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| The Washington Area Midrange Users Group is pleased to present our Annual Technical Conference for Users, Managers and Administrators of IBM OS/400 and AIX/L OS's. |
Where & WhenDate:November 16, 2007Time: 8:15 AM to 5:00 PM Registration: 7:30 - 8:15 Place: The University of Maryland University College - Conference Center University Boulevard & Adelphi Road College Park, MD 20742 Tel: 301-985-7300 Continental breakfast during registration, lunch, and parking will be provided. Get directions from Mapquest. |
Registration Deadlines and PricesThe registration fee for WAM members is $260.00.The registration fee for non-members is $295.00. Make checks payable to Washington Area Midrange. Session confirmation will be sent back to you. |
Presentation AbstractsKeynote SpeechKeynote: IBM System i: The 'i' Means InnovationJim Herring, Director - IBM High End POWER Systems Breakfast Keynote SpeechLife after V6R1Session One:B-1: Introduction to SQL on the iSeries and System i5This session is an introduction to the very powerful query language, SQL. SQL is the strategic query product for the iSeries and AS/400, supporting the DRDA (Distributed Relational Database Architecture) functions of retrieving data and updating data on both local and remote systems. We will discuss SQL operations and the SQL language syntax, and then show how to create interactive queries with SQL. We will conclude by showing how to use SQL in RPG and COBOL programs. C-1: ILE Concepts and Strategies for RPG This presentation is a review of the purpose, benefits and implementation strategies of RPG IV ILE. A discussion of the architectural concepts surrounding RPG ILE will be the launch point for the presentation. We will then build a compelling reason for using RPG ILE as a means of implementing a code reuse strategy for an organization. A clear review of ILE terminologies such as service programs, binding directories, bind by copy, bind by reference and more will be discussed as well. Lastly, we explore examples of where to use this technology. D-1: System i Access for Web System i Access (formerly Client Access) has a Web product that provides access to System i resources through a browser interface. System i Access for Web runs entirely on the System i in a web application server. Come to this session to learn the software requirements, learn how to install and configure V5R4 System i Access for Web, and see an overview of the most popular functions. (The 5250 interface is covered in another session.) You will see what it takes to configure System i Access for Web in three different web serving environments: 1. Apache Software Foundation (ASF) Tomcat, which is automatically delivered (no-charge) with HTTP Server for i5/OS 2. Web Application Server (WAS) - Express V6.1 3. The integrated web application server, which is delivered with V5R4 i5/OS and HTTP server PTFs. E-1: HMC, i5, FSP, firmware: I really need to understand all this It's no longer just an AS/400. If you are using partitions or thinking about partitioning your i5, there are a lot of new concepts to understand. In this presentation, we will dissect what all the pieces are, how they connect to each other, what you need to do to set them up, and Learn how the various components of Hardware Management Console, the Flexible Service Processor, Advanced Systems Management Interface, the i5, what is the firmware, and where does SLIC fall into all this. You need to understand how everything fits together in order to manage them. F-1: Ruby Ain't Groovy: The Search for the Holy Grail(s) The scuttlebutt is that a hot new language called Ruby and a framework called Ruby on Rails are going to supplant Java. Find out why Ruby has attracted so much attention and learn why most Java experts aren't buying into the Ruby on Rails hype. Discover a compelling new language called Groovy and a framework called Grails that Java pros are starting to use more and more. See how easy it is to write Web applications with Grails that can be directly deployed to WebSphere and Tomcat, on your i5, today -- while Ruby does not yet run on the i5. Learn how Groovy and Grails provides the simplicity of PHP but with the superior control structures of Java. And see how Groovy seamlessly integrates with Java. Session Two:A-2: Modernization Alternatives for System i ApplicationsThis session will discuss alternatives in extending the functionality of existing System i applications. Topics discussed will include the demands of current user community and how to leverage existing RPG applications with an eye towards SOA. Featured in this interactive session will be a demonstration of RAMP from LANSA for modernizing and extending applications. B-2: Understanding LPAR on the iSeries and the System i Logical Partitioning (LPAR) provides