This document lists the major changes to EntireX.
The IDL Extractor for COBOL has been extended with a graphical user interface to complete the extraction process with user decisions. This allows modeling of the COBOL server to an IDL and enables selection of the appropriate (COBOL to IDL) mapping where multiple possibilities exist and where automatic decision taking can lead to incorrect or suboptimal IDL.
With the IDL Extractor for COBOL it will be possible to
select manually the parameters to support
programs copying the input data from the linkage section to the working section before processing them
programs making use of the SET ADDRESS
statement
programs with input parameters (request data) different to their output parameters (reply data)
select REDEFINE paths to be used
decide how COBOL LEVEL-88 fields have to be mapped. The most important feature here is the Map to Operation feature, which enables the mapping of multiple functions (methods) of the same COBOL program to web service operations or methods of object-oriented clients
suppress (hide) unneeded COBOL program parameters in the IDL
define how FILLER fields should be handled
set defaults to optimize extraction for XML/object-oriented IDL versus legacy-oriented IDL
extract COBOL tables with the OCCURS DEPENDING ON
clause
extract from COBOL programs including COPYBOOKs with the
REPLACE option
support for SIGN, TRAILING,
LEADING, SEPARATE clauses
support for LEVEl-77 fields
support for COBOL data item of type national
support for COBOL data item of type DBCS
support the IDL library. Any RPC client communicating with a COBOL server extracted with this version must send the correct IDL libray. In previous versions of EntireX, the IDL library sent by RPC clients were ignored. COBOL servers extracted with previous versions of EntireX (no server mapping file) work as before; the IDL library is ignored. This means an RPC client can send any IDL libary name.
In addition to the Software AG IDL, a so-called server mapping file (SVM) is extracted. This file is similar to the XML mapping file (XMM). The SVM file is deployed with the Server Mapping Deployment Wizard. See Server Mapping File below.
See Software AG IDL Extractor for COBOL.
The client side of the COBOL Wrapper for all target platforms (z/OS, BS2000/OSD, z/VSE and OS/400) has been extended to
correctly support IDL unbounded arrays, which means mapping them to
COBOL tables with the OCCURS DEPENDING ON clause
provide TRUE and FALSE constants using COBOL LEVEL-88 fields for IDL data type L (logical).
The server side of the COBOL Wrapper for all target platforms (z/OS, BS2000/OSD, z/VSE and OS/400) has been extended to
provide TRUE and FALSE constants using COBOL LEVEL-88 fields for IDL data type L (logical).
The server side of the COBOL Wrapper for target platform z/OS has been extended to
correctly support IDL unbounded arrays, which means mapping them to
COBOL tables with the OCCURS DEPENDING ON clause
support the IDL library. Any RPC client communicating with a COBOL server generated with this version (z/OS only) must send the correct IDL libray. In previous versions of EntireX, the IDL library sent by RPC clients were ignored. COBOL servers generated with previous versions of EntireX (no server mapping file) work as before; the IDL library is ignored. This means an RPC client can send any IDL libary name.
generate a so-called server mapping file (SVM file), similar to the XML mapping file (XMM file), in addition to the server skeleton. The SVM file is deployed with the Server Mapping Deployment Wizard. See Server Mapping File above.
The RPC server for CICS and Batch is extended with a so-called server mapping file (SVM file), similar to the XML mapping file (XMM file). The SVM file is used at runtime to (un)marshal the RPC data stream. This enables the RPC server correctly support special COBOL syntax such as
JUSTIFIED clause
SYNCHRONIZE clause
OCCURS DEPENDING ON clause
LEVEL-88 fields
etc.
The SVM file is extracted by the IDL Extractor for COBOL in addition to the IDL (interface definition language) or generated by the COBOL Wrapper for a server skeleton. A Server Mapping Deployment Wizard is provided to deploy the server mapping files.
The CICS RPC Server has been extended to execute programs
accessing data via CICS containers. CICS containers are IBM's standard approach for CICS to exchange large amounts of data (more than 32 KB) between CICS programs. The COBOL Wrapper generates a server skeleton with a CICS container interface in an easy and comfortable way. See Using the COBOL Wrapper for CICS with Channel Container Calling Convention
using webMethods WMTLSRVR interface. The WMTLSRVR interface is an alternative approach for webMethods customers to support large message sizes for CICS. The IDL Extractor for COBOL supports extraction from those webMethods programs, enabling customers to migrate existing applications to EntireX. See step Define the Settings for the Extraction in section Using the IDL Extractor for COBOL. The COBOL Wrapper also allows the generation of server skeletons with the webMethods WMTLSRVR interface, enabling customers to continue using this interface. See Using the COBOL Wrapper for CICS with the DFHCOMMAREA Large Buffer Interface.
