Why choose ILE ?

Because an ILE environment includes all modern development concepts, particularly code modularization. Thanks to advanced modularization, application maintainability is increased and component reusability is encouraged. This leads to increased flexibility in adapting to new business requirements.

For readers unfamiliar with the ILE environment, we should note that it was previously impossible to obtain this level of modularity because it was too prohibitive in terms of application performance. Now, thanks to ILE, you can mix native and Java code, safely migrate to a real three-tier architecture, and manage your own special characteristics--all without altering application performance. Isn’t this is a big improvement?

But of course, any mention of new architecture also means a new need to help developers master that architecture. This is why we have always given the ARCAD suites a battery of specialized tools that make developers' lives easier. This applies, of course, to the ILE environment. ARCAD has a repository for procedures, specific cross-references, and tools to check parameter passages.

Just like a change to the SQL standard, adopting the ILE environment standards means long-term modernization of System i applications.

ILE management in ARCAD ...

Objective:

The main objective of ILE management from ARCAD is to let application designers and developers benefit from all the modular development advantages of ILE, while delegating the new technical constraints to ARCAD itself.

The following principal points are handled by ARCAD.

Documentation:

The documentation ARCAD provides for ILE includes:

• ILE Links: The links are managed as ILEPGM or ILESRVPGM source code (or even directly on RPGLE or CBLLE). Link publication is totally assimilated into a compilation.
• The Procedures Repository: ARCAD lists (with search criteria) all of the exported procedures, along with their parameters. Functionalities can be entered (or recovered in the source code) to better document the objective of each procedure and each of its parameters.
• Cross references at the Procedures level: These allow visualization of calling chains (caller/called) by procedure, as well as with OPM programs (since very few applications are completely ILE).
• For each procedure, you can visualize the location of its definition (source code), its declaration (prototype), its execution object (program or service program), its activation group, and all of its uses (calls). What’s more, you can execute the procedure in a unitary fashion.
  

Development:

To best facilitate developers’ work:

• When a compilation results in a module change, all the programs and service programs that include it are listed for recompilation.
• To modify procedure source code or its prototype, the product identifies the real nature of the modification made by the developer. This will make the most of the automatic recompilations, in addition to the recompilation of the module and the service program that contains the modification.
• If only the body of the procedure has been modified, there are no further recompilations.
• If a procedure’s parameters have been modified, a recompilation request is only made for components that do use this procedure.
• If new procedures have been added, export source code (BND) per version may be generated to ensure ascending signature compatibility, without recompiling everything.
• If procedures have been deleted, everything must be recompiled.

Transfers to Test/Production:

When a version is integrated into test environments or transferred to production, the controls discussed here are all performed over again, but for every component in the version. They make sure that each source code compilation does post-date the last modification of included source code that describes a procedure prototype.

You can also request a parameter coherence check (useful when not all procedure calls are prototyped or when the prototype is duplicated), with the possibility to verify parameters for OPM calls as well.

All compilations first undergo automatic sequencing, which lets you compile service programs in a specific order.

Benefits...

With ARCAD-Skipper you can:

• Facilitate smooth passage toward adoption of this standard
• Increase your development productivity by automating the logistics of changing your ILE code
• Automate transfer to production for your ILE components (or any other component type)