What's new for V5R4

Find a summary of the new administration functions for this release.

With the installation of V5R4 iSeries™ Access for Windows^®, you can manage your environment through new functions that have been added to the database providers and other product enhancements.

New features for the iSeries Access for Windows administrator include:

• Data Transfer features

  V5R4 Data Transfer now includes support for MS Excel Xml Spreadsheet format, 128 byte column names, PC selection of an independent auxiliary storage pool (IASP), and support for creating and overwriting empty query result sets.

• PC5250 print and emulation

  V5R4 iSeries Access for Windows PC5250 comes with integrated support for version 5.8 of Personal Communications 5250. Key enhancements for version 5.8 include printer session association, configuration settings in the session windows in a printer session, page and printer setup APIs, additional Bidi enablement, and automation object support for .NET.

• iSeries Navigator

  There are several new iSeries Navigator features. For a description of these features see information provided with iSeries Navigator.

• ODBC

  In V5R4, ODBC and your iSeries host support 128-byte column names and longer SQL statements (commands up to 2,097,152 bytes or 1,048,576 characters). ODBC also supports passing an IBM^® Enterprise Workload Manager (eWLM) correlator to the iSeries host.

• Database providers

  Library List and System Naming are now supported by the .NET provider and the OLE DB provider. In addition, these providers also support the new V5R4 iSeries host server enhancements, which include 128-byte column names, longer SQL statements, and passing the IBM Enterprise Workload Manager (eWLM) correlator.

  The .NET provider also supports LOB data types and customizable String processing for other data types. It also supports multiple active result sets for each connection, and IntelliSense.

  • For technical details about the IBM.Data.DB2.iSeries provider, see the IBM DB2^® UDB for iSeries .NET Provider Technical Reference. For details about the other providers, see the OLE DB Technical Reference. You can access these documents from topics in the Programmer's Toolkit, following this path:

    Start > Programs > IBM iSeries Access for Windows > Programmer's Toolkit > Programmer's Toolkit > Common Interfaces

• Printer Drivers
  Beginning with V5R4, iSeries Access for Windows provides a 64-bit AFP™ printer driver for use on 64-bit versions of Windows operating systems. The new driver is supported on the Intel^® Itanium (Intel 64-bit) Processor Family of personal computers.

  Notes:

  • The driver is not supported on the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Hammer family of processors.
  • The SCS Printer Driver is not supported on 64-bit Windows operating systems.
• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
  • Beginning with V5R4, you can configure client PCs to, optionally, switch in and out of FIPS-compliant (Federal Information Processing Standards) mode, for most functions of iSeries Access for Windows where SSL is used.
  • Also, beginning with V5R4, Client Encryption (CE3) is no longer installed as a separate product on the server in order to install 128-bit SSL Encryption on your PC. 128-bit SSL Encryption is packaged with the iSeries Access for Windows (XE1) product, and is therefore available as an installable component of your usual new, upgrade, selective, or tailored install options.
  • In addition, starting with V5R4, SSL is available for 64-bit applications on personal computers powered by the Intel Itanium (Intel 64-bit) Processor Family.
    Notes:

    • SSL is not yet available for 64-bit applications run on the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Hammer family of processors or on Intel processors with EM64T.
    • SSL is available to 32-bit applications that run on either platform.