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Oracle® Application Server Adapter for CICS User's Guide
10g Release 2 (10.1.2) B15803-01 |
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Oracle® Application Server Adapter for CICS User's Guide
10g Release 2 (10.1.2) B15803-01 |
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Oracle Application Server Adapter for CICS (OracleAS Adapter for CICS) enables you to connect Oracle Application Server to a Customer Information Control System (CICS). This chapter provides an overview of the features and architecture of OracleAS Adapter for CICS.
This chapter includes the following sections:
CICS is a family of application servers that provides industrial-strength, online transaction management and connectivity for mission-critical applications on IBM mainframe systems.
The application components in CICS are executable programs called transactions. These programs are typically written in COBOL but may possibly be written in other languages, such as PL/I, C, and Java. OracleAS Adapter for CICS interaction is mapped to a specific program.
OracleAS Adapter for CICS includes the following features:
Uses COMMAREA transactions to communicate with clients, using a communication buffer described in the transaction program (such as a COBOL copybook). There is an input structure and an output structure (each with a limit of 32Kb). In many cases, transactions are written so that the input structure prefixes the output structure.
Uses EXCI (EXternal Call Interface) to invoke CICS transactions from tasks running within the IBM OS/390 or z/OS system. EXCI is efficient because it uses cross-memory mechanisms.
Enables storing valid CICS user names and passwords, which are passed to CICS for authentication as part of the client request.
Captures and maintains a metadata schema for CICS by importing COBOL copybooks and transforming them into mapping definitions for Oracle Connect on the IBM OS/390 or z/OS Series platform and by associating the data structures with specific physical files.
Uses an enterprise application integration (EAI) model. Users of a requesting application can model the interactions that they want implemented, specifying what each interaction does, when it occurs, and the inputs and outputs expected for each interaction.
Maps data structures to facilitate access to CICS programs within Oracle Application Server.
Supports two-phase commit and can fully participate in a distributed transaction.
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Note: To use OracleAS Adapter for CICS with 2PC, you must install and configure RRS and also install CICS TS 1.3 or higher. |
OracleAS adapter for CICS includes the following components:
J2CA 1.0 CICS adapter: The J2CA CICS adapter is a standard resource adapter that is compliant with J2EE Connector Architecture, providing J2EE components connectivity.
Oracle Connect: Oracle Connect runs on the legacy system and handles requests from the J2CA 1.0 CICS adapter, that runs within Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE (OC4J).
Oracle Studio: Oracle Studio is the configuration tool for Oracle Connect. Configuration tasks using Oracle Studio are performed on a Windows platform. Oracle Studio uses perspectives that enables you to generate specific information necessary to model OracleAS Adapter for CICS.
Figure 1-1 illustrates the components of OracleAS Adapter for CICS:
The J2CA 1.0 CICS adapter converts the J2CA interaction invocation received from Oracle Application Server to XML format and passes the XML format to Oracle Connect on the legacy server. The daemon listens for the request coming from the J2CA 1.0 CICS adapter client and assigns a server process to handle the request.
The properties of the server process such as connection pooling requirements are defined by a workspace definition within the daemon. The server process includes an instance of the application engine, which converts the XML format into native structures understandable by CICS and passes the converted XML to the back-end adapter. The back-end adapter builds an interaction based on the metadata for the back-end adapter stored in the repository and the incoming converted XML, and passes it to the legacy application. The results of this execution are passed back to the application engine, using the back-end adapter, where these results are converted to XML and passed back to the client.
