COMMON POWERUp 2026

The SQL procedural language makes it easy to create your business logic in stored procedures, triggers, and user-defined functions. Each of these routines have options that performance, but most programmers usually take the default option values without giving any thought to their impact. Learn about these overlooked performance options and other procedural language coding best practices.

Learning Objectives:

Awareness of options that impact runtime performance.

In this session we will discuss the various ways to implement using REST APIs in your existing applications. What they are, why they exist, and how companies are using them to communicate with each other.

Learning Objectives:

We will take an RPG service program and deploy it as an API using the IBM Integrated Web Services tool (IWS).

IBM i often runs well with little or no focus on the performance of the system. But what if something unexpected occurs? If you understand the performance signature of your system when it is running well, it becomes much easier to identify and resolve problems if something goes wrong. This session will show you how to use the Performance Data Investigator with Collection Services data to understand your day-to-day performance signature. This session will review many key charts that can be found in the Investigate Data task, as well as how to understand what those charts mean in the context of IBM i performance.

Learning Objectives:

Learn how to use the Performance Data Investigator. Understand various charts in the Investigate Data task.

In this updated and award-winning session, Scott will explore the many ways that “bad actors” can attempt to subvert the security on IBM i. Whether the topic is protecting against SQL Injection, closing doors to acquiring elevated privileges, or attempting to discover unprotected objects, this session will include techniques for evaluation and protection of your IBM i. Attend this session to take a big step towards discovering and eliminating attack vectors within your IBM i!

Learning Objectives:

1) Understand the attack vectors 2) Learn how SQL can be used to discover whether you're exposed or not 3) Learn a technique for remediating the issue, should it exist

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.

Learning Objectives:

* Learn the syntax of the most commonly used SQL JSON publishing functions * Understand the differences between a standard SQL select statement and an SQL statement constructing a JSON response * See how to integrate these SQL functions into an RPG program

Today, there are no known ransomware viruses that run directly on IBM i. However, that does not mean that the IBM i is not at risk. In this practical session, you will learn how to keep your IBM i system safe from Ransomware attacks. Don't miss this critical session! COMMON GOLD medal session.

Learning Objectives:

Understand the threats to IBM i Implement practices to protect the IBM i from those threats