COMMON POWERUp 2025

COMMON POWERUp 2025

Unlock the Power of IBM i at POWERUp 2025!

Join us in Disneyland, California, for POWERUp 2025, the premier conference for IBM i professionals. Whether you’re an experienced expert or just starting your IBM i journey, this event offers unparalleled education, hands-on workshops, and valuable networking opportunities. Stay ahead of the curve with insights from industry leaders, explore the latest innovations, and connect with a thriving community that shares your passion for IBM i. Don’t miss this opportunity to expand your knowledge, grow your skills, and power up your career!

11:15am PDT

An introduction to Node.js

Monday May 19, 2025 11:15am - 12:15pm PDT

JavaScript and TypeScript have become the go-to tools for crafting modern applications, powering both the sleek frontends and robust backends of today's software. At the heart of many backend systems lies Node.js, a runtime that’s revolutionized the way we build scalable and efficient applications.

In this session, we’ll dive into why Node.js has become a developer favorite, exploring its unique benefits and versatile capabilities. Through practical examples and code, you’ll gain a clear understanding of the core principles that make Node.js tick. Whether you're new to backend development or looking to sharpen your skills, this talk will arm you with the knowledge to write clean, effective Node.js applications, sidestep common mistakes, and accelerate your path to success. Join us and kickstart your Node.js journey with confidence!

Speakers

Michael Dawson

Monday May 19, 2025 11:15am - 12:15pm PDT
Room 2 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

11:15am PDT

Getting Started with Web Development

Monday May 19, 2025 11:15am - 12:15pm PDT

Knowing where to start in your web development learning journey can be difficult. In this session, we will cover a high level view of the languages and practices to learn to plan the first steps of your web career.

Speakers

Jasmine Kaczmarek

Director of IT, M.R. Williams

With over ten years of experience on the IBM Power System, Jasmine's passions include modernization, API development, integration of gamification techniques into business applications and mentoring new developers. Jasmine is an avid promoter of adopting open-source languages into... Read More →

Monday May 19, 2025 11:15am - 12:15pm PDT
Room 6 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

11:15am PDT

Modern CL Programming

Monday May 19, 2025 11:15am - 12:15pm PDT

IBM Made a huge number of enhancements to the CL language starting with V5R3 through i 7.1. WHile the changes slowed after that most CL programmers ignore all these changes and continue to write unreadable code with gotos and tags.

Come to get a detailed look at examples of the new functions including DOFOR, DOWHILE, DOUNTIL and SELECT, and how they allow programming CL in a much more structured format, and allow you to banish goto to the bit-bucket.

Learn about the many new process flow options and variable types in the CL language such as integer, signed integer, and pointer variables and how to use them.

Get tips on how to simplify the compiling of CL programs and command objects.

Find out how to provide direct feedback to IBM on your needs for the CL language -- they want to know if these changes are helping you and what to enhance next.

Speakers

Larry Bolhuis

Cloud and Datacenter Engineer, IBM Champion, Service Express Inc.

Larry has grown up with computers since his father became a CE in 1967. He obtained a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Calvin College in 1982 and soon after began working on IBM midrange equipment with the S/34 and S/36. Larry began working on the As/400 at its introduction In 1988.After spending many years as a developer Larry began working on communications, networking, and systems management tasks. Years of... Read More →

Monday May 19, 2025 11:15am - 12:15pm PDT
Room 9 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

3:15pm PDT

What’s New with Open Source & IBM i

Monday May 19, 2025 3:15pm - 4:15pm PDT

Open source solutions have been on the IBM i platform for many years but recently the number of solutions deployed here has blossomed. Join Mike as he explores the latest news regarding packages and solution features available in IBM i Open Source Package Management and beyond.

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Mike Pavlak has been working with IBM midrange solutions since 1992 and IBM Mainframes before that. After years of developing applications using RPG, CL and PHP he managed IT development and IT for power protection manufacturer Tripp Lite. Later Mike was instrumental in developing... Read More →

Monday May 19, 2025 3:15pm - 4:15pm PDT
Room 6 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

4:30pm PDT

Contributing to Open Source

Monday May 19, 2025 4:30pm - 4:50pm PDT

Open-source contributions are a great way to improve your skills and give back to the community. This session will walk attendees through the process of contributing to an open-source project on GitHub. We’ll cover forking a repository, working in a branch, pushing changes, and submitting a pull request for review.

