The EntireX CICS® ECI RPC Server allows standard RPC clients to communicate with CICS programs running on IBM CICS® version 3.2 and higher. The CICS ECI RPC Server transforms the RPCs from the clients into messages to CICS ECI. The CICS ECI RPC Server acts on one side as an RPC server and on the other side as a client for CICS ECI. The CICS ECI RPC Server is a Java-based component that can run on a different host to the one where CICS is running. This allows it to operate with a zero footprint of EntireX on the CICS host.

For existing COBOL programs you can use the Software AG IDL Extractor for COBOL to generate the IDL file for the RPC clients. The list under DATA DIVISION Mapping under COBOL to IDL Mapping in the IDL Extractor for COBOL documentation discusses which clauses of COBOL syntax are supported and how these are handled by the extractor.

For existing PL/I programs you can use the Software AG IDL Extractor for PL/I to generate the IDL file for the RPC clients.

All source files, COBOL or PL/I, have to exist locally for the CICS ECI RPC Server. Remote extraction is not possible if there is no EntireX RPC server (batch or IMS) with extractor service enabled on the CICS host.

The CICS ECI RPC Server supports RPC clients in different programming languages.