Server-side Mapping Files

Server mapping enables the RPC server to correctly support special COBOL syntax such as REDEFINEs, SIGN LEADING and OCCURS DEPENDING ON clauses, LEVEL-88 fields, etc. If one of these elements is used, the IDL Extractor for COBOL automatically extracts a server mapping file in addition to the IDL file (interface definition language). Also, the COBOL Wrapper may generate a server mapping file for RPC server generation. The server mapping is used at runtime to marshal and unmarshal the RPC data stream. There are client-side mapping files (EntireX Workbench files with extension .cvm) and server-side mapping files (Workbench files with extension .svm). If you have not used server-side mapping, we recommend you use client-side mapping. See Server Mapping Files for COBOL in the EntireX Workbench documentation. This document covers the following topics:

See also Source Control of Server Mapping Files | Comparing Server Mapping Files | When is a Server Mapping File Required? | Migrating Server Mapping Files in the EntireX Workbench documentation.


Server-side Mapping Files in the RPC Server

For an RPC Server for CICS ECI, server mapping information is contained in a server-side mapping file (EntireX Workbench file with extension .svm) See Server Mapping Files for COBOL. Server mapping files are provided as operating system files in an RPC server related server-side mapping container (directory or folder). The files have the same format as in the Workbench. See Configuring the CICS ECI Side.

If no server requires a server mapping file, you can omit the property cics.mapping.folder.

If one server requires a server mapping file, provide the property cics.mapping.folder.

See also Deploying Server-side Mapping Files to the RPC Server.

Deploying Server-side Mapping Files to the RPC Server

Deploy a server-side mapping file (Workbench file with extension .svm) to the RPC server manually. See Server Mapping Files for COBOL in the EntireX Workbench documentation.

Start of instruction setTo deploy a server-side mapping file

  1. Make sure the server-side mapping container (directory or folder) is configured. See Server-side Mapping Files in the RPC Server.

  2. Copy the server-side mapping file to the server-side mapping container.

Undeploying Server-side Mapping Files from the RPC Server

Undeploy a server mapping file (Workbench file with extension .svm) from the RPC server manually. See Server Mapping Files for COBOL.

Start of instruction setTo undeploy a server-side mapping file manually

Change Management of Server-side Mapping Files

Under UNIX and Windows, change management for a directory or folder (server-side mapping container, see Server-side Mapping Files in the RPC Server) is similar to change management within ordinary operating system directories (folders). All updates to the directory or folder done after a backup must be kept.

All EntireX Workbench server-side mapping files (.svm) added since the last backup should be available. See Server Mapping Files for COBOL in the EntireX Workbench documentation.

List Deployed Server-side Mapping Files

Use the Windows Explorer or the UNIX ls command to list the contents of the server-side mapping container (directory or folder). See Server-side Mapping Files in the RPC Server.

Check if a Server-side Mapping File Revision has been Deployed

Server-side mapping files in the server-side mapping container correspond to EntireX Workbench files with extension .svm (same format). See Server Mapping Files for COBOL in the EntireX Workbench documentation. Each line relates to an IDL program and contains a creation timestamp at offset 276 (decimal) in the format YYYYMMDDHHIISST. Precision is 1/10 of a second. The creation timestamp can be checked.

The timestamp can be found on the same offset in the server-side mapping files stored in the server-side mapping container (directory or folder). See Server-side Mapping Files in the RPC Server.

Is There a Way to Smoothly Introduce Server-side Mapping Files?

All EntireX RPC servers can be executed without server-side mapping files. See Server-side Mapping Files in the RPC Server. There is no need to install the server-side mapping container if the following conditions are met:

You can also call COBOL servers generated or extracted with previous versions of EntireX mixed with a COBOL server that requires server-side mapping. All EntireX RPC servers are backward compatible.