a powerful capability for consolidating multiple AS/400, iSeries, and System i systems onto a single system. Each partition of a partitioned system can have its own copy of OS/400, allowing for example running the current OS/400 release in a production partition, and testing the next OS/400 release in a different partition. Sizes of system resources in each partition can be changed dynamically and shifted from one partition to another to adapt to changing requirements. This session begins with the concepts of partitioning, including environments best suited to partitioning. This is followed by a discussion on hardware and software considerations for partitioning, highlighting how to begin planning for a partitioned environment. This session should provide you a good understanding of how LPAR could fit into your future. C-2: RPG IV and Embedded SQL, Stored Procedures, and SQL User Defined Functions This presentation will creatively discuss the three SQL based technologies of Embedded SQL, Stored Procedure Language and SQL User Defined Functions. A discussion of the language structure and examples of how to implement each technology will follow. D-2: What an Administrator Needs to Know about System i Access for Web Once you have System i Access for Web installed, what do you need to know before deploying System i Access for Web in your business? This session will show you elements that administrators need to understand. Attendees will learn about: 1. Setting policies for controlling user access to various System i Access for Web functions. 2. Customizing the home page and template files. 3. Bypass sign-on versus using macros to bypass a second sign-on screen. 4. The difference between using HTTP basic authentication versus the WebSphere Application Server security model. E-2: Fundamentals for Performance What can you do to stop the wild growth of disk space, and also improve system performance? In this presentation we will talk about System Management and Database fundamentals. While the AS/400 may manage itself in some areas, there are many optimization and cleanup techniques that are part of OS/400, yet most shops don't spend the time and effort to implement them. We will learn the tricks that can help you reduce your disk I/O, reduce disk utilization, reduce memory faulting, and improve system performance. F-2: Developing an RPG API for Web Applications Learn how to best leverage the wealth of your existing code and coders by interfacing RPG with your chosen Web language. Find out how to create an intuitive, easy-to-use, well-tested RPG API so that multiple Web front ends can reuse it. Get acquainted with the standards that RPG developers use to implement a component-based developed (CBD) API. Uncover conventions for naming, argument design, return types, and error handling, and discover a utility that simplifies accessing an RPG API from Java. You learn how to quickly set up and test an RPG unit test framework, then take it home for use in your shop. Session Three:A-3: TBAB-3: LPAR: Implementing Partitions on a System i This session assumes a basic level of LPAR knowledge as covered in the session 'Understanding LPAR on the iSeries and the System i'. The hardware Management Console, or HMC, is key to creating and managing partitions on a System i. Learn about the HMC and all its LPAR functions. Learn how to configure a partition by assigning memory, processor, and I/O resources. Learn how to decide whether processors should be assigned as dedicated or shared, as capped or uncapped. Learn about virtual processors. Learn how to use Dynamic LPAR to change the resources in a partition. If you want to really understand how to create and manage partitions on a System i, then this session is for you. C-3: RPG IV and Java Beans for Web Development This presentation will look at developing Web Components based on Java Beans which call RPG IV programs. We will show and discuss how to create a JAVA Bean from the WDSc call wizard. D-3: System i Access for Web: Run 5250 in a Browser With System i Access for Web's 5250 interface, you can completely control this function from your server, getting away from desktop administration. You can set up preconfigured sessions for your end users, bypass the second sign-on at start-up time, and have a help desk shared 5250 session with users having troubles at their desktop. You'll learn the differences with this 5250 interface and PC5250 in System i Access for Windows. Come and see how the functions available in this new 5250 web-based interface can help your company get to the web with your existing applications. E-3: How to cleanup your System i While it may be easier to just purchase more disks, you really should be putting in place practices to keep your Disk space managed. It's about reporting, automating, and managing the disk