CoolSpools Database

CoolSpools Database is product option 4 of the CoolSpools suite.

CoolSpools helps you give your users and customers the right information, at the right time, and, just as importantly, in the right format.

CoolSpools Database extracts data from system i (AS/400, system i) database files (physical, logical or DDM files) to a variety of formats, including:

Excel
XML
fixed-width text
CSV (and other delimited formats such as TSV)
HTML
PDF (requires Spool Converter)

CoolSpools Database can also work the other way round: its CVTDBFXL (Convert Excel to Database) command can extract the cell contents of an Excel spreadsheet and write them to a database file in a standard "outfile" format (just like IBM commands such as DSPOBJD) so that the information from the spreadsheet can be easily processed by your applications.

CoolSpools runs entirely on the system i and does not need a PC to produce Excel files, XML documents etc., though these can then be easily accessed from a PC.

All database file types supported, including:

physical files
logical files
DDM files

CoolSpools Database also supports:

Queries (*QRYDFN)
QM Query (*QMQRY)
SQL
SQL in source file

allowing you to save the output from any of those in any supported file format.

So, this means you can run a query and save the output as an Excel spreadsheet! What's more, if you've got CoolSpools Email, you can email that spreadsheet to your users or customers too!

Other features include:

Field selection and sequencing

Just list the fields you want in the order you want them.

Alternatively, just list the fields you don't want.
Record selection and sequencing

Specify a query selection string to define the selection criteria for records you want.

Defined sort keys to control the sequencing of the output you want.
Use styles to control the appearance of Excel rows and cells

Use colors, fonts, shading, borders etc.

Define conditional formatting rules, for example to color high values red or lo values green.
Generate XML documents, schemas and stylesheets

Generate an XML document from your files or queries.

Use XML to interface your data into other systems.

Automatically generate a DTD or XSD schema.

Automatically generate a XSLT or CSS stylesheet.

The steps you need to follow to setup system i email, as well as some tips for managing and troubleshooting system i email, are explained in our Email Setup Guide.

Additional links related to setting up and managing email on the system i can be found on our Email Setup page.