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The following diagram shows how a connection is made to the CICS region.
The adapter is the component that connects to CICS. It is hosted in a container that supports events. The adapter enables the following functions:
The adapter enables you to invoke a CICS program by sending a request and retrieving the response.
The adapter sends the request to execute a transaction over the Multi-Platform Transport Network (MPTN). This enables the adapter to use TCP/IP to send the request although CICS is expecting LU6.2 (also known as APPC).
The adapter attaches the CICS Mirror transaction, CPMI, which is the standard External Communication Interface (ECI) transaction for ASCII clients.
At design-time, you describe the request and response messages by mapping them to COBOL File Descriptions. You can communicate with CICS through either TCP/IP or CRM gateway.
The iWay Transaction Adapter for CICS also supports more complex transactional scenarios involving multiple service calls, commits, and rollbacks, when connecting to IMS via a CRM gateway.
The two main types of CICS programs are:
Because the adapter can execute only COMMAREA programs, this distinction is important.
To execute 3270 programs, you require a screen scraper such as the iWay Terminal Emulation Adapter for 3270. For many years CICS applications were structured so that the business processing, as opposed to the screen dialogue, was in COMMAREA programs. Therefore, in many cases, executing a COMMAREA program is recommended for application integration.
The following are the software requirements for the adapter:
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