What was New in Version 9.5

The main purpose of this release was compatibility with version 9.5 of the webMethods product suite. It also included multiple changes and enhancements, which are described below:


Workbench Enhancements

Support of Eclipse 4.3

Eclipse version 4.3 is now supported.

IDL Extractor for COBOL

Before you use the IDL Extractor for COBOL, make sure you have installed all the available fixes for the EntireX Eclipse plug-ins.

RPC Server Changes and Enhancements

Automatic Syncpoint Handling

The CICS and IMS RPC servers automatically issue a SYNCPOINT under certain circumstances. See Automatic Syncpoint Handling under CICS | IMS.

The configuration parameter SYNCPOINT is now deprecated.

Broker Enhancements

  • Under z/OS, the new attribute TRACE-DD means you can write trace data for a broker that is up and running, using a GDG (generation data group) data set. See TRACE-DD and Flushing Trace Data to a GDG Data Set.

    This avoids a broker shutdown and restart during production.

    Note:
    GDG is supported for deferred tracing only. See Deferred Tracing under Tracing EntireX Broker.

Internationalization

Simplified ICU Conversion

For ICU Conversion, SAGTRPC detects single-byte codepages automatically and converts them quickly and efficiently in one step from source to target encoding. This means that for single-byte codepages, SAGTRPC is the same as SAGTCHA, which simplifies the internationalization approach ICU Conversion:

  • For ACI-based Programming there is no change: configure SAGTCHA as in previous versions of EntireX.

  • For RPC-based Components and Reliable RPC, always configure SAGTRPC: complex codepages such as multibyte, double-byte, EBCDIC stateful, Hebrew 803, as well as Arabic shaping are always handled correctly, and for single-byte scenarios, throughput has been enhanced.

There is no need to reconfigure ICU conversion in your existing environment; your settings for ICU conversion will continue to work. Moreover, if SAGTRPC is defined in your environment but not really needed because all your RPC components use single-byte codepages only, broker throughput should increase and you should get better response times.

For conversion, set the service-specific attribute CONVERSION in the attribute file.

See also Configuring ICU Conversion under z/OS | UNIX | Windows | BS2000/OSD | z/VSE and What is the Best Internationalization Approach to use? under Internationalization with EntireX.

On-error Trace for ICU Conversion

For ICU Conversion, both SAGTCHA and SAGTRPC provide an on-error trace. See TRACE option of the service-specific attribute CONVERSION in the attribute file.

Brainstorm Ideas

Brainstorm is a one-stop portal for all Software AG customers to submit feature requests, vote on ideas that have been posted by other customers and get your voice heard. All product categories are moderated by product managers, and ideas get responded to and updated on a regular basis. Here is a selection of Brainstorm ideas that have been implemented in EntireX. The number in square brackets is the Brainstorm ID.

  • Writing trace data for a running broker under z/OS, using a GDG (generation data group) data set. This avoids a broker shutdown and restart during production. See Flushing Trace Data to a GDG Data Set. [1035388]

  • A new configuration property entirex.wmqbridge.deadletterqueue is provided for the WebSphere MQ Listener to specify the name of a queue that will receive messages that cannot be processed successfully. See Configuring the WebSphere MQ Side under Administering the WebSphere MQ Listener. [1072327]

Increased Platform Support

EntireX is now supported under the following additional platforms. See List of Components per Platform for full list.

  • z/OS 2.1

  • AIX Power 6.1 (64-bit)

Documentation Enhancements

Other Changes and Enhancements

SSL Support with LDAP Server

SSL connections are now supported by the LDAP server. A new configuration parameter protocol is provided in the xds.ini file, and a new value ldaps is provided for security-specific broker attribute AUTHENTICATION-TYPE. See

Encyrption Level for Java-based Components using URL-style Broker ID

You can now specify the encryption level for EntireX Java-based components using a URL-style broker ID. See URL-style Broker ID under EntireX Broker ACI Programming.

Error Messages from Java-based Components

In earlier releases, error messages issued by Java-based EntireX components were prefixed with "Broker Error" even if the error was not Broker-related. This has been changed to "Error".

New Configuration Parameters for WebSphere MQ

  • Message Priority
    A new configuration property entirex.wmqbridge.priority is provided for the EntireX WebSphere MQ RPC Server and the WebSphere MQ Listener to specify a message priority that is different from the default. See Configuring the WebSphere MQ Side for EntireX WebSphere MQ RPC Server | WebSphere MQ Listener.

  • Dead-letter Queue Support
    A new configuration property entirex.wmqbridge.deadletterqueue is provided for the WebSphere MQ Listener to specify the name of a queue that will receive messages that cannot be processed successfully. See Configuring the WebSphere MQ Side under Administering the WebSphere MQ Listener.