On the client side of the COBOL Wrapper, EntireX has been offering a CICS with call interfaces approach since version 7.3 for this purpose. See Using the COBOL Wrapper for CICS with Call Interfaces.
This feature enables webMethods customers to access EntireX Communicator using TCP/IP without needing a second started task for the Relay Manager. The stub CICSETB2, available since EntireX 7.3.3, allows only TCP/IP but does not offer SSL or Location Transparency.
In the architecture of modern e-business applications (SOA), loosely coupled systems are becoming more and more important. Reliable messaging is one important technology for this type of system.
Reliable RPC is the EntireX implementation of a reliable messaging system. It combines EntireX RPC technology and persistence, which is implemented with units of work (UOWs).
Reliable RPC allows asynchronous calls ("fire and forget")
Reliable RPC is supported by all EntireX wrappers
Reliable RPC messages are stored in the Broker's persistent store until a server is available
Reliable RPC clients are able to request the status of the messages they have sent
See Reliable RPC for more details.
Reliable RPC is available for the following wrappers
New attribute to control memory management of Broker. Possible values are YES and NO. Default is NO.
If this attribute is set to "NO", all memory is allocated at Broker startup based on the calculation from the defined NUM-* attributes. Size of memory cannot be changed. This is the known behavior of EXX 7.3.
If this attribute is set to "YES", an
initial portion of memory is allocated at Broker startup based on defined NUM-*
attributes or internal default values if no NUM-* attributes have been defined.
More memory is allocated without Broker restart if there is a need to use more
storage. Unused memory is deallocated. The upper limit of memory consumption
can be defined using attribute MAX-MEMORY. If
you run your Broker with
DYNAMIC-MEMORY-MANAGEMENT=YES, the Broker
attributes prefixed with "NUM-" (except
NUM-WORKER) are not needed, for example
NUM-CLIENT,
NUM-UOW. However, if one of these attributes is
defined, it determines the allocation size of that particular Broker
resource.
See Dynamic Memory Management.
New attribute to define the upper limit of memory allocated by Broker
if DYNAMIC-MEMORY-MANAGEMENT=YES has been
defined. Possible values: UNLIM, 0 n, nK, nM,
nG. Default value is 0.
If this attribute is set to "0" or "UNLIM", there is no memory limit.
If this attribute is set to any other value, this defines the maximum limit of allocated memory. If limit is exceeded, error 671 "Requested allocation exceeds MAX-MEMORY" is generated.
New attribute to create a storage report about Broker memory usage. Possible values:
| YES | Create the storage report file. |
| NO | Do not create the storage report file. |
See Broker-specific attribute
STORAGE-REPORT
and Storage
Report.
Attribute BROKER-ID identifies the
Broker to which the attribute file applies. The Broker ID must be unique per
machine.
Note:
The numerical section of the
BROKER-ID is no longer used to determine the
DBID in the Broker kernel with Entire Net-Work transport (NET). To determine
the DBID, use attribute NODE in the
DEFAULTS=NET section of the attribute file.
New value "3" is available to create accounting records in layout of version 3. New fields available include RPC library and program names.
See Broker-specific attribute ACCOUNTING-VERSION and Conversation Accounting in EntireX Broker under z/OS | UNIX | Windows.
Entire Net-Work communication on UNIX is no longer suppored. This attribute will be reported as obsolete.
The subscriber store in a secondary store is no longer supported. Attribute will be reported as obsolete.
We recommend you use the PSTORE persistent store to store your subscriber data, by setting the Broker-specific parameter SUBSCRIBER-STORE=PSTORE.
Dynamic memory management is a feature to handle changing Broker workload without any restart of the Broker task. It increases the availability of the Broker by using various memory pools for various Broker resources and by being able to use a various number of pools for the several resources.
If more memory is needed than currently available, another memory pool is allocated for the specific type of resource. If a particular memory pool is no longer used, it will be deallocated.
The Broker attributes NUM-* can be omitted if
DYNAMIC-MEMORY-MANAGEMENT=YES has been
defined
If you want statistics on allocation and deallocation operations in
Broker, you can configure Broker to create a storage report with the attribute
STORAGE-REPORT.
See Storage
Report.
All Broker attributes relating to the dimensions of the storage used
are no longer required if
DYNAMIC-MEMORY-MANAGEMENT=YES is set in the
Broker attribute file. To further reduce the scope of required definitions,
default values have been introduced for the following attributes
CLIENT-NONACT
and NUM-WORKER:
CLIENT-NONACT = 15M
NUM-WORKER = 1
As of version 8.0, EntireX Broker is no longer a multiprocess application. All threads run in a single task. This simplifies internal communication considerably and also increases stability.
The Broker no longer contains the Entire Net-Work communicator. For this reason, the attribute NUM-CCOM is no longer supported and a corresponding warning is given in the Broker log.
