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September 2004 updates
this means Version 2
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This page highlights the updates in the CGIDEV2 September 2004 refresh.

For a comprehensive and uptodate list of all subprocedures available in the cgidev2/cgisrvpgm2 service program, please check out our readme page.

Prerequisites
  • V5R1
  • 5722DG1 - IBM HTTP server for iSeries
  • 5722WDS - Compiler - ILE RPG IV
Impact to current applications
  1. Not impacted.
    All CGI programs bound to a duplicate of service program CGIDEV2/CGISRVPGM2 in their execution libraries (for instance, libraries set up with command cgidev2/cgisetup) are not impacted from the installation of the new CGIDEV2 library, unless you want to replace their CGISRVPGM2 service programs with the new service program in library CGIDEV2.
  2. Potentially impacted.
    The new service program was created with a binding directory that preserves previous version's signatures.
    Therefore, if you replace the previous service program CGISRVPGM2 with the new one in the libraries with CGI programs using CGIDEV2 subprocedures, the programs should be impacted (signature violation) only if the previous CGISRVPGM2 is dated 2001-05-31 or earlier.
    If this happens:
    1. set your current library to your CGI library (where your old programs and the new CGISRVPGM2 service program reside)
    2. run the following command for each program that uses any CGIDEV2 subprocedures:
          UPDPGM PGM(PgmName) MODULE(*NONE)
Summary of changes
  1. New subprocedures
    1. New parsing subprocedure
      Subprocedure zhbGetVarPtr returns a pointer to a given input variable. This is useful when an input variable's length might exceed ZhbGetVar's maximum size of 32767. The maximum length of such a variable is 64000.
    2. New output variable substitution subprocedure
      Subprocedure updHtmlVar2 supports very large substitution variables (up to 16 Mb).
    3. New timing functions
      Subprocedure timerStart starts a timer, subprocedure timerElapsed retrurns the number of seconds since timerStart.
    4. New procedure for translating special characters to the corresponding named entities
      Subprocedure encode2 allows to translate special characters to their corresponding named entities as documented in a user specified stream file.
      CGI program dspencode2 can be used to verify that the stream files being used work as expected.
    5. New procedure for checking an IFS object
      Subprocedure chkIfsObj2 allows to know whether an IFS object is accessible; if yes, it may return some useful information about its type and size.
  2. Enhancements
    • Subprocedure zhbGetInput
      • increased the maximum number of input variables from 5000 to 32767.
    • Demo TEMPLATE5 (Computer Discount House No. 5) is now using free format RPG.
    • The uppify subprocedure now supports an optional CCSID parameter to be used for non english language character strings.
    • The wrtsection subprocedure now supports an optional parameter specifying the value to be substituted in the output variables left without substitutions (the default value is **Missing Data**)