trigger enter key automatically call cics from batch

Ziko13 · New User Joined: 19 Jul 2018 Posts: 26 Location: Greece

Hi all,

We have a requirement to call a cics transaction from a batch program. we are able to call the transaction and see the first screen with the map fields populated. Map fields are populated through commarea. Where we are stuck is the second stage of the program where the user presses the enter key and transaction resumes processing ie updates the databases in our case. Can this be done automatically ie the program to behave as if the enter key has been pressed?

Thank you in advance

Rohit Umarjikar · Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2020 1:14 pm

No automatic way to have enter done by itself.

You could call a same transaction again but with some unique Parms than first time call , once you get in the program and sense the unique parm just do a receive map and process the updates .

But the whole design is convoluted if I see but this is one way to get what’s needed.

Apoorva · New User Joined: 28 Jan 2020 Posts: 49 Location: India

Rohit Umarjikar · Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2020 10:20 pm

So with this you are sure that when a map is send then whatever you mentioned would so a magic to have it enter or some key pressed so that program gets the control and process the updates ?

This to me a research work and no results guaranteed unless you tried it before and used for such purposes.

Again I am not a VTAM expert to comment but what I said would work unless it has any issues that TS thinks of .

Apoorva · New User Joined: 28 Jan 2020 Posts: 49 Location: India

Rohit Umarjikar · Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2020 1:47 am

That’s good to know but as I said the whole design is messy.

Why one thinks this is the best design and make stuff complicated at first place ?

There are better ways to do if you lost the requirements and ask for designs than asking the solution on this convoluted programming.

You can also write messages to MQ and trigger a transaction that can do online updates , I understand that you are trying to leverage the existing program than creating your own but you can always make a copy of the program twist it to not to send map when triggered from MQ else trigger. That’s is much better than this approach.

E.g

ibmmainframes.com/about61039.html

ibmmainframes.com/about66220.html

Apoorva · New User Joined: 28 Jan 2020 Posts: 49 Location: India

Rohit Umarjikar · Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:35 am

We don’t need to do all that terminal stuff .. attach a transaction to the mq and mimic the same program with little twist to do updates without having to wait for pfkeys response . simple , clean and easy and we do this all the time when we stimulate volume testing.

Apoorva · New User Joined: 28 Jan 2020 Posts: 49 Location: India

Rohit Umarjikar · Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2020 5:22 am

Let’s wait for TS to see these replies and choose one than we speculating stuff . He got few things to work on.

Ziko13 · New User Joined: 19 Jul 2018 Posts: 26 Location: Greece

hey guys thanks a lot for the info and effort. i will read and reply

Ziko13 · New User Joined: 19 Jul 2018 Posts: 26 Location: Greece

we are trying to avoid writing a new program yes. the current program is very complicated and it will take a lot of time and testing to read it and understand it.

Ziko13 · New User Joined: 19 Jul 2018 Posts: 26 Location: Greece

Do we have any examples of EXCI?

Apoorva · New User Joined: 28 Jan 2020 Posts: 49 Location: India

Rohit Umarjikar · Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2020 5:44 pm

Ziko13 · New User Joined: 19 Jul 2018 Posts: 26 Location: Greece

in our shop each transaction is divided into two programs. First program performs the send map and then xctls to the second program which does the receive map and then performs the busines processing ie in our case to update all the databases. Given that EXCI cannot be used with maps i will try to replace the receive map of the second program with information passed via commarea. The idea is to have a copybook with all the map fields and pass it to the second program as commarea.

Ziko13 · New User Joined: 19 Jul 2018 Posts: 26 Location: Greece

second option is to do it like this

ibmmainframes.com/viewtopic.php?t=61009&highlight=exci

John Poulakos · Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2020 9:41 pm

Your best option is create a batch version of the program to do the updates. No matter what you do with batch interfacing to CICS or using VTAM to interface, you have to deal with the possibility the request may fail. There is no good way to deal with that.

If you use VTAM, you have to do a lot more work than writing a batch program. You need a started task, ACBs, a main task driver, all VTAM exits, ECB handling, two levels of wait and post logic and the list goes on and on. In the long run, you still won't have a good way of handling errors. The last VTAM task I wrote took 4 people and over 6 months to complete.