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IBM Announces Express Client V4R5M0

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On June 12, IBM announced a new version of its Client Access Express for Windows (Express client) product, Client Access Express for Windows V4R5M0. Express client V4R5M0 shipped with OS/400 V4R5. Upgrade availability for Express client V4R4M0

customers is slated for a September 8 release.

Express client V4R5M0 is not a major upgrade to the Express client product line, but it accomplishes two things. First, it allows IBM to roll several service pack enhancements that it created for the Express client V4R4M0 product into a new V4R5M0 base product. Second, it allows IBM to incorporate new functionality into certain Express client features. I’ll take a quick look at what IBM’s doing here.

V4R5 Features That Are Already Available in Express V4R4M0

Express client V4R5M0 incorporates the additional Express client V4R4M0 service pack functionality into a new base version of the product. Over the last nine months, IBM has been slipping enhanced capabilities into Express client V4R4M0 that make it easier to configure and manage your PC5250 sessions and to perform a few other tasks. If you have the most recent Express client V4R4M0 service pack installed, many of the PC5250 capabilities IBM is putting into the base version of Express client V4R5M0 are already available to you, including these:

• Support for generic Workstation ID support (.ws file) for your PC5250 sessions. With this support, you can configure and load the same .ws file into multiple PC5250 installations, and OS/400 will produce unique workstation IDs for each 5250 device it creates for your PC5250 sessions. This enhancement also allows administrators to standardize keyboard, display, toolbar, and other PC5250 settings across their installation.

• A number of PC5250 fixes and enhancements that allow you to suppress printer messages, solve PC5250-AS/400 language conflicts, enable repeating keystrokes and override the Caps Lock key, enable support for the blinking attribute, correctly paste data from an Excel spreadsheet into PC5250, and call another program from a VBScript macro. In other words, it has the things that you’ve been wishing IBM would have added from the word go.


These new features were all fixes and enhancements that IBM loaded into Express V4R4M0 service packs that are now becoming part of the base functionality of Express

client V4R5M0. To use these features, you have to be running Express client V4R4M0 at service pack SF60698 or above, or you can wait for the new Express client V4R5M0 product. The most recent service pack is available at the Client Access service pack Web page (www.as400.ibm.com/clientaccess/casp.htm)
.

New Functionality with Express Client V4R5M0

At the time of this writing, it appears that most of the new features IBM will be adding to Express client are AS/400 Operations Navigator (OpsNav) functions or Telnet-based application improvements. Here are the new capabilities announced by IBM:

• Support for Secure Socket Layers (SSL) 3.0 for encryption in PC5250, Data Transfer, ODBC, etc. IBM has already added some of this support to Express client V4R4M0, but it may be enhanced with the new product.

Also available in this release is a new trace tool from IBM to view trace data on your SSL data stream. The data is available for viewing before it is encrypted and after it is decrypted.

• Database enhancements inside OpsNav. IBM is providing new OpsNav wizards for performing disk maintenance and other disk management capabilities. In addition, OpsNav will now provide more capabilities to view and manipulate DASD configurations, including several visual tools that will allow you to view the actual physical locations of DASD inside the AS/400. These capabilities should help both you and your CE identify problems more readily.

• Several new OpsNav enhancements. These enhancements are targeted at database programmers and administrators, including a new function to display currently executing SQL statements in a job and new ways to change table, view, and index attributes. IBM is also adding a new function called Visual Explain that provides a pictorial view of query optimization that can be used by experienced SQL users to retrieve information for improving query performance. Take note of the requirement for “experienced SQL users.” This tool is not for the faint of heart!

• New OpsNav functions to manage your Integrated Netfinity Servers for AS/400 (INS) Windows servers from within OpsNav. OpsNav will now be able to start, stop, modify, and view INS server status. This will bring the AS/400 OpsNav interface more in line with what those in the traditional PC (NT) world are used to working with, making the AS/400 feel like and perform as a better fit in their world.

So, that’s the scoop on Express client V4R5M0. Watch for more information on this product in future issues of Midrange Computing and AS/400 Network Expert.


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