The Software AG Common Web Services Stack (WSS) is a framework for web services. It is targeted to be used by Software AG products as a basis for their web services implementations The core part of the WSS runtime is the SOAP engine. The SOAP engine provides the base functionality to receive and send messages over different transports, and processes the messages through a chain of handlers.
Web Services Stack provides support for secure and reliable web services. It contains implementations of the web services specifications WS-Addressing, WS-Security and WS-ReliableMessaging.
See also the Web Services Stack User's Guide and Writing Advanced Web Services Applications.
Web Services Stack is used by the following EntireX components:
EntireX Web Services
XML/SOAP Wrapper
XML/SOAP Listener
XML/SOAP RPC Server
For creating and deploying EntireX web services, see Writing Web Services Applications.
See also Migration Considerations for details of how to migrate web services and XML/SOAP applications created with an earlier version of EntireX.
The following supported platforms have been added since the last version of EntireX:
AIX 6.1 (64-bit) (*)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 for x86 (32-bit)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 for AMD64 and EM64T (x86-64) (*)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 for IBM zSeries (64-bit) (*)
HP-UX 11i v3 (64-bit) for PA-RISC (*)
HP-UX 11i v3 for Itanium 2 (64-bit) (*)
Windows Vista (see Windows Vista considerations in the installation documentation)
(*) Planned for later delivery as part of this release.
See EntireX Platform Coverage for full details of supported platforms.
EntireX now comes with Eclipse 3.3. Eclipse is installed on Windows and Linux platforms. See Eclipse Considerations in the installation documentation for UNIX | Windows.
EntireX no longer provides an archive with a Tomcat installation. Instead it automatically installs Tomcat 5.5 as part of the Software AG Common Tomcat Package.
EntireX now comes with a new version of System Management Hub. The GUI representation has changed and is reflected in the various administration sections of the documentation, for example Broker Administration using System Management Hub.
Enhancements to logging, accounting, and Broker Command and Information Services include the following:
Retrieve RPC library and program name. See Conversational Accounting in EntireX Broker and CLIENT-SERVER Object in Broker Command and Information Services Data Structures
TCP object and SSL object of Broker Command and Information Services now provide the fields IP-ADDRESS and HOST-NAME.
Full timestamp is now provided in the EntireX XML/SOAP RPC Server.
Both programs support an alternative method of passing on command-line parameters. This method applies to all platforms.
ETBCMD under z/OS
If the DDNAME CMDFILE is allocated and no command-line parameters are
specified in the EXEC instruction, the content of the allocated member is
evaluated. See
example.
etbcmd under UNIX
If the environment variable CMD_ATTR is set, the content is
interpreted as a file name. If no command-line parameters are given, the
command etbcmd evaluates the content of the file.
See example.
ETBINFO under z/OS
If the DDNAME INFFILE is allocated and no command-line parameters are
specified in the EXEC instruction, the content of the allocated member is
evaluated. See
example.
etbinfo under UNIX and Windows
If the environment variable INF_ATTR is set, the content is
interpreted as a file name. If no command-line parameters are given, the
command etbinfo evaluates the content of the file.
See example under
UNIX |
Windows.
IAF is not installed automatically.
z/OS
For z/OS, IAF is delivered in separate data sets.
UNIX
On UNIX, the IAF installation is located under
unix/platform/iaf/v22 and has
to be started manually from the DVD root with the following command:
setup.ux iaf v22
IAF installation can be executed before or after EXX installation since there are no dependencies.
See Installing Integrated Authentication Framework under UNIX.
Windows
On Windows, the IAF installation is callable from the DemoShield
screen as a separate installation.
See Installing Integrated Authentication Framework under Windows.
For reasons of consistency within webMethods EntireX and other Software AG products, some components and features have been renamed.
| New Term | Old Term | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Stub | Stub | The term "stub" now refers only to an application-independent communication module delivered with EntireX Broker. See Administration of Broker Stubs under z/OS. |
| Interface object | Stub | This is a new term to refer to Workbench-generated pieces of code related to IDL (interface definition language). A client interface object issues an RPC; a server interface object receives an RPC. Client and server interface objects are generated for C, COBOL, .NET, Java and PL/I. |
| EntireX XML/SOAP RPC Server | XML RPC Server | |
| EntireX WebSphere MQ RPC Server | EntireX WebSphere MQ Bridge | |
| EntireX WebSphere MQ Listener | EntireX MQ Bridge Listener | |
| EntireX XML/SOAP Listener | XML Servlet | |
| Broker TCP Agent | Broker Agent | |
| Broker SSL Agent | Broker Agent | |
| Broker HTTP(S) Agent | Tunnel Servlet |
As an additional naviagational aid for the EntireX documentation, two new perpectives are provided:
Administration Perspective with links to documentation areas of interest to the EntireX administrator
Developer Perspective with links to documentation areas of interest to the application developer
