In this working example, we establish an SQL table which contains the spreadsheets we'd like to have generated. Each row in the table includes the query that will supply the data for the spreadsheet, and the location in the IFS where the spreadsheet should reside. Further, a different procedure emails the spreadsheets to an interested consumer. …

Generating spreadsheets with SQL.sql

-- =================================================================
-- Author: Scott Forstie
-- Email : [email protected]
-- Date  : January 10, 2020
-- =================================================================

--
-- Setup:
-- 1) create and populate the spreadsheet generator table
-- 2) change the procedure source code:
--   2a) Use ACS to upload acsbundle.jar to /home/acs/acsbundle.jar
--   2b) Change [email protected] to your email address. <==== Please don't email me your spreadsheets :)
--   2c) Change /system=COMMON1 to use the name of your IBM i
--   2d) Change the ADDUSRSMTP user profile to be your user profile
--
cl: STRTCPSVR SERVER(*SMTP)  ;
cl: ADDUSRSMTP USRPRF(SCOTTF);

create schema coolstuff;
 
create table coolstuff.spreadsheet_generator
 (IFS_PATH varchar(1000),
  Spreadsheet_query varchar(10000)
  ); 

truncate coolstuff.spreadsheet_generator;
insert into coolstuff.spreadsheet_generator
 values ('/home/SCOTTF/systemnameGroupPTFCurrency', 
         'SELECT * FROM systools.group_ptf_currency');
insert into coolstuff.spreadsheet_generator
 values ('/home/SCOTTF/top10spool', 
         'select user_name, sum(size) as total_spool_space from qsys2.output_queue_entries_basic group by user_name order by total_spool_space desc limit 10');
insert into coolstuff.spreadsheet_generator
 values ('/home/SCOTTF/ALLOBJusers', 
         'select authorization_name,status,no_password_indicator,previous_signon,text_description
  from qsys2.user_info where special_authorities like ''''%*ALLOBJ%'''' or authorization_name in (select user_profile_name
  from qsys2.group_profile_entries where group_profile_name in (select authorization_name
  from qsys2.user_info where special_authorities like ''''%*ALLOBJ%'''')) order by authorization_name');
  
select * from coolstuff.spreadsheet_generator;
stop;

--
-- 1 time setup:
-- =============
-- a) Locate ACS (acsbundle.jar) in the IFS at /home/acs/acsbundle.jar
-- b) Update the code below to use the name of your system
--    change COMMON1 to your system name
--    If you're on IBM i 7.3 or higher, with a current Db2 PTF group, just query QSYS2.SYSTEM_STATUS_INFO.
--    select partition_name from qsys2.system_status_info
--
create or replace procedure coolstuff.generate_spreadsheets()
begin
  declare cmdtext clob(2k);
  declare v_cmdstmt varchar(2000);
  declare v_ifs_path varchar(1000);
  declare v_ifs_full_path varchar(2000);
  declare v_spreadsheet_query varchar(10000);
  declare not_found condition for '02000';
  declare at_end integer default 0;
  declare spreadsheets cursor for
    select ifs_path, spreadsheet_query
      from coolstuff.spreadsheet_generator;
  declare continue handler for sqlexception set at_end = 1;
  declare continue handler for not_found set at_end = 1;
  open spreadsheets;
  fetch from spreadsheets into v_ifs_path, v_spreadsheet_query;
  while (at_end = 0) do
    set v_ifs_full_path = v_ifs_path concat lpad(month(current date), 2, 0) concat
          lpad(day(current date), 2, 0) concat year(current date) concat '.xlsx';
    set cmdtext =
  'STRQSH CMD(''java -Dcom.ibm.iaccess.ActLikeExternal=true -jar /home/acs/acsbundle.jar '
          concat '/plugin=cldownload /system=COMMON1 /clientfile=' concat v_ifs_full_path
          concat ' /sql="' concat v_spreadsheet_query concat '"'')';
    --    call systools.lprintf('Speadsheet being generated: ' concat v_ifs_full_path);
    call qsys2.qcmdexc(cmdtext);
    set v_cmdstmt =
        'SNDSMTPEMM RCP((''[email protected]'' *pri)) SUBJECT(''COMMON1 report:' concat
          v_ifs_full_path concat ''') NOTE(''Common1 report ' concat
          lpad(month(current date), 2, 0) concat lpad(day(current date), 2, 0) concat
          year(current date) concat ''') ATTACH(''' concat v_ifs_full_path concat ''')';
    --    call systools.lprintf('Speadsheet being emailed: ' concat v_ifs_full_path);
    call qsys2.qcmdexc(v_cmdstmt);
    fetch from spreadsheets into v_ifs_path, v_spreadsheet_query;
  end while;
  close spreadsheets;
end; 
stop;

