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Status Not under consideration
Workspace IBM i
Categories Core OS
Created by Guest
Created on Mar 14, 2022

Develop and Support Source Files 2.0 on IBM i

The use of legacy PF-SRC files is pervasive and cannot be abandoned. However, the need for an enhance source file structure is obvious.

We need it to be a multi-member file as it is now, however with the following minimum enhancements:

1) Line/Record Dec(15,2)
2) Line Changed TimeStamp
3) Source Line Data varchar(32k)

field 1 is just a longer version of SRCSEQ
field 2 is now a timestamp value that is set by a database constraint whenever the row is updated.
"on update for each row" etc.
field 3 is smilar to SRCDAT today. Up to 32k in length minimum length = 1, etc. Whenever it is changed, then field 2's timestamp is set by the CST.

In addition it would be great if there were a way to link an IFS subdirectory to a database source file member. And the lines of text within a source file in that subfolder to the lines in a 2nd type of source file, known as an IFS Source File.

Basically the difference between the two is that if you do a CRTSRCPF TYPE(*IFS) it will will create an IFS folder structure the same as the LIBRARY/FILE/MBR where LIBRARY and FILE match the file being created, but the MBR subfield is static (i.e., named MBR). Then inside of the MBR subfield is one text file for each MBR added to the source file.

Note sure if this is a DataLink feature or what, but basically if I did this:
CRTSRCPF COZTEST/QHTMLSRC TYPE(*IFS)
Then on the IFS, off some predetermined folder, it would create this directory structure:

/<base>/COZTEST/QHTMLSRC/MBR

Then when I do this:
ADDPFM COZTEST/QHTMLSRC MBR(PICKLES) SRCTYPE(HTML)
When it adds the member to the database source file named QHTMLSRC in COZTEST, it would also build the following on the IFS:

/<base>/COZTEST/QHTMLSRC/MBR/PICKLES.HTML

Then the Source Data portion of the database file will be stored in that PICKLES.HTML text file on the IFS.


Use Case:

using RDi or Visual Studio CODE to edit source code is fine. But it would be great to have both an update to the Source Statement Change Date design, _and_ a way to sync or link source statement data between database and the IFS (text file in this context).
I expect I could do this with Alias Support and SQL Table Functions but that's far too much work for "just me".
Priority would be to have the change date updated to a timestamp and auto-populated with the IFS link piece a secondary/nice to have, feature.


Idea priority Medium
  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Apr 14, 2022
    Modernization of source file control is trending in the direction Git and IFS files, and therefore IBM has no plans to enhance legacy source files at this time.
    IBM i Development