Lacey@Cargill.Com</a><br><a href=

http://www.cargill.com/>

Cargill's Corporate Web Site</a><br>

 

[tcorrigan]

Thanks everybody for your responses. I think I have enough now to go out and make a decision.<br>
<br>
Tom Corrigan<br>

 

[VB400]

Tom,<br>
<br>
If it'n not too much trouble, please share your decision here so that we can learn!<br>
<br>
Thanks