Withdrawal of the CICS Connector for CICS TS

Support for the CICS® Connector for CICS TS, introduced in CICS TS for z/OS®, Version 2.1, is withdrawn.

A CICS connector is a software component that allows a Java™ client application to invoke a CICS application. CICS TS for z/OS, Version 2.3 introduced a new CICS connector, the CCI Connector for CICS TS, that performs a similar role to the CICS Connector for CICS TS—that is, it enables a Java program or enterprise bean running on CICS Transaction Server for z/OS to link to a CICS server program. However, whereas the old CICS Connector for CICS TS implemented the IBM-proprietary Common Connector Framework (CCF) interface, the new CCI Connector for CICS TS implements the industry-standard Common Client Interface (CCI) defined by the J2EE Connector Architecture Specification, Version 1.0.

Since CICS TS for z/OS, Version 2.3 it has been recommended that: Because runtime support for the CICS Connector for CICS TS is withdrawn in CICS TS for z/OS, Version 3.1, these recommendations have now become mandatory.
Note: In previous releases, it was possible to program the CICS Connector for CICS TS in either of two ways: using the high-level CCF API or the lower-level, CICS-specific, external call interface (ECI) of the CICS Transaction Gateway API. The ECI base classes are no longer supplied with CICS.

For advice on using the CCI Connector for CICS TS in new applications, and on migrating existing applications that use the CICS Connector for CICS TS to use the CCI Connector for CICS TS instead, see Java Applications in CICS.