Welcome
Developing
Developing EGL applications
Enterprise Generation Language (EGL) is a programming language that you can use to focus on business problems instead of software technologies. Within the Rational® development environment, you can use EGL wizards and other tools to write complex applications with minimal effort.
EGL Language Reference
The EGL Language Reference covers the fundamental use of the language, including its concepts, syntax, and keywords. This volume is intended for a developer writing EGL applications with some experience in procedural programming.
EGL core system libraries and variables
EGL library sysLib
The sysLib system library contains miscellaneous functions and one variable.
startCmd()

Overview
Getting started
Installing
Upgrading and migrating
EGL Code Accelerator for IBD
Developing
- Model driven development of EGL code
- Generating source code from UML models
  You can use transformations to create source code from a UML model. First you must create a transformation parameters file and then apply those parameters to a model.
- Generating the EGL Dependency Graph from EGL projects
- Generating Source Code from OpenAPI Documents
- Developing EGL applications
  Enterprise Generation Language (EGL) is a programming language that you can use to focus on business problems instead of software technologies. Within the Rational® development environment, you can use EGL wizards and other tools to write complex applications with minimal effort.
  - How to use this documentation
  - Additional information about EGL
    The most recent EGL documentation is in the IBM Business Developer documentation.
  - EGL Programmer's Guide
    The EGL Programmer's Guide covers using EGL within the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE), as well as some of the common programming tasks that EGL developers perform.
  - EGL Generation Guide
    The EGL Generation Guide covers the process of converting EGL code to Java™ or COBOL source code, including the processes and the files involved. This section is intended for a developer who will generate or deploy EGL applications.
  - EGL Language Reference
    The EGL Language Reference covers the fundamental use of the language, including its concepts, syntax, and keywords. This volume is intended for a developer writing EGL applications with some experience in procedural programming.
    - General syntax
    - System data parts
    - User-defined data parts
    - Logic parts
    - Correspondence between a JSON string and an EGL variable
      This topic describes the EGL record that corresponds to a JavaScript™ Object Notation (JSON) string. Other topics describe the functions (serviceLib.convertFromJSON() and serviceLib.convertToJSON()) that are used by a Rich UI developer to convert JSON data to or from a variable, as may be necessary to access a third-party REST service. A failure in either function causes a RuntimeException.
    - Correspondence between a JSON string and an EGL variable for zOS and IBM i
      This topic describes the EGL record that corresponds to a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) string. This topic describes the functions—serviceLib.convertFromJSON() and serviceLib.convertToJSON()—that are used by an EGL developer to convert JSON data to or from a variable either for zOS or IBM i systems. A failure in either function causes a RuntimeException.
    - Special considerations for JSON support on IBM i:
    - Correspondence between an XML string and an EGL variable
      This topic describes the EGL record that corresponds to an Extensible Markup Language (XML) string. Other topics describe the functions (serviceLib.convertFromXML and serviceLib.convertToXML) that are used by a Rich UI developer to convert XML data to or from a variable, as may be necessary to access a third-party REST service.
    - EGL statements
    - EGL core system libraries and variables
      - EGL library dateTimeLib
        The date and time system functions and variables let you manipulate and retrieve the system date and time in a variety of formats.
      - EGL library JavaLib
        The javaLib library access local Java® objects and classes through your generated Java™ code.
      - EGL library lobLib
        The lobLib system library provides support functions for large objects (BLOB and CLOB types).
      - EGL library logLib
        The logLib utility offers a set of logging functions that support multiple log levels DEBUG, ERROR, INFO, TRACE and WARN. These functions are designed to help developers effectively monitor, debug, and trace the behavior of EGL applications during execution.
      - EGL library mathLib
        The EGL mathLib functions perform common mathematical and trigonometric functions.
      - EGL library serviceLib
        The serviceLib functions get and set service variable information.
      - EGL library strLib
        The strLib functions manipulate and convert data to and from STRING variables and format date/time variables.
      - EGL library sysLib
        The sysLib system library contains miscellaneous functions and one variable.
        audit()
        The sysLib.audit() system function writes tracking information to the system log or journal in a COBOL environment.
        bytes()
        calculateChkDigitMod10()
        calculateChkDigitMod11()
        The sysLib.calculateChkDigitMod11() system function places a modulus-11 check digit in a NUM variable or a character variable that begins with a series of numeric characters.
        callCmd()
        commit()
        The sysLib.commit() system function saves updates to recoverable resources such as certain files and databases.
        conditionAsInt()
        convert()
        The sysLib.convert() system function converts data between EBCDIC (host) and ASCII (workstation) formats or performs code-page conversion within a single format.
        convertBidi()
        convertEncodedTextToString()
        The sysLib.convertEncodedTextToString() system function specifies an alternate encoding when you assign the value of a CHAR, MBCHAR, or DBCHAR variable to a UNICODE or STRING variable.
        convertNumberToUnicodeNum()
        convertNumberToUnsignedUnicodeNum()
        convertStringToEncodedText()
        The sysLib.convertStringToEncodedText() system function specifies an alternate encoding when you assign the value of a UNICODE or STRING variable to a CHAR, MBCHAR, or DBCHAR variable.
        convertUnicodeNumToNumber()
        The sysLib.convertUnicodeNumToNumber() function provides EGL support for COBOL variables in the NATIONAL SIGN IS LEADING, SEPARATE format.
        convertUnsignedUnicodeNumToNumber()
        currentException (EGL system variable)
        If you are running in V6 exception mode, use the sysLib.currentException system variable to capture information about an exception that was thrown in the run unit.
        errorLog()
        The sysLib.errorLog() system function copies text into the error log that the sysLib.startLog() system function started.
        getCmdLineArg()
        getCmdLineArgCount()
        getMessage()
        The sysLib.getMessage() system function returns a message from one of several possible sources.
        getProperty()
        maximumSize()
        purge()
        rollback()
        The sysLib.rollback() system function reverses updates that were made to recoverable resources since the last commit.
        setError()
        The sysLib.setError() system function associates a message with one of several possible containers.
        setErrorForComponentID()
        The sysLib.setErrorForComponentID() system function associates a message with a field in a JSF handler.
        setLocale()
        The sysLib.setLocale() system function sets the Java™ locale for the run unit.
        setRemoteUser()
        The sysLib.setRemoteUser() system function sets the userid and password for calls from Java™ programs to remote programs or to remote EGL services or to remote IBM® i programs that are accessed by way of a native binding.
        size()
        startCmd()
        startLog()
        verifyChkDigitMod10()
        The sysLib.verifyChkDigitMod10() system function verifies a modulus-10 check digit in a NUM variable or a character variable that begins with a series of numeric characters.
        verifyChkDigitMod11()
        The sysLib.verifyChkDigitMod11 system function verifies a modulus-11 check digit in a NUM variable or a character string that begins with a series of numeric characters.
        wait()
        The sysLib.wait() system function suspends the current process for a specified amount of time.
        writeStdErr()
        The sysLib.writeStdErr() system function writes a text string to the standard error device.
        writeStdout()
        The sysLib.writeStdout() system function writes a text string to the standard output device.
      - sysVar system variable
        The sysVar system variable holds a variety of values.
      - EGL library XMLLib
        This topic describes the XMLLib functions and variable definitions.
    - Accessing data in EGL
      Whenever you access a data store in EGL, the data goes into a record.
    - Applications with user interfaces
    - VisualAge® Generator compatibility
    - Appendices
    - Importing product-supplied projects
      You can click a link to download the current version of Rich UI projects. The capability is useful if you deleted a project or want a clean version.
  - Rational® COBOL Runtime Guide for zSeries®
    This manual provides information about customizing and administering the IBM® Rational® COBOL Runtime.
  - IBM Business Developer EGL Server Guide for IBM® i
    This manual provides information about customizing and administering EGL Server for IBM® i on the host.
  - Generation for VSE Feature Reference
    This reference manual provides z/VSE-specific information about developing and generating EGL programs in the VSE environment.
- Source code analysis with code review
  With code review, you can create configurations of coding rules for EGL source code. You can then run the configurations to check the source code for consistency with the rules.
- Responsive Design Support in IBD
  What is Responsive Design? Responsive design is an approach for creation of web pages that automatically scales its content and elements to match the screen size on which it is viewed. So, instead of designing multiple websites for different devices with variable screen sizes, we can design just one website that scales up or down automatically, to match the device it’s being viewed on.
- Containerizing an EGL RUI Application
Samples
Troubleshooting and support
EGL runtime error messages
Reference
Glossary
Using the help
Notices for IBM Business Developer documentation

