Using IBM CICS Transaction Server Channels and Containers

Using IBM CICS Transaction Server Channels and Containers

by Peter Klein, Steve Burghard
Released March 2015
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: 9780738440507

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Book description

This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the new channels and containers support in IBM Customer Information Control System (CICS®) Transaction Server V5.2. The book begins with an overview of the techniques used to pass data between applications running in CICS.

This book describes the constraints that these data techniques might be subject to, and how a channels and containers solution can provide solid advantages alongside these techniques. These capabilities enable CICS to fully comply with emerging technology requirements in terms of sizing and flexibility.

The book then goes on to describe application design, and looks at implementing channels and containers from an application programmer point of view. It provides examples to show how to evolve channels and containers from communication areas (COMMAREAs).

Next, the book explains the channels and containers application programming interface (API). It also describes how this API can be used in both traditional CICS applications and a Java CICS (JCICS) applications.

The business transaction services (BTS) API is considered as a similar yet recoverable alternative to channels and containers. Some authorized program analysis reports (APARs) are introduced, which enable more flexible web services features by using channels and containers.

The book also presents information from a systems management point of view, describing the systems management and configuration tasks and techniques that you must consider when implementing a channels and containers solution.

The book chooses a sample application in the CICS catalog manager example, and describes how you can port an existing CICS application to use channels and containers rather than using COMMAREAs.

