ftp return format

[Carey Evans]

"Richard Chamberlain" <richard_chamberlain at ntlworld.com> writes:

> OK that sounds about right - I installed the Client Access ODBC drivers and
> was able to return correct data.
> 
> Is there anyway I can do this without having to install Client Access and an
> ODBC driver on each client?

Hmm, where I work it's getting Python installed that's the problem.  ;)

Here's a few ideas, not all of them particularly helpful:

 · Parse the data as the other posts suggested, including the
   }JKLMNOPQR sign character, and hope you don't get any packed
   decimal in the future.

 · FTP the data in binary, so you don't have to worry about the
   EBCDIC -> ASCII conversion making things more confusing.  I posted
   a couple of functions here a few weeks ago to help with this.

 · Get the Client Access Express manuals and RedBook (all available
   for download as PDFs) and automate the ODBC install so that you
   don't have to click on half a dozen dialog boxes to install it.

 · Use CPYTOIMPF on the AS/400 to copy the data into a different
   format in a stream file, then use FTP or NetServer to download this
   file.  You can submit remote commands over an AS/400 FTP session,
   so you could do this on request from the Python program.

 · Write a program on the AS/400 that will return the data in a
   useful format when you connect to it over TCP/IP.

 · Run the program under JPython and use the AS/400 Toolkit for Java
   classes to connect to the AS/400 (this works, I've tried it).

 · Download the Java source for the Toolkit for Java and port it to
   Python.  :)  This would be a rather large job...

-- 
	 Carey Evans  http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/c.evans/

              "I'm leaning towards blind panic myself."