Re: RPG Service Program vs Include Source for Shared Subprocedures and SQL Calls

Thanks Charles, I know many consider the use of global variables to be
wrong, and indeed, in a service program, this is absolutely true. But when
it comes to programs, especially those types of programs, I find that using
copy members makes general maintenance much easier.

Thanks for your time.

Best regards
--
Marco Facchinetti

Mr S.r.l.

Tel. 035 962885
Cel. 393 9620498

Skype: facchinettimarco


Il giorno lun 23 mar 2026 alle ore 15:27 Charles Wilt <
[email protected]> ha scritto:

> I suspect procedure pointers could help with your use case, but would
> likely be a significant refactor.
>
> If nothing else, you'd need to remove the use of global variables from your
> procedures.  IMPORT / EXPORT exists, but you generally want to stay away
> from them.
>
> Just to give you an idea..I've got a set of applications.  Most of the work
> is done in a *SRVPGM.  The individual program objects contain the
> procedures with unique functionality.  So each *PGM object has a small
> mainline that sets up various variables and calls into the main *SRVPGM
> procedure passing along the needed PROCPTRs to provide the service program
> access to the needed unique functionality.
>
> HTH,
> Charles
>
> On Sat, Mar 21, 2026 at 8:20 AM Marco Facchinetti <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Most of the time the correct solution is *Srvpgm, but there are rare
> > exceptions where it may be preferable to use the copy version.
> >
> > An example in (our) real life is the invoice printing program: since we
> > serve multiple customers and each has a specific version that shares 90%
> of
> > the code with the others, the use of copies solved the problem of
> > maintaining a common structure and having specific functionality.
> >
> > Each shared routine or function contained in the copied members makes one
> > or more calls to custom routines/functions at fixed points (start, body,
> > and end). The return code of these calls determines whether or not to
> > execute the corresponding code in the standard function. This allows
> custom
> > code to replace or supplement the shared code.
> >
> > I haven't found a simple way to do this using service programs,
> especially
> > since functions and routines in copied members make perfectly legitimate
> > use of the main program's "global" variables.
> >
> > The problem with this kind of management where 90% of the code of a
> program
> > is not in the main source is that RDi cannot handle it, this is the
> reason
> > why I uploaded this idea:
> >
> > https://ideas.ibm.com/ideas/IBMI-I-4740
> >
> > Best regards
> > --
> > Marco Facchinetti
> >
> > Mr S.r.l.
> >
> > Tel. 035 962885
> > Cel. 393 9620498
> >
> > Skype: facchinettimarco
> >
> >
> > Il giorno ven 20 mar 2026 alle ore 22:13 Richard Schoen <
> > [email protected]> ha scritto:
> >
> > > Hi All,
> > >
> > > In the Python, Java and .Net world I usually create Python classes, jar
> > > files or DLLs to contain shared functionality.
> > >
> > > Because most IBMi shops have an interesting mix of RPG code bases I'm
> > > trying to determine whether I should create a service program or use
> > > includes for shared functionality at a customer site.
> > >
> > > With service programs, write once, bind and use everywhere.
> > >
> > > With copy books, just include on-the-fly.
> > >
> > > In the past I've leaned towards copybooks, but I'm curious what others
> > > think.  I'm a little cautious of burying SQL functionality into one or
> > more
> > > service programs.
> > >
> > > Real-world thoughts appreciated.
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Richard Schoen
> > > Web: http://www.richardschoen.net
> > > Email: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
> > >
> > > --
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