Speakers

Joseph Wright

Owner / Consultant, Wright4i

Monday May 19, 2025 4:30pm - 4:50pm PDT
Room 7 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

4:30pm PDT

Intro to Modern Application Integration via API

Monday May 19, 2025 4:30pm - 4:50pm PDT

We no longer live in a world where we have one system of record that is used for all business functions. IT is an everchanging blend of tools, applications, and platforms. Integration is top of mind for most businesses. If there is one common way to link all these systems, it is an API layer. Your IBM i should speak the language of APIs, both consuming and hosting. In this session, let’s look at the big picture with regards to APIs and IBM i.

Speakers

Brian May

Vice President of Product Management, Profound Logic

Professional IT Leader, Speaker and WriterSpecialties:Team Building, Development and RetentionTechnical SalesSolutions ArchitectureSoftware DevelopmentEnterprise Systems Manufacturing ProcessesApparel IndustryAccounting Principles

Monday May 19, 2025 4:30pm - 4:50pm PDT
Room 14

Programming: General

10:45am PDT

Fun with JSON Publishing: Letting SQL Do the Dirty Work

Tuesday May 20, 2025 10:45am - 11:45am PDT

If you've ever been tasked as a developer with creating complex responses for an internal or external web service, you've likely explored multiple avenues for generating JSON from your IBM i programs. From constructing responses manually in your RPG code, to using various publicly available toolkits like YAJL, RPG NextGen, etc., there are a myriad of ways to create JSON strings with all the requisite curlies, commas, colons, quotes and hard brackets.

If you're on IBM i OS 7.2 or higher, there's yet another avenue you can explore in which you let SQL do all the JSON construction work for you. The biggest benefit of this approach becomes most apparent when your JSON response requires arrays, and especially nested subarrays. Coding such responses can be a bit tedious when done on a record-by-record basis in your program, whereas by using some nifty functions you can can let SQL assemble your JSON response automatically.

In this session we'll review the basics of JSON publishing functions such as JSON_Object, JSON_Array, JSON_ObjectAgg and JSON_ArrayAgg. We'll explore some practical use examples for publishing your business data in JSON, letting SQL do all the dirty work.

Speakers

Rob Swanson

Senior Partner, CNX Corporation

Rob has worked as an in-the-trenches IBM i developer since 1992, with the past 15 years focused on developing modernization efforts for legacy systems written in RPG. Currently serving as Senior Partner for CNX Corporation in Chicago, Rob is a strong advocate of introducing highly... Read More →

Tuesday May 20, 2025 10:45am - 11:45am PDT
Room 4 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

3:15pm PDT

Dueling way to prevent, find, resolve error message to your systems

Tuesday May 20, 2025 3:15pm - 4:15pm PDT

Presenters: Marina Schwenk, Shelly Petty, Simon Hutchinson

This fast paced presentation, "the duel", Marina Schwenk and Simon Hutchinson will offer methods and alternatives for the following:

How to find error messages
How to find the joblog for the job that has errored.
Determine the cause of the error.
Demonstrate various approaches to prevent errors.
Create RPG, CL, & SQL code that is "hardened" to handle issues when they happen.

Shelly Petty will adjudicate the duel & award points to each of the presenters, & at the end of the presentation announce the winner.

Speakers

Simon Hutchinson

Founder & author, RPGPGM.COM

Simon Hutchinson has been writing his highly acclaimed IBM i blog, RPGPGM.COM, for eleven years sharing his knowledge, experience, and giving many detailed examples of the latest RPG, SQL, and CL. His work has led him to be recognized by IBM as an IBM Champion for Power and IBM i Community Advocate. He is a subject matter expert for COMMON Americas, awarded... Read More →

Marina Schwenk

Tuesday May 20, 2025 3:15pm - 4:15pm PDT
Room 4 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

8:00am PDT

Processing JSON with DB2 and RPG

Wednesday May 21, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am PDT

IBM has enhanced DB2's capabilities for managing JSON objects, simplifying data handling. This session provides "Tips and Tricks" for mastering JSON data, starting with an introduction to the new HTTP functions in DB2 and their synergy with JSON_TABLE. Jim will demonstrate the practical use of QSYS2.HTTP_GET and JSON_TABLE to fetch and process JSON from APIs. Many find it challenging to construct the correct SQL/JSON path expressions to convert JSON into relational data. Through detailed, actionable examples, Jim will clarify this process, improving your proficiency with DB2's JSON features.