space on your System i (AS/400, iSeries, i5). In this presentation, we will show you how to clean up disk space, how to keep track of disk space in both libraries and in the IFS, what you need to know about Reorganizing your physical files, and how to take advantage of some of the new output queue cleanup features in V5R4. F-3: Using WDSC Wizards to Generate Web Services to RPG Applications Simplify Web services development by taking advantage of the wizards in WebSphere Development Studio Client (WDSC) to quickly build Web services into your iSeries applications. Learn to generate and deploy the Java code necessary to surface an RPG application as a Web service. Understand how to refactor RPG, and leverage legacy code and legacy coders by creating Web services hosted by RPG programs. Step through a demo application that illustrates the generation and testing of Web services from both JavaBeans and Web Services Description Language (WSDL), get details on the Web services support in WebSphere, and take home tips on how you might use Web services to extend existing applications to the Web Session Four:A-4: Modernization, Don't reinvent the wheel. Stop recoding... start reusing!!Modernization is more than green to GUI! It's about: optimizing the user experience, integration and extension, business process improvement, rich, thin and mobile GUIs, SOA service-enablement. It doesn't have to be difficult! This session will demonstrate looksoftware's easy to use DYNAMIC tools showing you the fastest green to GUI modernization strategy with new value add functionality. Besides going from green to GUI we will show simple business extensions such as desktop integration, web services consumption and the use of SOA arthitecture. Our approach is non-invasive to your core code but allows you to merge your RPG enviroment with .net. B-4: Upgrade your iSeries or System i to V5R4 This session covers the detailed planning and preparation steps that must be performed before a release upgrade can be attempted. This is followed by a detailed explanation of what actually happens during a release upgrade, and then a discussion of the activities that must be performed after the release upgrade has completed. We will focus on release upgrades to V5R4, including the issues involved in skipping a release (for example upgrading directly from V5R2 to V5R4). After this session you should be fully prepared to perform your own version and release upgrades. C-4: Free Format RPG and Built-in-Functions This presentation will focus on why to use Free Format RPG, its benefits, coding examples and strategies for converting to it. RPG Built-in-Functions provide the language a means to extend language functionality, a detail review of the available functions will be the basis of the presentation. D-4: System i Access for Windows and Web: What's New? The System i Access Family of products offers the best end-user connectivity products in the marketplace for System i customers. An overview of the latest enhancements in System i Access for Windows and System i Access for Web will be covered. This session will highlight the new install mechanism for System i Access for Windows, the Windows Installer technology (the .msi format), which is currently available as a Technology Preview and will be available in the next release. F-4: Building Business Applications with JavaServer Faces Find out how JavaServer Faces solves the four problems of Web development: 1) binding business data to HTML, 2) formatting numbers and dates, 3) validation and error handling, and 4) mapping various UI events to server processes. Learn how JSF tags do a far better job of approximating the metaphor of a GUI component than JSP tags. Strip off JSF's 7-layers as you gain insight into how it works. Learn where JSF is a great fit, a good fit, or when JSP might be a better choice. Finally finish with answers to some probing questions: Which of the 3 main JSF implementations should you use? Where does AJAX fit into JSF? What tools should you use in addition to those provided with WDSc? Presenter BiographiesCarson Soule is the CEO of CAS Severn, Inc., an IBM Premier Business Partner providing hardware, software, networking, as well as engineering and software development services. Carson has over 30 years of IBM midrange experience and specializes in application architecture for modern systems. Mr. Soule was active in Common (an IBM user group) as a speaker and as the AS/400 and System/36 Project Manager as well as being a member of ACM and IEEE Computer Society. He is also a frequent speaker at local and national user groups on midrange computer topics including WebSphere, Domino, Linux and application development. His writing appears frequently as a technical editor and columnist for iSeries News magazine.Jim Herring is Director of High End