Scenarios and Programmer Information

This document covers the following topics:


COBOL Scenarios

Scenario I: Calling an Existing COBOL Server

Start of instruction setTo call an existing COBOL server

  1. Use the IDL Extractor for COBOL to extract the Software AG IDL and, depending on the complexity, also a server mapping file. See When is a Server Mapping File Required? in the Designer documentation.

  2. Build an EntireX RPC client using any EntireX wrapper. See EntireX Wrappers. For a quick test you can:

    • use the IDL Tester; see EntireX IDL Tester in the Designer documentation

    • generate an XML mapping file (XMM) and use the XML Tester for verification; see EntireX XML Tester in the XML/SOAP Wrapper documentation

See Client and Server Examples for z/VSE CICS in the COBOL Wrapper documentation for COBOL RPC Server examples.

Scenario II: Writing a New COBOL Server

Start of instruction setTo write a new COBOL server

  1. Use the COBOL Wrapper to generate a COBOL server skeleton and, depending on the complexity, also a server mapping file. See When is a Server Mapping File Required? in the Designer documentation. Write your COBOL server and proceed as described under Using the COBOL Wrapper for the Server Side.

  2. Build an EntireX RPC client using any EntireX wrapper. See EntireX Wrappers. For a quick test you can:

    • use the IDL Tester; see EntireX IDL Tester in the Designer documentation

    • generate an XML mapping file (XMM) and use the XML Tester for verification; see EntireX XML Tester in the XML/SOAP Wrapper documentation

See Client and Server Examples for z/VSE CICS in the COBOL Wrapper documentation for COBOL RPC Server examples.

Returning Application Errors

Using EXEC CICS ABEND ABCODE

This approach applies to all CICS scenarios (all programming languages and all interface types); see Supported Interface Types.

The CICS feature EXEC CICS ABEND ABCODE(myabend) may be used to indicate application error codes. According to IBM CICS standards, ABEND codes starting with the letter A are reserved for CICS itself and should not be used in your RPC server.

The RPC Server for CICS follows these IBM CICS standards and sends back the RPC protocol message

  1. 10010018 Abnormal termination during program execution. This is returned when an ABEND code starting with the letter "A" is received from CICS, which is a CICS ABEND.

  2. 10010045 CICS ABEND myabend was issued. This is returned when an ABEND code starting with a letter other than "A" is received from CICS, which is an application error situation forced by your RPC server.

Automatic Syncpoint Handling

The RPC Server for CICS issues a SYNCPOINT command under the following circumstances:

  • If you are running under CICS without Impersonation, the server issues a SYNCPOINT COMMIT command after a successful non-conversational request or an end-of-conversation. This can be disabled with the SYNC parameter.

  • If you are running under CICS with Impersonation, this SYNCPOINT command is not executed by the server, but by CICS when the user task is terminated.

  • After abnormal termination of a non-conversational request or a conversation due to an error, the server performs a SYNCPOINT ROLLBACK command to back out any pending database modifications.