Natural Connection provides an access method required for transferring data, reports, Natural objects and sources to a PC.
The prerequisite for the use of Natural Connection is Entire Connection. For information on Entire Connection, refer to the relevant documentation.
This document describes the main functionality provided by Natural Connection that is relevant for z/OS.
For details regarding the features of the PC component, see the Entire Connection documentation.
Note
See also Installing Natural
Connection in the Installation for z/OS documentation.
Data can be downloaded to and uploaded from the PC directly to/from an online program.
Data transfer and conversion to many formats (for example, Lotus 1-2-3, dBASE, ASCII, HTML, XML, Basic, DIF, Binary) is performed in one step. Sophisticated compression techniques are used.
Using Natural Connection, you can create integrated applications that use both z/OS and PC resources.
For example, Super Natural creates files that you can then further process on the PC. Con-nect uses Natural Connection to exchange documents with the PC. In this way, graphics, spreadsheets, or binary data can be distributed to other users.
z/OS applications can use PC printers.
A key consideration for any information network is effective security and control. Natural Security on z/OS provides comprehensive control facilities.
Detailed security profiles are assigned on a user-by-user basis to control access to data and programs.
Other significant objects secured are the individual keywords in the Natural syntax. This can restrict some users, for example, to retrieving data from z/OS databases, while others have the full capability for retrieval and update of z/OS data.
Natural Security also protects against excessive use of system resources by individual users. This is vital when PC users may be employing powerful z/OS features for the first time.
As an additional safeguard, Natural Connection can also encrypt all data downloaded from Natural.