Speakers

Jim Buck

CEO & Head Instructor, imPower Technologies

Jim Buck’s career in IT has spanned more than 35+ years, primarily in college education, manufacturing, and healthcare industries. Past president (13 years) of the Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association (www.wmcpa.org) and has served on several teams developing IBM... Read More →

Wednesday May 21, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am PDT
Room 6 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

9:15am PDT

Security as a developer, why should I care?

Wednesday May 21, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT

Security is the hottest topic in today's society and yet many developers don't have it in the forefront of their minds. We will look at todays trend, risks and why you as a developer should develop with security in mind.

Speakers

Marina Schwenk

Wednesday May 21, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT
Room 1 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

9:15am PDT

Web Services: A RESTful introduction

Wednesday May 21, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT

We'll introduce the basics of web services, with a focus on HTTP, JSON, and RESTful principles. This session focuses on the basic principles and architecture of web services, and will also have some examples of how to consume and provide web services from IBM i.

Speakers

Patrick Behr

Software Developer / Architect, Seiden Group

Wednesday May 21, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT
Room 3 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

10:45am PDT

SQL Error Logging Facility (SELF)

Wednesday May 21, 2025 10:45am - 11:45am PDT

Have you ever been faced with “strange” SQL Errors or SQL Errors that were not trapped but simply ignored? How to find those problems?
SQL Performance Monitors can help, at least if you know where to start, i.e. which job, which program caused the problems. But SQL Performance Monitors come with significant overheads, just by gathering everything.
SELF is an additional tool for finding understanding and fixing SQL Errors and Warnings. SELF can be started without modifying any programs and can safely run in production.
This session will show what are the components of SELF and how to use them.

Speakers

Birgitta Hauser

Database and Software Architect, IBM Champion, Birgitta Hauser - Modernization - Education - Consulting

Birgitta Hauser worked on the IBM i and its predecessors since 1992. She graduated with a business economics diploma, and started programming on the AS/400 in 1992. She worked and works as traditional RPG Programmer but also as Database and Software Engineer, focusing on IBM i application... Read More →

Wednesday May 21, 2025 10:45am - 11:45am PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

3:45pm PDT

Integrating Open Source on IBM i: Advanced Topics and Optimization

Wednesday May 21, 2025 3:45pm - 4:45pm PDT

When your business grows, and you need speed and scalability, how do you find the best mix of open source technology and the integrated capabilities of IBM i? Learn from our years of experience in how to optimize scalability and performance with open source and traditional IBM i programs and capabilities (RPG, COBOL, Db2 etc). Impress your company with the most efficient techniques while avoiding rookie mistakes.

Speakers

Alan Seiden

Principal, IBM Champion, Seiden Group

How to modernize and create something new while leveraging your valuable business logic. Supporting developers, mentoring, staff augmentation, architecture, development and programming.APIs, IBM i, open source, web, PHP, Node.js, Python, RPG, ERPs

Wednesday May 21, 2025 3:45pm - 4:45pm PDT
Room 6 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

5:00pm PDT

API Examples Using RPG, Node.js, PHP and Python

Wednesday May 21, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT

APIs allow IBM i to connect with other systems safely and securely, using the languages you already know. You will feel empowered to provide and consume APIs with the many examples given here, in RPG, PHP, Python, and Node.js (javascript), along with secure techniques and free tools that make API development easier.

Speakers

Alan Seiden

Principal, IBM Champion, Seiden Group

How to modernize and create something new while leveraging your valuable business logic. Supporting developers, mentoring, staff augmentation, architecture, development and programming.APIs, IBM i, open source, web, PHP, Node.js, Python, RPG, ERPs

Wednesday May 21, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
Room 6 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

5:00pm PDT

IBM i Services for the Developer

Wednesday May 21, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT

In the past you may have considered using CL or coding to system APIs to access and work with system information. Today there is a better option: IBM i Services. In this session you will learn how to use SQL to work with data areas and data queues, discover how easy it is to review your program and service program attributes, and much more.

Speakers

Ann Wilkerson

Software Developer, IBM

Ann Wilkerson is the technical team lead for Navigator for i and a developer for IBM i Services.

