IBM Mainframe Forum

Am trying to understand web services programming:

Consider the following scenario in
A program in non mainframe environment posts data into a CICS mainframe program,
requesting for some information
So at this point CICS WEB program acts as a server
Now this program opens a web service using a urimap that points to another CICS
region & sends the query that came from non mainframe environment
This urimap has been defined as client
Then it waits for the response from the program in the other CICS region

The program in the other CICS region receives the input query and sends(web send server mode call)
Doubt:
Can the data be sent directly from this region to non mainframe environment by this web send
or
This web send will post the data to the middle CICS region that posted the query

Now this program opens a web service using a urimap that points to another CICS
region & sends the query that came from non mainframe environment

WHY on earth would the CICS region do this? There are ALREADY defined protocols (such as APPC) for communicating between CICS regions. Since the first CICS region is NOT on the web, there would be no need -- EVER -- for it to send a web service request to another CICS region on the same machine. From http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.w ... 1693&aid=1 (emphasis added by me):

What is a Web service?


Software system that allows program-to-program
interactions over a network

I think your entire question is flawed and shows a MAJOR lack of understanding of mainframes and CICS in particular.

Thanks for the reply
The current design has been that they would use web service to communicate between 2 regions

1. Am not clear about what you mean by 'the first CICS region is NOT on the web'

2. From http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.w%20...%201693&aid=1 link is not available now. will i be able to get the same information by googling for CICS,APPC PGROGRAMMING
Please help

You might get in this link I hope
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSGMCP_4.1.0/com.ibm.cics.ts.home.doc/library/library_html.html

1. Am not clear about what you mean by 'the first CICS region is NOT on the web'

The two CICS regions are NOT using the internet to connect -- either they run MRO or they use APPC (or another protocol) to talk to each other. In any case, there is no reason to use Web Services to connect two CICS regions on the same machine together -- and a WHOLE LOT of reasons not to use Web Services.

The following is an elaboration:

Just to provide a background about the project, the aim is to use a middle cics region like a communication point & the connecting systems could be across 2 sysplex nodes or from other non mainframe environments which needs to be via TCP/IP

1. The 1st querying system is a 3rd party software of a different company. We are currently using postman for unit testing(to simulate the non mainframe environment) It sends an XML query to a program in middle region. So till the WEB RECEIVE Call the program acts as a server i think

2. Then the middle cics region communicates to another cics region by using a urimap.
Probably CICS now understands that its a region on different sysplex node & converts it to APPC Not sure
It posts the xml query (WEB SEND POST) into that region & waits for response.
The 1st program in 2nd CICS region handles many messages. So it links to the appropriate program
3. Now the 2nd program in 2nd cics region receives the xml & prepares the data to be sent to the original non mainframe environ.
Then it does a WEB SEND (server mode i.e without post)
what we find while testing is, this XML data is directly visible in postman. Would like to understand how this is working because,the web send POST was from middle CICS region which is waiting for a response.

4. And after a return from this program to 1st program in the 2nd cics region, it will simply return control to the middle cics region program.
It then has a WEB RECEIVE. Checks for a fail or success status & prepares an overall status & sends another response to the non mainframe environment.

5. And when i tried to simulate the same, by having the 1st non manframe region as CICS,(sorry i didnt know that it will be internally converted to APPC) what happened was the WEB SEND of 3rd cics region reached the middle cics region & the web send of the middle alone reached the 1ST CICS region. Did not understand why it differs in this case

And would like to understand points 4,5

I think you need to educate yourself before going any further; your site could have the CICS regions set up as MRO (MultiRegion Operation) where there is a WOR (Web owning region) that handles ALL web traffic and an AOR (application owning region) that handles all CICS-specific requirements. MRO is different from APPC, by the way. I recommend you read http://enterprisesystemsmedia.com/article/cics-as-a-web-services-provider-a-secure-arrangement#sr=g&m=o&cp=or&ct=-tmc&st=(opu%20qspwjefe)&ts=1490620810 and http://enterprisesystemsmedia.com/article/cics-as-a-web-services-provider-a-design-to-foil-attacks#sr=g&m=o&cp=or&ct=-tmc&st=(opu%20qspwjefe)&ts=1490620810 for starters, and follow up with Implementing CICS Web Services (which is a Redbook and hence found at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com) and then Application Development for IBM CICS Web Services (another Redbook).

In other words, your approach may -- or may not -- be valid. You need to work with your site support group to properly implement CICS Web Services using the facilities available AT YOUR SITE. No forum such as this one can provide you much detail since specifics will depend upon how your site is set up. The articles and Redbooks I quoted in the first paragraph give you a foundation for understanding what your site does and what you, the application developer, needs to do to work within your site infrastructure. The fact that you're having problems with some of the programs indicates you probably don't have things set up to work correctly in your site infrastructure. What is wrong, and how to fix it, will probably require your site support group's involvement to find and fix.