Rational Developer for i – Rdi – Unable to edit IBM i source members with RDI

Last Updated on 30 April 2021 by Roberto De Pedrini

Introduction

This article is not intended to be a real guide to Rational Developer for i – Rdi but only a collection of tips and tricks, to be looked at from time to time to better use this excellent development IDE for RPG and Cobol environments.

Rdi-Case study:

From the moment I decided to focus my attention on IBM I sources, the only tool I want to develop with is RDI. It is in no way conceivable to continue using the SEU and I believe that the time has come to write more and more code in ** free format. This IDE integrates developer tools, such as search, edit, development, analysis, refactoring, and debugger capabilities with the widely deployed Eclipse framework, for faster and easier application development and modernization.

But as always, it can happen that there are problems ….

With RDI, we have the great advantage of having multiple connections online at the same time on IBM I servers and therefore, we have the possibility with a simple drag and drop to move the sources without too much difficulty. So far so good, but for a couple of days now, I was no longer able to edit with LPEX any source present solely and exclusively on my pre-production environment.

In the first place, I immediately thought that you might have some problems with the Workspace Rdi which, for some strange reason, breaks down and creates strange problems. In these cases the first thing I tried to do is create a new clean workspace and check if the problems are solved, but it didn’t.

Slowly I go forward, and the question becomes more and more interesting.

I decide to connect with a 5250 session to my pre-production environment and start editing any source without any problems. Here, unfortunately, alas, I had to agree with my older colleagues, who have not yet converted to the new IDE and keep repeating to me that it is not worth it, but as a stubborn good I am, I decide to continue my race against the resolution of the problem.

Rdi-Resolution:

In the order I execute as per IBM documentation, all these checks:

• A firewall may be blocking the TCP / IP connection from the local workstation to port 446 on the IBM i server -> STRTCPSVR * DDM
• Run the DSPNETA command on the 5250 session and check the value for DDM REQUEST ACCESS. The default must be * OBJAUT.
• In very rare cases there are parser tables on IBM I which can, in rare cases, be corrupted. -> DLTUSRSPC USRSPC (QSYS / QCNPRSTBLS)
• Verify that the QUSRWRK subsystem is not limited to the number of jobs that can be run. The default is * NOMAX.
• As per IBM documentation, looking for the error code, I also tried to clear the RDI cache, but nothing.

After all these checks completed successfully, still nothing! The last step would be to check all the libraries present in my * JOBD and make sure that they are not present for some strange reason “bad library references”, but it seems to me something unthinkable, also because from the SEU through 5250 session everything works very well!

Well yes! At this point I decide to recreate a new * JOBD and associate it with my user profile, and I discover that there is a library, no longer needed, which has not been aligned on my pre-production environment and therefore, presents a “reference errors “only when, among other things, it is decided to recreate or confirm the current * JOBD. At this point, I decide to remove it from the library list and try again to edit a source with my fantastic RDI! Of course, everything works!

Ultimately, RDI is much smarter than our “comfortable” SEU, since every time you log in, it checks all the “library references” and in case, there is a simple mistake for a reason any, it inhibits the modification of sources!

References:

For more information, the official IBM documentation is available at the following links:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/i-am-unable-edit-ibm-i-source-members-rdi

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/editing-source-member-rdi-results-error-rsef1002