The RPC-ACI Bridge is prepared for ACI servers written in Natural.

This document covers the following topics:

• Tasks

• Data Types

• Declaring the Variables for the Data Types

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Tasks

Writing an ACI server consists of two tasks:

• implement the Broker calls

• implement the processing of the received buffer and the response for the send buffer

Using Arrays of Groups

If your programs use arrays of groups, you have to adjust the marshalling.

To adjust the marshalling for arrays of groups

1. Use the property entirex.rpcacibridge.marshalling for the configuration.

2. Set the property to "natural".

If your programs do not use arrays of groups, you do not need to set entirex.rpcacibridge.marshalling.

Data Types

Data Type	Description	Format	Note
Anumber	Alphanumeric	number bytes, encoding the characters.
AV	Alphanumeric variable length	Bytes up to the end of the buffer.	1
AV[number]	Alphanumeric variable length with maximum length	Bytes up to the end of the buffer, maximal length number.	1
Knumber	Kanji	Same as data type A.
KV	Kanji variable length	Same as data type AV.	1
KV[number]	Kanji variable length with maximum length	Same as data type AV[number].	1
I1	Integer (small)	sign (+, -) and 3 bytes (digits).
I2	Integer (medium)	sign (+, -) and 5 bytes (digits).
I4	Integer (large)	sign (+, -) and 10 bytes (digits).
Nnumber1[.number2]	Unpacked decimal	sign (+, -), number1 bytes (digits) [number2] bytes (digits), no decimal point.
Pnumber1[.number2]	Packed decimal	sign (+, -), number1 bytes (digits) [number2] bytes (digits), no decimal point.
L	Logical	1 byte: X for true, all other false.
D	Date	YYYYMMDD.	2
T	Time	YYYYMMDDhhmmssS.	3

Notes:

1. Only as last value.
2. YYYY year, MM month, DD day.
3. YYYY year, MM month, DD day, hh hour, mm minute, ss second, S tenth of a second.

Data Types not supported:

• Binary (B[n],BV, BV[n])

• Floating point (F4, F8)

Declaring the Variables for the Data Types

This section describes how to declare the variables for the data types. Use these declarations to map the receive buffer and the send buffer to variables. For some data types, the values have to be moved to a local variable before computation.

Example:

* Declaration
DEFINE DATA LOCAL
1 PNUMERIC (A012)
1 #NUMERIC (N8.3)
1 REDEFINE #NUMERIC
2 #NUMERIC1 (N11)
* Computation
    MOVE EDITED RCVE-DATA.PNUMERIC TO #NUMERIC1 (EM=S9(11))
    #NUMERIC := #NUMERIC + 1
    MOVE EDITED #NUMERIC1 (EM=S9(11)) to SEND-DATA.PNUMERIC

Data Type	Description	Declaration and Marshalling
Anumber	Alphanumeric	Declaration for receive and send buffer: (An)
AV	Alphanumeric variable length	Declaration for receive and send buffer: (A) DYNAMIC
AV[number]	Alphanumeric variable length with maximum length	Declaration for receive and send buffer: (A) DYNAMIC
Knumber	Kanji	Declaration for receive and send buffer: (An)
KV	Kanji variable length	Declaration for receive and send buffer: (A) DYNAMIC
KV[number]	Kanji variable length with maximum length	Declaration for receive and send buffer: (A) DYNAMIC
I1	Integer (small)	Declaration for receive and send buffer: (A4)MOVE EDITED to I1 variable with (EM=S9(3))
I2	Integer (medium)	Declaration for receive and send buffer: (A6)MOVE EDITED to I2 variable with (EM=S9(5))
I4	Integer (large)	Declaration for receive and send buffer: (A11)MOVE EDITED to I4 variable with (EM=S9(10))
Nnumber1[.number2]	Unpacked decimal	Declaration for receive and send buffer: (An), where n = number1 + number2 + 1 (one byte for the sign). Redefine Nnumber1+number2 variable as Nnumber1.number2 variable. MOVE EDITED to Nnumber1+number2 variable with (EM=S9(number1 + number2))
Pnumber1[.number2]	Packed decimal	Declaration for receive and send buffer: (An), where n = number1 + number2 + 1 (one byte for the sign). Redefine Pnumber1+number2 variable as Pnumber1.number2 variable. MOVE EDITED to Pnumber1+number2 variable with (EM=S9(number1 + number2))
L	Logical	Declaration for receive and send buffer: (A1)
D	Date	Declaration for receive and send buffer: (A8)MOVE EDITED to Date variable with (EM=YYYYMMDD)
T	Time	Declaration for receive and send buffer: (A15)MOVE EDITED to Time variable with (EM=YYYYMMDDHHIISST)