Integration with iSeries - AS400 Mainframe

Host Integration is very demanding these days as the demand to bring in new channels to the businesses is increasing. The usual and very common way of doing this type of integration which involves AS400 Mainframes as Host and Microsoft Windows based Channels is based on MQ Series. Organizations that have some visionary approach and want to have maximum return out of the investments on such projects also opts for Host Integration Server based on BizTalk.

In the last couple of months I investigate another way of talking to host through IBM iSeries Access Toolkit and found it very useful.

• When compared licensing and budgets with other options of integration, iSeries Access Toolkit just outclass them being free for this purpose.
• The other benefit when you compare this option to MQ Series is rapid development as it needs abosulte no new development on Host Side.
• This is one of the toolkit that is still hidden from the eyes of Windows Technology Architects because frankly speaking they dont expect it from IBM.

iSerier Access for Windows comes with several programming language interfaces to access iSeries different resorces. Here you have to pick depending on your requirement. The most powerful one is ofcource C/C++ APIs.

The possible programming languages and environments that you can use are as follows:

.NET Framework
iSeries Access comes with a set of .NET Framework classes which provide a complete set of interfaces for accessing iSeries database resources.  These classes implement the .NET Data Provider interfaces.

ActiveX
iSeries Access provides a number of ActiveX automation objects and ActiveX custom controls for accessing the most commonly used iSeries resources. For languages which support ActiveX automation (other than C/C++), these are often the best interfaces to use.

C/C++ APIs
iSeries Access provides a number of procedural C interfaces for accessing the server. This set of interfaces provides the most complete set of interfaces for accessing iSeries resources. These interfaces are provided primarily for C/C++ applications. However, for languages other than Java and languages which support ActiveX automation, the C/C++ APIs are often the only interfaces which can be used to access the server.

Java
iSeries Access for Windows ships the IBM Toolbox for Java, which provides Java classes for accessing iSeries resources. Applications written using the Toolbox for Java do not require iSeries Access to run keeping your application platform independent.

I will discuss more in my next articles on the option of C/C++ APIs for accessing iSeries Resources using Remote Commands.