Hi Scott, and thank you for your answer, exhaustive and complete.
I understand your point of view and your arguments. I have worked with DataStage for many years and I want the product to be the best it can be. But it is also and above all necessary to provide service to users.
The Falash shutdown had been announced for years and I think IBM should have developed a better implementation for Hierarchical Data than DataFlow's.
CP4D DS version will undoubtedly be excellent but for the moment it is not operational. I hope all my customers will switch to CP4D but considering the price I'm not sure. In any case, not right away.
Think too about the DataStage for Workgroup version.
Harmon is not a solution given the license porix - the stock of IBM licenses being limited (and there are no more).
So I understand my customers who are not happy, I myself am at a dead end in my developments.
Too bad for me.
I just hope that you will not abandon the evolutions of the promised version and that the new implementation of HierarchicalData will be there.
Sincerely, Jerzy
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Jerzy Konarski
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Original Message:
Sent: Fri October 01, 2021 10:06 AM
From: Scott Brokaw
Subject: DataStage and Flash - the real desaster for DataStage image.
Jerzy,
Thanks for your comments, and I know this particular topic has been of keen interest to you and our other DataStage users.
Adobe Flash is the technology that is leveraged for the design-time experience of the Hierarchical stage (used for XML/JSON processing and REST operations). Clients have enjoyed the Hierarchical stage for the incredibly powerful use cases it unlocks and its ability to bring sophisticated JSON/XML processing capabilities into DataStage. When the Hierarchical stage was initially developed (originally GA'ed back in 2010!), the team chose to implement it on Adobe Flash, which locked us into this software. Flash at the time was known for its ability to allow developers to build highly interactive applications, which led to its selection for the UI/UX challenges for the Hierarchical stage. For those familiar with the stage, you know of its many options and powerful constructs, developed over several years to make it the critical component of DataStage it is.
IBM published a tech note in January of 2020 to notify our clients of the impacts of the impending end of support of Flash that Adobe had announced (we also sent the technote to IBM My Notifications subscribers for InfoSphere Information Server). The removal of Flash was not a surprise to IBM, but what was, admittedly, a surprise was the complexity to replace the Hierarchical stage's experience effectively. Despite all of its issues, Adobe Flash had allowed the team to provide a much more powerful experience than we were able to rebuild in our initial implementation of DFD (DataStage Flow Designer). We recognize that this approach (DFD) is ideal for simple use cases, but for more complex use cases, our advice (at version 11.7) is to continue to use the DataStage Designer Client with the Harman plug-in. We would consider both of these options to be short-term workarounds, and please get in touch with our support team if you need help with your particular use case or advice on which short-term path to pursue. This topic brings me to speak to the "long-term"/sustainable solution for the Hierarchical stage. Digressing for a moment to talk about our more significant direction...
Hopefully, by now, you have seen the great work our team has been doing to bring DataStage to our cloud-native, fully containerized platform on Cloud Pak for Data. It is not an exaggeration to state that this has been a herculean task for our development team to bring all you know and love about DataStage to a modern platform that will be here for years to come. I have been around the DataStage product for over 10 years now (many of you have been here for even longer :) ), and I am deeply passionate about not only the product but enabling you as our trusted clients to be productive and successful. As I wrote about in June, I have never been more excited for the future of DataStage and what we are building to enable existing usage patterns and the new and modern Data Integration use cases. The history of DataStage is vibrant and we are building on this solid foundation to ensure all of the years of experience and jobs/patterns you have developed can be modernized and brought forward onto our new platform. Coming back to how this impacts the Hierarchical stage, we have been hard at work building a brand new experience (non-Flash based) for the Hierarchical Stage on Cloud Pak for Data. I want to invite any of you passionate about the Hierarchical stage to reach out to our team to take you through the latest of what the Hierarchical stage is looks like on Cloud Pak for Data. The team has done a fantastic job building out this experience allowing a much clearer way (using a subflow concept!) to work with all of the available options within the Hierarchical stage. I will share a few previews below, but please reach out to us to provide feedback so we can build a productive and powerful experience for years to come.
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Scott L. Brokaw
STSM and Program Director, Product Management
DataStage and Data Integration
Original Message:
Sent: Fri September 24, 2021 04:09 AM
From: Jerzy Konarski
Subject: DataStage and Flash - the real desaster for DataStage image.
Hello,
The number of Harmon licenses IBM was offering was limited and it no longer has any.
So if we want to continue developing your processes that use JSON / XML / REST, either you have to buy the license from Harmon (overpriced) or use DataFlow.
To use DataFlow, you have to migrate to the latest version of DataStage, even if some customers will do well, that is not really the problem.
The real problem is the interface of DataFlow, which - I believe - is not completely finished and does not offer the same ease of use as that of Designer, but the HierarchicalData component which is a real disaster in this environment.
The removal of Flash had been announced for years. I would like someone to explain to me how IBM was able to miss this and do nothing to keep a tool like DataStage usable.
Data processing is crucial for the proper functioning of business processes in many companies and what has been done but doubts the sustainability of IBM tools.
Today I am deadlocked and I do not know what to say to my clients. A while ago I wanted to talk to them about CP4D but I'm not sure they want to listen to me.
Really I'm dazed and I don't know what to do.
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Jerzy Konarski
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#DataIntegration