Getting information out of an AS/400 data area from Visual Basic

Date:	Archived
Product/Release:	LANSA/Server
Abstract:	You can get information out of an AS/400 data area very easily from Visual Basic using LANSA/Server.
Submitted By:	N/A

It is easy using LANSA to get information out of an AS/400 data area from Visual Basic.

You can use a LANSA/Server function Lce3GLCall to call a CL program on the AS/400 that retrieves the contents of the data area and returns them to a PC program written in Visual Basic.

There are a number of benefits using this technique such as:

If there is an error on the AS/400 (eg the data area doesn't exist) the CL program can automatically create it for you.
If the user is not authorised to the data area then the CL program could also handle this in a "very friendly" manner
In the example below a "generic" data area handling program (ie for any data area) was created. With a little more work you could also update the data area contents too.

Here is the CL source for the AS/400 CL program:

*************** Beginning of data****************************** 

		/*   Program Name: DATAAREA                                     *

/*   Program Description: GETS CONTENTS OF PASSED DATAAREA NAME     */


				/*   Author Name: DOUG            Date Written: 25/10/96                   */

 /**************************************************************/

 DATAAREA:     PGM         PARM(&NAME &CONTENT)                          
		

				/*     Declarations:                                                  

				*/             DCL         VAR(&NAME) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(10)                
             

               DCL         VAR(&CONTENT) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(256) 
		

				/*   Mainline:                                                 */

              
             RTVDTAARA   DTAARA(&NAME) RTNVAR(&CONTENT)


				END: ENDPGM                                                             


				****************** End of data*********************************

Here is the code fragment from Visual Basic that uses the CL program:

Sub Get_DataArea_Click ()

    

       
    Prog$ = "DATAAREA"

       
    Value$ = text2.Text  'DATAAREA NAME

    

       
    Rem Define the parameters to pass and receive

       
    Ret% = Lce3GLDefineParameter(SessId%, 0, 0, "P", "A", 10, 0, Value$)

       
    Value$ = String(256, 0)

       
    Ret% = Lce3GLDefineParameter(SessId%, 1, 0, "R", "A", 256, 0, Value$)

    

       
    Rem Call the 3GL program

       
    Ret% = Lce3GLCall(SessId%, Prog$, "*LIBL", 1)

    

       
    Rem Retrieve the parameter returned from the 3GL program

       
    Value$ = String(256, 0)

       
    Ret% = Lce3GLGetValue(SessId%, 1, 0, Value$)

       
    Label2.Caption = Value$

End Sub