We have applications that run on CICS TS 3.1 Z/OS and access VSAM and DLI files on a remote VSE system, using CICS function shipping. We now want to access these VSAM and DLI files through batch programs. How can we use CICS definitions from a batch program?
QUESTION POSED ON: 31 JAN 2006
QUESTION ANSWERED BY: Robert Crawford
There are a couple of products on the market that allow batch programs to share files with CICS. Usually these products have hooks in the operating system's open/close logic and redirect the batch job's I/O to a mirror transaction running on CICS. However, I'd be sure the product doesn't have a problem with remote files. This type of software also probably won't help you with the DL/1 since IBM removed support for remote IMS databases some time in the early '90's.
A more comprehensive answer may be CICS' External Connection Interface (EXCI). Through a series of application programming interface (API) calls a batch program builds a "pipe" in order to invoke a program in CICS. The online program should be able to access the remote resources just as is done now. You can find more information about EXCI in the CICS library.
|
|
|
