Writing a small Windows app to talk to the mainframe



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Writing a small Windows app to talk to the mainframe

Postby onlinehero » Wed Nov 30, 2011 12:00 am

Hello guys.

I am trying to optimize my work process in my day to day life as an it developer in a larger bank. Right now, all development is done using Rational Developer for System Z (RDz), working with files on the Endevor reposity, and there are several issues with this solution that I would like to develop a work-around for in my spare time.

Right now I am very much in the blind about how communication with the mainframe and Endevor is done from a PC. As I can see, it is possible to do so, since RDz does exactly that.

What I really need may not be so complex. I need to understand how clients like RDz or Personal Communications are able to communicate with the mainframe. Alternatively, I could try and generate some sort of script to retrieve files from Endevor on the host, since I am able to FTP to an MVS and get files that way. But I have no way of FTP'ing to an Endevor repository.

Basically I would like a way to get files from Endevor and on to my desktop, so I can edit them there in my favorite text editor, and then a way to put them back again.

Any suggestions as to how I should get started on this?
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Re: Writing a small Windows app to talk to the mainframe

Postby Peter_Mann » Wed Nov 30, 2011 12:29 am

Humm, I've worked with RTD/Z and didn't know it supported any mainframe repository, from what I understand, from release 2.0 to the current release the repository lives on a server and the RTD repository of choice is Oracle, do they now allow Endevor, libarian, panvalet?
back to your question, the client, be it fat or web enabled communicates with the server over an I/p stack. I belive someone already gave you an option to use the ISPF wsa (workstation agent), if all you need to do is edit source on your PC, NO?
Also, as it relates to Endevor, I'm 99% sure you need to use the vendor utilities to move data to and from.
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Re: Writing a small Windows app to talk to the mainframe

Postby Peter_Mann » Wed Nov 30, 2011 12:39 am

I still had the shortcut to the Jazz team concert forum, here's a good link that you can use to ask question about RTD and RTC/Z
link to external forum removed
I've pasted an excerpt for you....

What you have described is how some are using RTC with Endevor. They continue to use Endevor for the SCM and build side of things and then use RTC as the planning, tracking, collaboration side of things. What others are planning on doing is a slow migration of SCM artifacts from Endevor over to RTC so that RTC eventually completely replaces Endevor. There is not, what I would consider, a first class bridge between Endevor and RTC. However, I have heard of one or two customers engaging with with either IBM services or other BP services to create a form of bridging where you can do things like kick off Endevor builds and promotions from RTC. I have also heard of things going the other way... where an Endevor action can trigger an update of an RTC work item.

But like I said before, support for this external SCM interaction is not out of the box.
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Re: Writing a small Windows app to talk to the mainframe

Postby onlinehero » Wed Nov 30, 2011 1:35 am

I am not sure we're talking about the same thing. I am talking about RDZ, the development IDE based on Eclipse and developed by IBM. Not RTC. Is this what you mean? RDz supports working with Endevor.

The Workstation Agent supports file transfers from MVS, but I can already do this using simple FTP. What I need is some form of communication with the Endevor repository, or some form of automatic interaction with the host through a 3270...
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Re: Writing a small Windows app to talk to the mainframe

Postby Ed Goodman » Wed Nov 30, 2011 1:56 am

This talks about a plug in for that:

http://www.ca.com/files/presentations/i ... 208040.pdf
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Re: Writing a small Windows app to talk to the mainframe

Postby onlinehero » Wed Nov 30, 2011 2:51 am

Ed Goodman wrote:This talks about a plug in for that:

http://www.ca.com/files/presentations/i ... 208040.pdf


Yeah, AFAIK I am already using this through RDz. I was hoping to avoid using RDz all together in favor of my own product, which would just handle file transfers.
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Re: Writing a small Windows app to talk to the mainframe

Postby Ed Goodman » Wed Nov 30, 2011 9:21 pm

I was thinking the plugin probably talks to the mainframe service. That implies an API of some sort that you could leverage. The eclipse stuff is so well documented that you may be able just use the plugin directly in your own code.
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