EntireX
EntireX enables you to easily connect services that run on Integration Server to mission-critical programs written in languages like COBOL or Natural.
The EntireX runtime environment includes these main components:
The
EntireX Adapter, which runs on
Integration Server.
The
EntireX Broker, which supports load balancing, security, large messages, and high availability.
Client or Server endpoints, like CICS RPC Server.
The
EntireX perspective in
Software AG Designer, which enables you to generate the necessary assets, like adapter services on
Integration Server.
Suppose you want to call a CICS transaction programmed in COBOL from Integration Server. One architectural variant to implement this synchronous request-reply scenario with EntireX is EntireX Adapter to EntireX Broker to CICS RPC Server. You would use the EntireX perspective in Software AG Designer to extract the transaction's interface from the COBOL source, copybooks, or both. EntireX wizards guide you through interface extraction and code generation of the adapter service on an Integration Server that hosts the EntireX Adapter. EntireX creates all technical assets needed, relieving you from having to work with technical details. You can directly test the adapter service in Software AG Designer.
For advanced use cases, however, the technical details are still accessible. The illustration below shows extracted signatures for two mainframe programs in the EntireX perspective.
When you run the adapter service on Integration Server, it invokes the CICS transaction on the mainframe side using values you provide for the transaction’s extracted inputs. You can use the adapter service in integration applications as you would any other Integration Server service. Software AG Designer can create a web service from the adapter service and can register the web service in SOA registries such as CentraSite. You can then easily use the web services to include mainframe resources in business-to-business integrations (B2B) and business processes.
Since the EntireX architecture is symmetric, it allows for outbound as well as inbound connectivity. For example, suppose your CICS transaction wants to call an Integration Server Flow service (that is, mainframe outbound). EntireX helps you create the necessary assets in the same manner.
You can extract the signatures of programs written in COBOL, PL/I, or Natural. On the mainframe, EntireX supports CICS, IMS, and batch environments. You can set up zero server footprint scenarios for CICS, IMS, and AS/400. This may be useful when integration spans different organizational units.
