Date: | Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012 |
Time: | 5:00-8:00 |
Location: | Oak Park Community Center 14300 Oak Park Boulevard Oak Park, MI 48237 (map) Use the Recreation Dept entrance in the middle of the building. Turn left, the meeting room is #2. |
Speaker: | Jim Cooper |
Prerequisite: | Hands-on LabBring your laptop to use for the hands on lab. Either RDP or FileZilla and Notepad++ will need to be installed. We will use the iDevcloud IBM i box for the hands on session. Attendees will be able to access and view code after the hands on session. |
Notes: | This is the PDF lesson book (72 pages) for the session. We encourage you to print out a copy prior to attending (or at least downloaded to your laptop). |
In an article in the March 2012 issue of SystemiNEWS, Don Denoncourt stated, "After RPG and SQL, the most important language that IBM i developers need to add to their arsenal is JavaScript." He goes on to say, "we spend more of our time developing web applications on the web tier with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. So the selection and use of a JavaScript framework is arguably more important that the server-side language." This is especially important when you already know the RPG programming language. So, why learn another server-side language when learning web tier technologies will serve you better.
This session introduces AJAX, JSON, and jQuery (JavaScript framework) technologies for RPG Web applications. We discuss what each technology is and examine how the four technologies work together to produce dynamic Web applications. We examine how AJAX is used for server requests, JSON as an over-the-network data format, jQuery as a JavaScript framework, and RPG as a backend application server. This session will examine the whole stack and not get too deep into any one area. By the end of this session, you should have an understanding of how these technologies work together to produce dynamic RPG Web application.
Jim Cooper is author of "SQL for DB2," which is going into its second edition. Jim has also authored two textbooks on RPG and COBOL programming with John Wiley & Sons Publishing, Hoboken, New Jersey.
Jim has been Coordinator and Professor in the Computer Studies department at Lambton College in Sarnia, ON Canada for over twenty-five years. He has taught a variety of subjects with his primary focus on IBM i technology since 1990. Currently, his main focus is on client-side Web technologies for IBM i which includes using AJAX, JSON, and the jQuery Framework with RPG server-side programming.
Jim has presented at COMMON and TUG TEC Conferences. From 1995 through 2001 he served as Director of the IBM Roundtable College Conference, an IBM international conference held annually for colleges teaching IBM i technologies. As Director of this conference, he received an honorary award from IBM for his efforts with the IBM Academic Initiative Program and the Roundtable College Conference.
Jim also works with the IceBreak Application Server technology that rejuvenated his enthusiasm for RPG programming and revived his IBM i college courses by allowing him to teach RPG as a server-side Web language.