IBM has implemented a number of facilities in its CICS product to facilitate the integration of traditional CICS applications to the Internet. This is a process that started with the implementation of CICS/TS 1.3. CICS/TS 3.1 has continued this trend. Today, CICS applications can talk to web browsers as well as web servers. With the introduction of web services and SOAP, they can also talk to UNIX and .NET platforms. All in all, CICS/TS 3.1/3.2 is now an important player in implementing Service Oriented Architecture in your organization.
This course will concentrate on the new facilities implemented in CICS/TS 3.2. We will discuss HTTP 1.1 support, CICS transactions acting as clients in a CICS/WEB scenario, XML, SOAP and Web Services.
Topics
- HTTP 1.1 Support
- CICS Channels and Containers
- Web Service, SOAP and XML
- CICS as a Web Service Provider
- CICS as a Web Service Requester
- Security
Mainframe Training Audience
This course is designed for programmers, designers, system architects and system administrators interested in this subject. Please note that there are 5 exercises which will require a little programming; all exercises will be using COBOL program skeletons.
Mainframe Training Prerequisites
Some knowledge of CICS and COBOL is required. Working knowledge of TSO/ISPF and JCL is required.
No knowledge of SOAP or XML or UNIX is necessary, although would be helpful.
Mainframe Training Course duration
Four and one/half days
Mainframe Training Course outline
I. Introduction
- Review of the web facilities available in CICS
- CICS/WEB API, CICS DOCUMENT API and TCP/IP API
- Overview of the various ways one can connect to a CICS system and provide some information on some of the newer facilities available ion CICS/TS 3.1
II. HTTP 1.1 Support
- The new date format and the CICS commands that will help you get to these new formats
- Chunked and pipelined messages
- Virtual hosts,
- CICS URIMAP and TCPIPSERVICE definitions
- New compliancy rules
- New behavior of the CICS Web
- Monitor transaction
III. CICS Channels and Containers
- CICS/API commands related to implementing CONTAINERS in your CICS programs
- GET, PUT and MOVE commands
- Information on how to browse through the list of CONTAINER names available within the CHANNEL
- Review existing CICS/API commands that can be used to pass CHANNEL to other programs, namely XCTL, LINK, START and RETURN
IV. WEBSERVICE, SOAP and XML
- CICS/TS 3.1 introduced WEBSERVICE and SOAP support
- Overview of these facilities will be provided
- The tools that are available to programmers for dealing with XML messages
V. CICS as a WEBSERVICE provider
- Web service assistant DFHLS2WS
- Review the parameter to the utility
- The rules that the application program must follow in order to have a successful implementation
- The concept of PIPELINE
VI. CICS as a WEBSERVICE requester
- Web service assistant DFHWS2LS
- Review the parameter to the utility,
- The rules that the application program must follow in order to have a successful implementation
- Review of the CICS commands available to the programmer to invoke a web service
VII. Security
- A brief overview of the security available in CICS/TS 3.1
- The changes to SSL support
- Certificate revocation lists
- Behavior changes of the EXEC CICS VERIFY PASSWORD command and the introduction of the support for TLS