Wednesday May 21, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
Room 7 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

5:00pm PDT

Practical Examples of pulling web service data into your IBM i applications

Wednesday May 21, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT

Obtaining information from external systems or data servers has come a long way since the introduction of EDI in the 1980s! Today, publicly available web service APIs offer a much more flexible and easier-to-integrate method for pulling pertinent global data into your IBM i applications. Whether it be commodity prices, financial data, current weather information, demographic statistics or whatever else you can think of, there is no shortage of information available on the internet that could complement certain areas of your company's business, thus adding valuable real-time information to your various user applications.

In this session we'll put this concept to work in a hands-on fashion. The presenter will use real-world API examples to demonstrate how IBM i developers, using SQL, can quickly access this valuable web service repositories and pull data into an RPG program or UI tool for their users.

Attendees will see three simple 5250-based interactive examples in action, with source code they can try on their own systems.

Speakers

Rob Swanson

Senior Partner, CNX Corporation

Rob has worked as an in-the-trenches IBM i developer since 1992, with the past 15 years focused on developing modernization efforts for legacy systems written in RPG. Currently serving as Senior Partner for CNX Corporation in Chicago, Rob is a strong advocate of introducing highly... Read More →

Wednesday May 21, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
Room 2 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

9:15am PDT

Lights out monitoring and Obervability

Thursday May 22, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT

Instana is a product which helps you achieve both monitoring and observability. Instana has agent which runs on IBMi and can monitor other IBMi lpars using remote monitoring.
Configuration of the monitors is done using yaml file:

Key metrics which Instana is capturing:

Active jobs
Threads
Auxiliary storage pool consumption
Temporary storage
Total spool space

Events and Alerting feature of Instana
Instana has the capability to generate an alert whenever user defined message ID, queue library and queue name combination matches for any of the incoming messages in the message queue within the specified time (like last 10 minutes). These alerts will enable you to take any necessary action sooner.

Whenever a message is produced which is being monitored using yaml file is picked up by instana and corresponding alert is generated.

Speakers

Gurvinder Singh

Thursday May 22, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT
Room 10 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

11:15am PDT

AI Meets Node.js: Unlocking the Power of Large Language Models in JavaScript

Thursday May 22, 2025 11:15am - 12:15pm PDT

Artificial Intelligence and large language models (LLMs) are reshaping industries and sparking innovation like never before. While AI development has long been associated with Python, the growing demand to seamlessly integrate AI into the web applications that drive the digital world is changing the game. So, do we transform web developers into Python experts—or do we empower them to leverage AI with the tools they already know?

In this talk, we’ll take you on an exciting journey of exploring LLMs with Node.js and JavaScript. Discover how leading AI libraries like LangChain, Ollama, and LlamaIndex are bringing JavaScript into the AI fold as a first-class citizen. Learn how surprisingly easy it is to integrate powerful AI capabilities into your applications with Node.js, and walk away inspired to embark on your own AI journey—no Python required! Whether you’re an AI enthusiast or a JavaScript developer curious about the future, this session is your gateway to building smarter, AI-powered applications.

Speakers

Michael Dawson

Thursday May 22, 2025 11:15am - 12:15pm PDT
Room 4 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

1:30pm PDT

Web & API Language Shootout

Thursday May 22, 2025 1:30pm - 2:30pm PDT

Alan will compare and review several open source languages commonly used for web-related development and the role of RPG alongside them. Languages include PHP, Python, and Node.js (javascript). The session contains concrete information about each as well as a lively discussion.

Speakers

Alan Seiden

Principal, IBM Champion, Seiden Group

How to modernize and create something new while leveraging your valuable business logic. Supporting developers, mentoring, staff augmentation, architecture, development and programming.APIs, IBM i, open source, web, PHP, Node.js, Python, RPG, ERPs

Thursday May 22, 2025 1:30pm - 2:30pm PDT
Room 6 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

5:00pm PDT

The Magic of Rest APIs for IBM i

Thursday May 22, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT

Rest APIs play a core part of the modern application. The good news, the IBM i operating system has an integrated engine giving everyone the ability to easily get started with leveraging Rest. This session will show with live demos how to create Rest APIs that call backend RPG/COBOL programs or wrapper SQL statements.

Speakers

Tim Rowe

STSM - IBM i Business Architect, IBM

Tim Rowe is the Business Architect responsible for Application Development and Systems Management for the IBM i operating system. His responsibilities include helping to make sure that the IBM i has what is needed to be successful both today and into the future. He sends much of his... Read More →

Thursday May 22, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
Room 6 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General