.NET for DB2 plug-in

[rpgKnight]

Help. I've got some outside programmers in shop working on some new code. They are going to develop this using .NET. I've loaded the data provider on their system, but they keep wanting a Visual Studio plug-in provided by IBM which is giving me problems. Can anyone help me obtain this plug-in? Does anyone know of this is a free install or do I need to purchase a product? Also, is this a client side install only, or do I need to install something on the Iseries side? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks...

[jtemple]

Re: .NET for DB2 plug-in

What plug-in are they looking for specifically? I might be able to help if you can provide a little more detail. BTW, make sure any PC that is using the .Net provider from IBM is up to date on service packs.

[rpgKnight]

Re: .NET for DB2 plug-in

We are using v5r4 with the latest service pack loaded, SI31388. They are looking the Visual Studio Iseries plug-in provided by IBM. I assumed all they needed was the .Net provided that installed through Iseries Nav, but they require the extra plug-in, too.

Bear with me on this one. Apparently, the data provider alone is not enough. They are telling me that without the plug-in they are looking at 30 or 40 extra hours of setup. I do not know why this is so. I will see if I can get one of the .NET guys to put in writing the reason they need this IBM plug-in.

[jtemple]

Re: .NET for DB2 plug-in

Let me see if I can translate. They are looking for the DBProvider plug-in with IBM .Net? If so, they are out of luck. The V5R4 .Net provider from IBM does not work with DBProvider. To my understanding it's available in V6R1.

[rpgKnight]

Re: .NET for DB2 plug-in

Let me see if I can translate. They are looking for the DBProvider plug-in with IBM .Net? If so, they are out of luck. The V5R4 .Net provider from IBM does not work with DBProvider. To my understanding it's available in V6R1.

That's what my research has let me to believe.

Thanks...

[jtemple]

Re: .NET for DB2 plug-in

I'm working on a .Net app where I ran into exactly the same problem. We're using MySQL as the primary database and the iSeries as the master/failover. I wanted to define my connections and order of connections in the app's config file but couldn't fully since IBM's provider does not work with DBProvider. What I wound up doing is writing a class that picks one or the other, depending on the availability of those servers. I'd be happy to share what I have.

[rpgKnight]

Re: .NET for DB2 plug-in

Thanks everyone. I think the programmers are going to try some kind of work around. And I am going to work on upgrading our OS to v6r1.

[fjleon]

Re: .NET for DB2 plug-in

is there a way to extract the ibm.db2 iseries provider dll from the v6r1 service pack without having a copy of the full v6r1 cd? We only have v5r4 and the db2 provider doesn't make use of asp.net 2.0 features according to the ibm website. I tried downloading the v6r1 service pack but since it doesn't find v6r1 on our iseries it won't install.

[jtemple]

Re: .NET for DB2 plug-in

Then again, would you want to have a production app that is using two different version of iSeries Access? One for the .Net provider and one for everything else. Not a good situation, especially if you have to cal IBM for support.

[fjleon]

Re: .NET for DB2 plug-in

i would be willing to at least test that scenario. Updating to v6r1 just to be able to use some features in the db2 driver would be insane. I don't know why ibm is using such an old asp.net technology (1.1) in their db2 driver in v5r4, which is still fully supported. There isn't even a new redbook for v6r1 to explain the new driver's features.

[jtemple]

Re: .NET for DB2 plug-in

If you look at IBM historically, there's a number of things that they tend to lag behind on. This being a prime example. To their credit, there are a number of things they tend to stay ahead of the curve on but I suppose that's true with any company.

[littlepd]

Re: .NET for DB2 plug-in

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the .NET provider is part of the System i Access for Windows product, right? Which means it doesn't really matter what OS version you have on your System i; you can have a mismatched version of the provider if you want to. So just get the most recent version of the System i Access for Windows client.

Or am I missing something?

[fjleon]

Re: .NET for DB2 plug-in

Yes, but the problem is that you can't download the v6r1 service pack if you don't have v6r1 installed, it says it can't find the product and you are not able to extract the ibm.db2.iseries.dll. If it's just that file then i guess it would work but it would require some kind soul to upload the file I don't know if that would be legal so i haven't asked for someone to upload the file, but that would be nice.

I installed some tools to extract files from the v6r1 service pack and i was able to extract the dll patch, but the problem is that it needs the original patch in order to be applied and i wouldn't even know how to apply the patch for just that file manually, but i don't even have the original file to start with.

[jtemple]

Re: .NET for DB2 plug-in

Can I ask what limitation you're having with the V5R4 .Net driver?