COMMON POWERUp 2025

Peer code  review has great benefits but is often not fully formalized because it can be labor intensive. Often due to limited resources peer code review is limited to more complex changes. DevOps promises automation to reduce the overhead but how can it work on the IBM i? This session will discuss automation at a high level and dig deeper into the tools available for peer review, open source and otherwise, that can be used on IBM i source. We'll cover the use at the developer level with linting where the code can be previewed and at the workflow process level where it is automated. The automation tools discussed will be pull/merge requests and pipeline tools like SonarCube etc. We will also cover the limitations of IDEs and tools and how that impacts automation.

Valence 6.3, the popular web and mobile framework for IBM i, includes a browser-based low-code development utility called Nitro App Builder (NAB), through which anyone with a solid understanding of their IBM i database can build and deploy dazzling web or mobile apps in a matter of minutes.

With newly integrated IBM i-centric AI functionality, developers can use NAB to very quickly create a broad range of applications — from simple dashboard and inquiry apps, complete with download-to-Excel functionality, to highly intricate and intuitive data entry apps.

All of this can be achieved with no coding, though IBM i developers can easily extend functionality with RPG or SQL code to handle business logic as needed. Advanced programmers comfortable with HTML5 and JavaScript code can take things even further, creating super elaborate apps that work hand-in-hand with server-side RPG logic through the Valence Portal. And as of this latest release, you can use the integrated AI assistant to write much of the code for you!

The bottom line: With Valence, whether you're a seasoned RPG developer or a super user with intimate knowledge of your system's physical files, you can crank out highly functional web and mobile apps on IBM i in no time — no prior experience in web or mobile development required. Come to this quick demo session to see the latest release of the Valence framework, and how easy it is to quickly build and deploy web apps on your IBM i system.

If time permits, some actual deployed IBM i customer applications from various industries will be demonstrated as well.

Business-critical applications must be up and running reliably without failure. When something unexpected occurs, you must identify the cause and correct it quickly. The relentless push to do more with less is only going to intensify while the tolerance for failure keeps dropping. Yet identifying points of failure can be tricky as complexities scale. 

The IBM Administration Runtime Expert for i (ARE) can be used to define attributes of a healthy environment and use those defined attributes to validate that the environment is as expected.

This session will everything you need to know to get started with ARE: 
- Overview of what ARE is and example use cases
- Creating and editing templates
- Setting up system groups, verification options, and verifying systems
- Understanding the reports

Have you considered or even already moved your IBMi workloads to PowerVS but wonder how move forward with future OS releases?  Learn the tips and techniques of performing upgrades once inside PowerVS compared to traditional approaches.  In this session, we will also learn about new features or enhancements for IBMi to come to PowerVS.  

Often, trying out something new in DevOps means messing with the stuff that’s already working well. Or asking a vendor to build a custom improvement to your DevOps environment, which could take months. But trying something new quickly and keeping the tried-and-true running don’t have to be mutually exclusive.