What's new

This topic highlights the changes made to IBM^® Toolbox for Java™ in V5R4.

IBM Toolbox for Java is available in the following forms:

The licensed program for IBM Toolbox for Java, 5722-JC1, Version 5 Release 4 (V5R4) installs on V5R2 and later versions of i5/OS™. From a client, IBM Toolbox for Java connects back to V5R2 and later versions of i5/OS.
i5/OS also includes the non-graphical classes of IBM Toolbox for Java optimized for use when running IBM Toolbox for Java classes on the iSeries™ Java virtual machine (JVM). So if, for example, you do not have a need for the graphical functionality of the licensed program, you can still easily use IBM Toolbox for Java. For more information, see Jar files.
IBM Toolbox for Java is also available in an open source version. You can download the code and get more information from the JTOpen Web site.

Enhancements to IBM Toolbox for Java JDBC support

For information about enhanced JDBC functions, see Enhancements to IBM Toolbox for Java JDBC support for V5R4. For information about new JDBC properties, see IBM Toolbox for Java JDBC properties.

New classes

The following classes have been added since V5R3. All classes listed here are in package "com.ibm.as400.access," unless otherwise noted.

Enhanced classes

Significant enhancements were made to the following classes. All classes listed here are in package "com.ibm.as400.access," unless otherwise noted.

Many of the JDBC classes
IFSFile class
JarMaker and AS400ToolboxJarMaker (in the "utilities" package)
FTP and AS400FTP

Deprecated packages

The following packages have been deprecated since V5R3:

com.ibm.as400.vaccess
com.ibm.as400.resource

Deprecated classes

The following classes have been deprecated since V5R3:

utilities.AS400ToolboxInstaller
com.ibm.as400.access.NetServer has been replaced by ISeriesNetServer.
com.ibm.as400.access.IFSTextFileInputStream has been replaced by IFSFileReader.
com.ibm.as400.access.IFSTextFileOutputStream has been replaced by IFSFileWriter.

Compatibility

The IBM Toolbox for Java no longer ships the x4j400.jar (IBM XML parser). It is recommended that applications use one of the following JAXP-compliant XML parsers:

The XML parser that is built into JDK 1.4 and higher
The Apache Xerces XML parser available from xml.apache.org
One of the XML parsers that ship on i5/OS under /QIBM/ProdData/OS400/xml/lib

IBM Toolbox for Java no longer supports running in the default JVM in Netscape Navigator or Microsoft^® Internet Explorer. Running applets that use IBM Toolbox for Java classes in a browser requires that you install a plug-in such as the most recent Sun Java 2 Runtime Environment (JRE) plug-in Link outside Information Center .

IBM Toolbox for Java no longer includes data400.jar. The classes that were in data400.jar are now in jt400.jar. Remove data400.jar from your CLASSPATH statements.

You cannot use this release of IBM Toolbox for Java to deserialize some objects that you serialized using releases before V5R1.

If you are using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to encrypt data flowing between the client and the server, you must use Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE).

To use all the IBM Toolbox for Java classes, use the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE). Using the vaccess classes or the Graphical Toolbox requires using the Swing package, which comes with J2SE. Using PDML requires that you run version 1.4 or later of the Java Runtime Environment.

For more information, review the i5/OS requirements for running IBM Toolbox for Java.

How to see what's new or changed

To help you see where technical changes have been made, this information uses:

The image to mark where new or changed information begins.
The image to mark where new or changed information ends.

To find other information about what's new or changed this release, see the Memo to users.