Pre-Conference Workshops
Sunday, September 17, 2006 * Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami Beach, Florida

Get targeted, in-depth System i5 education with an all-day pre-conference workshop

When you register for COMMON's Fall 2006 Conference & Expo, consider signing up for additional education by registering for an all-day pre-conference workshop. In-depth technical workshops will take place on the first day of the conference (Sunday, September 17), beginning at 8 a.m. Each will break for lunch, and end at 2:45 p.m., in time for the conference Opening Session at 3 p.m.

You can sign up for the workshop of your choice when you register for the conference. Space in each workshop is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. (NOTE: If you have already registered for the conference and would like to add on a pre-conference workshop, please contact COMMON registration at common@common.org or 800.270.8223.) Workshops may be subject to change.

Choose from the following:

WORKSHOP #1: Beyond the Basics with SQL
Speaker: Skip Marchesani
Fee: $295
You finally have a grasp of SQL (Structured Query Language) basics. In fact, you are comfortable doing the simple things with SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT, and DELETE. However, when you try to go beyond the basics, attempting more complex SQL statements, it is a challenging and/or a frustrating experience. If this is your experience, this workshop is for you. Bottom line is that this workshop is designed for those people that have a good understanding of SQL basics and want to take their SQL skills to the next level.

Morning: The workshop will start with a quick review of some SQL basics and then progress to using SQL built in functions for data manipulation and analysis to derive a new column, name a derived column, reformat data, change data types, summarize data, and more. Next you will explore basic subselect, scalar subselect, and the more advanced forms of subselect; and see how a single SQL statement with subselect can be used in place an RPG or Cobol (or C) program that would require many lines of code.

Afternoon: The afternoon part of this workshop will show how the information from the morning session can be put to work for you. You will learn how to embed SQL in an RPG or Cobol (or C) Program including: embedded SQL source statement format, processing single and multiple rows using embedded SQL, prompting of SQL statements within an RPG or Cobol source program, error handling, and program compilation tips. Next you will review the SQL procedure language and how it is used to create SQL stored procedures and SQL triggers. You will understand the difference between an external procedure and an SQL procedure, and an external trigger and an SQL trigger.

You will explore SQL triggers in detail and learn the difference between column, row, and statement level triggers, and you will learn the various parts that make up an SQL trigger and how to code the SQL trigger body.

After attending this workshop, you will understand how to use SQL built in functions to do data manipulation and analysis, and how to use subselect and scalar subselect to write complex SQL statements that reference multiple tables without having to do a table join. You will also understand how to embed and compile SQL statements in an RPG or Cobol (or C) program, create and use SQL (and external) stored procedures, and create and use SQL triggers. Skip Marchesani will combine lecture with live demonstrations (via the internet) to illustrate the SQL concepts and functions discussed in this workshop.

WORKSHOP #2: Disaster Recovery Primer – Ready, Set, Plan
Speaker: Richard Dolewski
Fee: $295
This workshop is designed for IT personnel responsible for writing and maintaining a DR Plan. The workshop identifies the components of Disaster Recovery planning as it relates to the availability and recovery of computing services. Learn what works in a real disaster. Understand common assumptions made in our industry. Following a Disaster recovery methodology structured specifically for Information Technology, the seminar will provide the attendee with an understanding of the fundamentals of developing a DR plan from start to finish and testing the plan so it works when you need it most... in a disaster! The following subjects will be covered:

Part 1: DRP Overview
Disaster Recovery Preparedness
The Changing face of Disaster Recovery Planning today
Criticality ranking of essential IT services
RTO vs RTP

Part 2 - Building the plan
Components of a DR Plan
Disaster Notification
Building Your teams
Roles and Responsibilities
Steps to Recovery
System Information

Part 3: Exercise the Plan
Testing – Passive - Table top Exercise
Testing - Active Test till you get it right

This will be an interactive session with an emphasis in classroom participation. All students will be provided with a course material.

WORKSHOP #3: Modernizing RPG Applications
Speaker: Paul Tuohy
Fee: $295
Still stuck in an RPG/ 400 world? Well, this exciting workshop will show you how modern programming practices and tools can transform your old monolithic RPG applications into a modern, highly modularized form that will position your business for the future. Rather than just throw hours of theory at you, this workshop takes a sample application and follows it through the process of converting from RPG/ 400 or basic RPG IV to full usage of RPG IV and ILE features, modularizing the code, adding DB2 UDB features and even replacing the green-screen with a graphical or browser-based interface.

WORKSHOP #4 (LAB): Intro to CL Programming
Speaker: Kevin Forsythe
Fee: $395
The CL workshop will feature alternating sections of lecture and lab.  Each lab assignment reinforces the lesson in the preceeding lecture. The topics start simple and becoming increasingly complex with each building on the previous. Topics covered include:

a) A basic introduction to CL, the SEU editor, and compile options.
b) Defining and working with variables.
c) An introduction to the ISDB debugger.
d) Message handling, including SNDPGMMSG and SNDUSRMSG.
e) Passing parameters to and from CL programs.
f) Error Handling.
g) Structured Programming with IF, DO, DOUNTIL, DOWHILE, DOFOR, and SELECT.
h) Subroutines.
i) Overrides.
j) Application support commands such as CPYF, CHKOBJ, CRTDUPOBJ, and ADDLIBLE.
k) File handling including multiple files.
l) Screen handling.
m) Working with Outfiles.

WORKSHOP 5: (Lab) TCP/IP From Addresses to Servers: Configuration and Troubleshooting
Speakers: Larry Bolhuis and Bill Hansen
Fee: $395
You will learn basic IP and Ethernet configuration in Green Screen and then learn iSeries Navigator staring with basic TCP/ IP. You will also learn redundant and highly available connections with VIPs and load balanced connections. Following this, the configuration of many of i5/ OS servers will be discussed including ODBC, NTP, Telnet and others.

A lab will be included to set up NTP, ODBC and NFS servers.

Finally, trouble-shooting techniques will be covered including the use of Traceroute, Ping, NSlookup, http logs, and TCP/ IP Traces.