One of the things I have been waiting for from IBM is an efficient way to view, edit, and add records to my DB2 tables from within WDSc. In the process of database intensive programming, I am constantly switching from my WDSc client to a 5250 session to make use of the (freeware) WRKDBF utility. Don't get me wrong, WRKDBF (http://wrkdbf.com/) is an excellent tool that has saved me a ton of time, but having all of your programming facilities in one application can save even more time.

WDSc does have a database perspective, as shown in Figure 1, that has a fair amount of functionality, but it is not intended to be used in the same manner as WRKDBF. The Data Perspective is incredibly slow when loading a list of schemas and tables, even with my filters fine tuned. If all you want is a tool with similar capabilities, check out the QuantumDB Eclipse plug-in from http://quantum.sourceforge.net . It is, literally, five times as fast! You can download the product for free and install it in minutes by following the instructions on the Web site. Figure 2 shows a little bit of what you can expect once QuantumDB is installed.

If you are fortunate enough to have the latest release of iSeries Navigator (V5R3M0), make sure to install the database related plug- ins. There are many new and enhanced features in this release. One of them is the ability to edit the records in a file. To access this feature within iSeries Navigator, click the folders that I show in Figure 3. Figure 4 shows the result of right-clicking on a table and selecting Edit Contents. This gives you editing capability that rivals WRKDBF, but alas, it is not available from within WDSc.

Look forward to more iSeries Navigator database related tips in upcoming newsletters!

Figure 1
http://www.iseriesnetwork.com/ClubTech/images/ctpt_20041209_1.jpg

Figure 2
http://www.iseriesnetwork.com/ClubTech/images/ctpt_20041209_2.jpg

Figure 3
http://www.iseriesnetwork.com/ClubTech/images/ctpt_20041209_3.jpg

Figure 4
http://www.iseriesnetwork.com/ClubTech/images/ctpt_20041209_4.jpg

The above article was written by Aaron Bartell. If you have any questions about this article, contact Aaron at aaronbartell@gmail.com.