Power Systems. Jim has held numerous development and management positions at IBM Rochester since 1981, and was part of the original Silverlake (AS/400) development team. Since then, he has worked on everything from Local Area Networks to technical and business strategy for AS/400 and iSeries. He most recently was responsible for the development and launch of the System i product line in 2007. Pete Massiello has been working with the AS/400, iSeries, i5 since 1989, focusing on systems management and technical support. He has held numerous technical positions through out his career. He is the President of iTech Solutions Group, an IBM Advanced Business Partner delivering solutions and services to System i shops throughout the US. He is a member of IBM's certification test writing team, an IBM eServer Certified Systems Expert with certifications in iSeries Design, Administration, Implementation, LPAR, and HMC management. Pete has a BS in Computer Science from Hofstra University, and an MBA from the University of New Haven. He is President of the Fairfield CT AS/400 User Group (FASUG), a member of the COMMON Board of Directors, and a frequent speaker at user groups. Paul Lambert a Coatesville, Pa native and a Graduate of University of Pittsburgh has been involved with the iSeries and its predecessors since 1979. He was among the first people outside of the Rochester Lab to be exposed to the S/38, the first iteration of the iSeries architecture. Paul retired from IBM in 2000. While employed at IBM, he held the positions of Programmer, Systems Engineer, Instructor, and Manager to name a few. As a S/38 Instructor in Philadelphia, Paul taught over 3000 students over a 4 year period. Since leaving IBM, Paul has been involved in IT consulting and iSeries Education. He has taught extensively throughout the US and the Caribbean. His specialties are in the area of iSeries application development (Tools, Languages 'RPG IV, COBOL ILE, Java', WebSphere Administration) and the iSeries database (DB2 UDB). Currently, Paul is jointly developing a series of ILE Cobol classes for the iSeries COBOL community. Dave Prescott joined IBM in 1966 as a Systems Engineer working with Midrange customers, and has been an AS/400 specialist since 1987. He was an IBM Rochester Lab Consultant and participant in the AS/400 National Technical Advocate Program. His special interests include iSeries and AS/400 performance tuning and capacity planning, system operations, and system management. Dave is an IBM Certified iSeries Expert has extensive experience in system management and performance expertise in a large installation with multiple iSeries and AS/400s. Thomas Herman is the Manager New Business Development for looksoftware. Tom recently rejoined looksoftware to support their rapidly growing Modernization System i North American market. Tom brings 19 years of experience in sales, marketing and engineering back to looksoftware. For the past 12 years he has been involved in strategic sales for Perimeter Technology, Interactive Intelligence and Commonwealth Telephone and of course looksoftware in 2002 through 2005. Responsibilities included large business account development and distribution channel support. Tom has a degree in Electrical Engineering from Penn State and started his employment career as an engineer for Northern Telecom in 1985. Kevin Corcoran is Director of Sales for LANSA. Working extensively to help extend and modernize capabilities of the System i, Kevin has been involved in large-scale projects with deployments to multiple platforms: green screen, client server, Wireless and the Web. Some of these accounts include Pitney Bowes, HP Hood, JP Morgan Chase and Woolrich. Kevin has been working in the IBM mid-range market since 1990, previously holding the position of Vice President of Sales and Marketing for both Productivity Systems and Affinity Systems. Linda Hirsch has been with IBM for 23 years, holding a variety of programming and technical marketing roles in the IBM Rochester Laboratory. Linda's current focus is client integration technologies and support for System i Access products. She is a regular speaker at the IBM System i Technical Conference, at many local user groups, and other national System i technical conferences. Don Denoncourt is the author of Java Application Strategies for iSeries and AS/400 (Midrange Computing) and Understanding Web Hosting on Linux (MC Press), and is the editor of Java at Work (MC Press). Don has been developing object-oriented applications for over a decade and has written dozens of articles on Java that have been published in a variety of magazines. Today, Don is a successful IT consultant, editor of Eclipse Tips, technical editor for ePro Magazine, and frequent contributor to iSeries News. |
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