define: rpgCRUD?
rpgCRUD is a powerful RPG code generator for RPG/AS400 application developers.
The main idea (but not the only) of rpgCRUD is to take off the hassle of doing the same database operations (create, read, update, delete ... CRUD) over and over again when creating RPG applications (especially admin and parameters sections).
rpgCRUD will create all the code you need (a full set of programs) to maintain your database tables without having to worry about anything. Just upload the programs, compile them and there you go. A complex application done in only 5 minutes!
I have prepared also an example page (toghether with screenshots) to show you exactly what you can do with it. Two already made projects are also there (classical organizational chart): one creates the application to mainatain the departments in a company and another one creates the application to maintain the employees in that company (making also the link with the departments table - foreign key)
(Click on the picture to see how you can create yoir own application in just 5 minutes. More than this, everyting is free - the user is just needed to keep some of your customizations and project history so you won't have to enter them every time you create an application).
With rpgCRUD, you can still manage your code. It will not create a big application to which you have to conform and which you can't change. It will create flexible and separate programs, that are very easily readeble and changeble to suit your particular needs. From the user management page, you can also define the way your code is written - includes, message file, header variables.
I have thought also about the fact that in time you may want to modify the structure of a table. Instead of changing all your programs, why not modify the project and regenerate the code again. rpgCRUD saves all your projects history. All your programs will be recompiled in less than 1 minute (depends of how fast you upload the sources and hit the compile button. Also processing power might be taken into consideration :)) ).
how is the code generated?
The thing about these types of applications is that they are very boring and they require a lot of time and copy/paste to be done. Being a lazy guy, I thought to create an application that will do the copy/paste for me, I having just to worry about the table structure. So this is how I came up with the idea, to create an rpg code generator. A lot of the code is the same in all projects, but there are the small differences that make it count (imagine defining the same variables in 8 programs + the dspf and the pf). The program just takes every variable you fill in the form and puts it where it belongs. And that's it. So simple, yet so frustrating that I haven't thought at this before :)
The code is automatically generated when you push the appropriate button on the project page. You can choose from getting the code of the projects in a simple html page, or you can choose to download the zip archive of your sources. If you chose the zip, you will find also the default includes (D/specs and C/specs) that you need for compiling the RPG code (the first time, afterwards, you just leave them on the server).
The generated code is fully ILE RPG compatible, being written in free-form for better reading. Important subroutines have also been commented.
start generating!
Start using rpgCRUD right now. If you encounter problems, be sure to check the FAQ section and if you cannot find an answer there drop me an email at tzighi@gmail.com.