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  3. IBM Redbooks promotions
  4. Preface
    1. Authors
    2. Now you can become a published author, too
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  5. Summary of changes
    1. March 2015, Second Edition
  6. Chapter 1. Introduction to channels and containers
    1. 1.1 Communication area for data passing
    2. 1.2 The requirement for change
      1. 1.2.1 Memory constraints
      2. 1.2.2 Flexibility of the channels and containers approach
    3. 1.3 COMMAREA constraints and alternative solutions
      1. 1.3.1 32 KB size limit
      2. 1.3.2 Methods of passing data larger than 32 KB before channels and containers
      3. 1.3.3 The evolution of the 32 KB COMMAREA
    4. 1.4 Channels and containers concepts
      1. 1.4.1 General concepts
      2. 1.4.2 Channels
      3. 1.4.3 The DFHTRANSACTION transaction channel
      4. 1.4.4 Containers
      5. 1.4.5 Channels and business transaction services
      6. 1.4.6 Channels and CICS Java
      7. 1.4.7 Data conversion
    5. 1.5 Benefits of using channels and containers
    6. 1.6 Porting COMMAREA to channels and containers
  7. Chapter 2. Application design and implementation
    1. 2.1 Container usage as a replacement to COMMAREAs
      1. 2.1.1 Basic COMMAREA example
      2. 2.1.2 Basic channel example
      3. 2.1.3 Channel name character set
      4. 2.1.4 Creating a channel
    2. 2.2 Flexible way to pass multiple pieces of data
      1. 2.2.1 COMMAREA solution
      2. 2.2.2 Channel solution
    3. 2.3 Overloaded COMMAREAs
    4. 2.4 STARTBROWSE application programming interface
    5. 2.5 Channels and containers in called subroutines
    6. 2.6 Data conversion and code page conversion
      1. 2.6.1 Data conversion with channels
      2. 2.6.2 How to cause CICS to convert data automatically
      3. 2.6.3 Using containers to do code page conversion
      4. 2.6.4 SOAP example
      5. 2.6.5 File example
      6. 2.6.6 Command-level interpreter CICS-supplied transaction example
    7. 2.7 Storage
    8. 2.8 Dynamic routing application considerations
      1. 2.8.1 COMMAREA
      2. 2.8.2 Channel
    9. 2.9 Best practices
      1. 2.9.1 Designing a channel
      2. 2.9.2 Naming a channel
      3. 2.9.3 Porting from COMMAREAs to channels
  8. Chapter 3. Programming
    1. 3.1 EXEC CICS application programming interface
      1. 3.1.1 Creating a channel
      2. 3.1.2 Placing data in a container
      3. 3.1.3 Passing a channel to another program or task
      4. 3.1.4 Receiving the current channel
      5. 3.1.5 Getting data from a container
      6. 3.1.6 Browsing the current channel
      7. 3.1.7 Deleting a container
      8. 3.1.8 Moving containers between channels
    2. 3.2 CICS Java
      1. 3.2.1 Creating channels and containers in JCICS
      2. 3.2.2 Placing data in a container
      3. 3.2.3 Passing a channel to another program or task
      4. 3.2.4 Receiving the current channel
      5. 3.2.5 Getting data from a container
      6. 3.2.6 Browsing the current channel
      7. 3.2.7 Browsing a name channel
      8. 3.2.8 Deleting a container
      9. 3.2.9 Code page considerations
    3. 3.3 Business transaction services
      1. 3.3.1 Application components
      2. 3.3.2 Channel and container options
    4. 3.4 Web services
      1. 3.4.1 Using channels and containers in CICS web services
    5. 3.5 CICS-WebSphere MQ bridge
      1. 3.5.1 Channels and containers and the CICS-WebSphere MQ bridge
  9. Chapter 4. Systems management and configuration
    1. 4.1 Storage
    2. 4.2 The DFHROUTE container
    3. 4.3 Code page conversion
      1. 4.3.1 Simple code page conversion
      2. 4.3.2 z/OS Unicode conversion services
    4. 4.4 Performance considerations
      1. 4.4.1 Configuration
    5. 4.5 Monitoring and statistics
      1. 4.5.1 Monitoring groups
      2. 4.5.2 Statistics domain
    6. 4.6 Problem determination
      1. 4.6.1 Channels and containers abend codes
      2. 4.6.2 Channels and containers trace entries
      3. 4.6.3 Tracing channels and containers applications
      4. 4.6.4 Sample application trace flow
      5. 4.6.5 Multiregion operation flow
      6. 4.6.6 Intersystem communication flow
  10. Chapter 5. Sample application
    1. 5.1 Implementation scenario
      1. 5.1.1 The CICS catalog manager example application
      2. 5.1.2 The base application
      3. 5.1.3 Porting steps: CICS back end
      4. 5.1.4 Stage 1: Porting to channels and containers
      5. 5.1.5 Installing and setting up the base application
      6. 5.1.6 Defining the 3270 interface
      7. 5.1.7 Running the application
      8. 5.1.8 Stage2: Catalog item images support
    2. 5.2 Running the stage 2 code
      1. 5.2.1 Installing and setting up the Stage 2 application
      2. 5.2.2 JCICS image handler program installation
      3. 5.2.3 Define a JVMSERVER definition in CICS TS
      4. 5.2.4 Transfer the CICS Bundle to z/OS UNIX System Services
      5. 5.2.5 The Liberty profile servlet access to the catalog manager
      6. 5.2.6 Running the catalog servlet
      7. 5.2.7 Deploying the catalog servlet
      8. 5.2.8 Workspace setup for developing OSGi servlets and JSP
      9. 5.2.9 Create the catalog OSGi Project
      10. 5.2.10 Create an EBA project to the OSGi Bundle Project
      11. 5.2.11 Create a CICS BUNDLE to the EBA project
      12. 5.2.12 Add the com.ibm.cics.server package to your OSGi project
      13. 5.2.13 Create the dynamic web project
      14. 5.2.14 Define a CICS JVMSERVER with Liberty profile
      15. 5.2.15 Export the CICS Bundle to z/OS
      16. 5.2.16 Define a CICS Bundle definition for the catalog servlet
  11. Chapter 6. Frequently asked questions
    1. 6.1 Administration questions
    2. 6.2 Application programming questions
    3. 6.3 Performance questions
    4. 6.4 Functions not supporting channels and containers
    5. 6.5 Online information about channels and containers
    6. 6.6 Hints and tips
  12. Appendix A. CICS channels and containers Liberty servlet example
    1. Channels and containers JCICS servlet example
    2. Servlet implementation LinkProg
    3. JCICS business class LinkProgOSGI
    4. CICS back end program
    5. Installation
  13. Appendix B. Additional material
    1. Locating the web material
    2. Using the web material
    3. Sample server program used in some examples
  14. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Online resources
    3. How to get IBM Redbooks
    4. Help from IBM
  15. Back cover
  16. IBM System x Reference Architecture for Hadoop: IBM InfoSphere BigInsights Reference Architecture
    1. Introduction
    2. Business problem and business value
    3. Reference architecture use
    4. Requirements
    5. InfoSphere BigInsights predefined configuration
    6. InfoSphere BigInsights HBase predefined configuration
    7. Deployment considerations
    8. Customizing the predefined configurations
    9. Predefined configuration bill of materials
    10. References
    11. The team who wrote this paper
    12. Now you can become a published author, too!
    13. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  17. Notices
    1. Trademarks

Product information

  • Title: Using IBM CICS Transaction Server Channels and Containers
  • Author(s): Peter Klein, Steve Burghard
  • Release date: March 2015
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: 9780738440507