call coolstuff.generate_spreadsheets();

stop;
create or replace procedure coolstuff.email_spreadsheets ()
begin
  declare cmdtext clob(2k);
  declare v_cmdstmt varchar(2000);
  declare v_ifs_path varchar(1000);
  declare v_ifs_full_path varchar(2000);
  declare v_spreadsheet_query varchar(10000);
  declare not_found condition for '02000';
  declare at_end integer default 0;
  declare spreadsheets cursor for
    select ifs_path, spreadsheet_query
      from coolstuff.spreadsheet_generator;
  declare continue handler for sqlexception set at_end = 1;
  declare continue handler for not_found set at_end = 1;
  open spreadsheets;
  fetch from spreadsheets into v_ifs_path, v_spreadsheet_query;
  while (at_end = 0) do
    set v_ifs_full_path = v_ifs_path concat lpad(month(current date), 2, 0) concat
          lpad(day(current date), 2, 0) concat year(current date) concat '.xlsx';
    call systools.lprintf('Speadsheet being emailed: ' concat v_ifs_full_path);
    set v_cmdstmt =
                  'SNDSMTPEMM RCP((''[email protected]'' *pri)) SUBJECT(''COMMON1 report'') NOTE(''Common1 report '
                    concat lpad(month(current date), 2, 0) concat
                    lpad(day(current date), 2, 0) concat year(current date) concat
          ''') ATTACH(''' concat v_ifs_full_path concat ''')';
    call qsys2.qcmdexc(v_cmdstmt);
    fetch from spreadsheets into v_ifs_path, v_spreadsheet_query;
  end while;
  close spreadsheets;
end; 
stop;

call coolstuff.email_spreadsheets();

stop;

-- Create the spreadsheets on a schedule
cl: ADDJOBSCDE JOB(SSHEETS) CMD(RUNSQL SQL('call coolstuff.generate_spreadsheets()') COMMIT(*NONE) NAMING(*SQL)) FRQ(*WEEKLY) SCDDATE(*NONE) SCDDAY(*ALL) SCDTIME(235500)   ;

stop;

--
-- description: Review the setup
--
select *
  from qsys2.scheduled_job_info
  where scheduled_job_name = 'SSHEETS';

Hello everybody. We ran into a problem when using GENERATE_SPREADSHEET. Our application generally submits jobs to a single job JOBQ. When creating an Excel file with programs using this function, it crashes stating that there are no resources for starting child process. Submitting to another jobq with no maximum jobs allowed, it works.
This is the message we get (text in Italian)
/QIBM/ProdData/Java400/bin/java: 001-0012 Errore rilevato durante l'avvio del processo child. Non ci sono risorse di sistema disponi
Are there any options/system settings/environment variables to avoid this behaviour ? It would be good if the Excel creation process occurred in a system jobq (eg. QSYSNOMAX) while the SQL function waits for completion...
Thank you

Hi,
I hope you're able to increase the jobs allowed or switch to a jobq that has a different configuration.
Fwiw, I haven't had this issue reported by others.

Good list Julien!
I agree that its a frustrating service to diagnose should there be a failure.
Thanks for sharing.

Hi, I hope you're able to increase the jobs allowed or switch to a jobq that has a different configuration. Fwiw, I haven't had this issue reported by others.

Hello Scott. Finally I wrapped it up in a custom command, that submits the Excel creation to QSYSNOMAX jobq and waits for completion. All was due to our particular configurations of job queues.
Thank you,
Massimo