Solve business application needs, jazz up existing applications, create user interfaces, or make applications easily accessible for remote users.

By Laura Ubelhor

Many languages can be used for server-side programming, including Java, JSP, .NET, and PHP. PHP, which stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, is a scripting language embedded within HTML. Much of PHP's syntax is extracted from C, Java, and Perl, with some unique PHP-specific features. The goal of the language is to allow Web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly. While PHP is mainly used for server-side scripting, it can also be used from a command-line interface or in standalone GUI applications. In this article, which is an excerpt from HTML for the Business Developer, the focus is on server-side scripting with the business application developer in mind.

There's no reason not to forge ahead with new techniques such as SQL as long as you have the right tools in place.

By Ray Bernardi

Structured Query Language (SQL) is a keyword-oriented language, which makes it easy to learn and use, and it's an excellent application development tool. You can define data, manipulate it, and query it to get fast results.

SQL is also an industry standard, so learning it on the IBM i means you've learned it for other platforms as well. And that means you can increase your application's portability, yet keep the way you access the database standard. That simplifies maintenance of your systems, and it makes development easier, which in turn leads to productivity. SQL is required if you want to move data between platforms effectively and efficiently. 

By Tom Huntington

Do you provide users with a modern "look and feel" for System i data? Are users telling you that green-screen reports are unacceptable? Is your backlog of text-based reports overwhelming? Is your data warehouse project over budget, past due, and unsatisfying to users? Are you confused about what tools to use to access System i business data?

In April 2007, IBM announced that Query/400 is outdated. This exciting announcement confirms what we've been saying all along: your System i (AS/400, iSeries) database has a wealth of information that should be harnessed into executive decision-making tools without using another platform.