Customizing email address for SNDSMTPEMM

I was asked is it possible for each person who sends email using the Send SMTP Email command, SNDSMTPEMM, to have their own unique email address. This command is used to send SMTP emails from IBM i. I am not going to go into details on how to use and configure your IBM i, I am going to refer you to the following posts:

• Email files from the IFS
• Format the email body
• Entering multiple email addresses

When writing this post I had to use a Security Officer, *SECOFR, equivalent user profile to do what I needed to do. I do not have an System Operator, *SYSOPR, equivalent profile, therefore, I do not know if that gives you the necessary changes I will describe below.

Check if program is running interactive or batch

In the past I wrote about a CL program that submit itself to batch, to do that the CL program must be able to determine if it running interactive or batch. The post describes how you can determine that in a CL program. But what about a RPG program or in SQL?

In this post I will give examples in both RPG and SQL how I can determine if the program is interactive or batch. This is not to replace my tried and trusted CL method. It is just an alternative that might prove useful in certain scenarios.

• Determine in RPG
• Determine in SQL

 

Variable length field in DDS file

This all started as a question from a member of another programming team at work. They had been asked to add a new field to an existing file. Most of the time this field would be empty, but it could contain up to 2,000 characters of data in some cases.

"It would be easy with a SQL table," they said "I could just make a new column VARCHAR (variable length character field) and make the default value null. But I don't know how to do that with a DDS field."

By using a variable length character field will mean that the field will not always be 2,000 characters. It will be as long as the data within it. And when there is no data in the field it will take up zero space. What a disk space savings.

Fortunately doing this with a DDS file is as easy as it is with a SQL table using the right keywords when defining the file. And it is just as easy to handle the variable length and null value in a RPG program. I decide to create my example file and the program on an IBM i partition that is running 7.2 just to show that there is nothing from a newer release need to do this.

Adding subtotals and a total to a SQL Select

I have often looked at the results returned to me by a SQL statement and wondered to myself "Wouldn't it be nice if I could add a subtotal to these results".

Yesterday I decided to have a search using my favorite search engine to see if there is an easy way to do this. I could find examples in other flavors of SQL, but not in Db2 for i. Feeling piqued I decided to try one of these examples with one of my SQL Select statements, and was really pleased to find that what was given in the example also worked in Db2 for i too. Thank goodness for SQL interoperability and standardization.

I am not going to give the source code for the SQL DDL table I will be using in these examples. My table, TABLE_OF_THINGS, has three columns:

User Groups month is over

As the end of February has passed so has my IBM i User Groups month. During the month of February I reach out to you, the readers of this website, and ask for help to find new IBM i User Groups websites and social media accounts to add to my user groups page.

This year, with your help, I was able to add the following websites to the list:

1. Common Slovensko (Slovakia)
2. Georgia IBM Power Systems User Group Meetup which appears to have replaced the IBM i Tech Community of Atlanta
3. Delaware Valley Computer User Group which is now found at a new URL

And the following social media accounts too: