Mono on IBM i Library (MONOI) Containing MONO CL Command Wrapper to call .Net applications in PASE from CL, RPG or COBOL applications on IBM i and get return results (STDOUT) from the applications in one of the following formats: IFS file, OUTFILE, job log entries or spool file.
The main benefit of this wrapper is to be able to integrate .Net applications on-the-fly with standard IBM i job streams.
The Mono runtime environment must be installed on your IBM i. This can be done via downloading a binary save file or by using a custom Yum repository to install via the IBM i Access Client Solutions (ACS) Client Open Source Package Management option from the Tools menu.
Installing via Save File Distribution
Mono for IBM i must be installed. Mono for IBM i binary save file distribution can be downloaded from here: https://github.com/MonoOni/binarydist
Follow instructions for installing the Mono environment in /opt/mono.
Installing via Yum Repository (Don't use Yum install currently if doing VB dev - Missing Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll missing from GAC
On the IBM i Manually create the following repository file via the EDTF command or create it via Windows notepad and upload to the IFS location for the Yum repositories. Ex: EDTF STMF('/QOpenSys/etc/yum/repos.d/qsecofr.repo')
Note: If you create the qsecofr.repo file with EDTF, make sure before entering any text in the file, press Shift-F3/F15 for the EDTF Options Screen. Set the Selection value to: 3 and value for Change the CCSID of file to: 00819 and press Enter and then F12 to return to the editor. This will insure the data gets written to the qsecofr.repo file in ASCII format when it's saved. After saving and closing the file, run the following command:
WRKLNK OBJ('/QOpenSys/etc/yum/repos.d/qsecofr.repo') and then select option 8 on qsecofr.repo. Coded character set ID should say: 819
Repo file name: /QOpenSys/etc/yum/repos.d/qsecofr.repo
The contents of the repo file should be:
[qsecofr]
name=QSECOFR IBM i RPM Repo
baseurl=http://repo.qseco.fr
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
After creating the new repository IFS file qsecofr.repo, you can launch the Open Source Package Management utility from IBM ACS Client via the Tools menu and you'll see the new Available Packages. Select mono-complete and click the install option. This should complete the Mono install to the /QopenSys/pkgs folder location for apps installed by Yum on IBM i.
Note: I noticed that on the Yum install that the Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll runtime file is not included in the GAC (Global Assembly Cache). This causes a problem when running a VB app. Your VB app will get an error about a missing Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll file and will crash.
Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll should be located in the following location: /QOpenSys/pkgs/lib/mono/gac/Microsoft.VisualBasic/10.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll There's a secondary file needed in the GAC as well: /QOpenSys/pkgs/lib/mono/gac/Microsoft.VisualBasic/10.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll.mdb
You can install the save file version of Mono to /opt/mono and then copy the Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll files from /opt/mono/lib/mono/Microsoft.VisualBasic/10.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a to /QOpenSys/pkgs/lib/mono/gac/Microsoft.VisualBasic/10.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a
I have a note out to the Yum package author to see if he can fix the Yum build.
Download the monoi.savf save file from the selected releases page.
https://github.com/richardschoen/MonoOniLibrary/releases
Upload the monoi.savf to the IFS and place it in /tmp/monoi.savf
Run the following commands to copy the save file from the IFS into a SAVF object
CRTSAVF FILE(QGPL/MONOI)
CPYFRMSTMF FROMSTMF('/tmp/monoi.savf') TOMBR('/qsys.lib/qgpl.lib/monoi.file') MBROPT(*REPLACE) CVTDTA(*NONE)
Restore the MONOI library
RSTLIB SAVLIB(MONOI) DEV(*SAVF) SAVF(QGPL/MONOI)
Build the MONOI commands
ADDLIBLE MONOI
CRTCLPGM PGM(MONOI/SRCBLDC) SRCFILE(MONOI/SOURCE) SRCMBR(SRCBLDC) REPLACE(*YES)
CALL PGM(MONOI/SRCBLDC)
The following example calls a program named: Sample1.exe from the /mydotnet directory and passes the program 2 parameters individually vi the MONO CL command. See the MONO2 command if you want to pass all parms in a single parameter value instead. More of a preference thing.
MONO WORKDIR('/mydotnet')
EXEFILE(Sample1.exe)
ARGS('Parm1 value' 'Parm 2 value')
OUTFILE(MONOSTDOUT)
MONOPATH('/QOpenSys/pkgs/bin')
DSPSTDOUT(*NO)
LOGSTDOUT(*YES)
PRTSTDOUT(*NO)
DLTSTDOUT(*YES)
WORKDIR - The IFS location for the .Net program you want to call.
EXEFILE - The .Net program you want to call.
ARGS - Command line parameters. Up to 40 args can be passed to a .Net program call. Do NOT put double quotes around parms or your program call may get errors because your parameters get compromised with double quotes. Double quotes are added automatically inside the CL command processing program. Single quotes are allowed around your parmaeter data: Ex: 'My Parm Value 1' 'My Parm Value 2'
OUTFILE - The output file which will receive STDOUT lokking feedback.
MONOPATH - This is the location of the Mono binary. The mono executable runs your .Net program code. Specify /QOpenSys/pkgs/bin if you loaded Mono via the Yum repository. (Default) Specify /opt/mono/bin if you loaded Mono via the save file from the following link: https://github.com/MonoOni/binarydist
DSPSTDOUT - Display the outfile contents. Nice when debigging.
LOGSTDOUT - Place STDOUT log entries into the current jobs job log. Use this if you want the log info in the IBM i joblog.
PRTSTDOUT - Print STDOUT to a spool file. Use this if you want a spool file of the log output.
DLTSTDOUT - This option insures that the STDOUT IFS temp files get cleaned up after processing. All IFS log files get created in the /tmp/mono directory.
The following example calls a program named: Sample1.exe from the /mydotnet directory and passes the program 2 parameters all in a single parameter field delimited by double quotes via the MONO2 CL command. See the MONO command if you want to pass each parameter individually without specifying double quotes. More of a preference thing.
The following example calls a program named: Sample1.exe from the /mydotnet directory and passes the program 2 parameters.
MONO2 WORKDIR('/mydotnet')
EXEFILE(Sample1.exe)
ARGS('"Parm1 value" "Parm 2 value"')
OUTFILE(MONOSTDOUT)
MONOPATH('/QOpenSys/pkgs/bin')
DSPSTDOUT(*NO)
LOGSTDOUT(*YES)
PRTSTDOUT(*NO)
DLTSTDOUT(*YES)
WORKDIR - The IFS location for the .Net program you want to call.
EXEFILE - The .Net program you want to call.
ARGS - Command line parameters. A single command line string where each parameter is delimited by double quotes. The double quotes are automatically removed by the .Net program when it processes the arguments. Ex: '"My Parm Value1" "My Parm Value2"' Notice the entire command line value is surrounded by single quotes and each parm is delimited with double quotes.
OUTFILE - The output file which will receive STDOUT lokking feedback.
MONOPATH - This is the location of the Mono binary executable. The mono executable runs your .Net program code. Specify /QOpenSys/pkgs/bin if you loaded Mono via the Yum repository. (Default) Specify /opt/mono/bin if you loaded Mono via the save file from the following link: https://github.com/MonoOni/binarydist
DSPSTDOUT - Display the outfile contents. Nice when debigging.
LOGSTDOUT - Place STDOUT log entries into the current jobs job log. Use this if you want the log info in the IBM i joblog.
PRTSTDOUT - Print STDOUT to a spool file. Use this if you want a spool file of the log output.
DLTSTDOUT - This option insures that the STDOUT IFS temp files get cleaned up after processing. All IFS log files get created in the /tmp/mono directory.