startCmd()

The sysLib.startCmd() system function runs a system command and then continues processing, without waiting for the command to finish. This function is provided for compatibility with the I4GL RUN WITHOUT WAITING statement. You can use this function to start non-EGL programs or scripts.

The system command to be run must be visible to the currently running program. Consider the following example:

sysLib.startCmd("mySpecialProgram.exe");

In this case, the PATH environment variable must point to the directory that holds mySpecialProgram.exe. You can also specify the complete directory location, as in the following example:

sysLib.startCmd("program files/myWork/mySpecialProgram.exe");

Use the sysLib.callCmd() function to run a system command and wait until the command finishes to continue processing.

Both sysLib.callCmd() and sysLib.startCmd() assign the value that the system command returns to the system variable sysVar.returnCode. The system command must return a value that is assignment compatible with the INT type.

Syntax

  sysLib.startCmd(
    command STRING in
    [, mode STRING in] )

command

Identifies the operating-system command or program name to invoke.

mode

This can be a literal or a variable containing one of the following words:

form: Short for formatted, also known as raw mode. Each character of input becomes available to the program as it is typed.
line: No information is sent to the command specified until the Enter key is pressed.

Compatibility

Table 1. Compatibility considerations for startCmd()
Platform	Issue
COBOL generation	The sysLib.startCmd() function is not supported
JavaScript™ generation	The sysLib.startCmd() function is not supported