Glossary

This glossary contains terms pertaining to both CICS® Service Flow Runtime and Service Flow Modeler.

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | #

A

activity
In BTS, one part of the process managed by CICS business transaction services. Typically, an activity is part of a business transaction.

Activities can be hierarchically organized, in a tree structure. An activity that starts another activity is known as a parent activity. An activity that is started by another is known as a child activity.

A program that implements an activity differs from a traditional CICS application program only in its being designed to respond to BTS events.

adapter service
An adapter service is the generated output of the Service Flow Modeler. An adapter service is a reusable composed business function that exposes a programmatic interface to a service requestor in an Enterprise Information System. The adapter service is deployed to, and works with, Service Flow Modeler-supported runtime environments, one of which is the CICS Service Flow Runtime V3.1. The adapter service can have characteristics that can support both metadata and generated code deployments. The adapter service has port bindings specific to each potential deployment environment. WSDL binding information can be extended to save any of the additional metadata required to support application code generation or other deployment and runtime behavior. The adapter service contains business services composed from a set of supported connector flow services. The adapter service is composed from runtime patterns with varying degrees of complexity and persistence. The level of abstraction needed by a given customer for the business operations will determine if connector flows are sufficient or if connector flows all driving the same EIS, need to be combined into adapter services.

Depending on how one models the adapter service that will be deployed to the CICS Service Flow Runtime V3.1 environment, it can contain a wide variety of functionality, such as control flow, data flow, sequential navigation, conditional branching including decision and iteration, data typing, storing data context, transformation of data elements, logical operations and custom code.

See the Service Flow Modeler help, available in the WebSphere® Developer for System z® infocenter, for information on how to model, generate and deploy an Adapter service.

adapter service request

The means by which the service requestor invokes the CICS Service Flow Runtime. An Adapter service request is sent in the form of a request message.

adapter service request processing

The programmatic functions (modeled at build time using the Service Flow Modeler tool) that an adapter service performs in order to manage and fulfill a business transaction on the server run time. To handle the work required by adapter request processing, CICS Service Flow Runtime can invoke one or multiple server adapters without requiring action by the service requestor. Each adapter service request results in a different instance of the Navigation Manager, Navigators (sometimes but not always) and only those server adapters that are needed to support that adapter service request.

adapter service response message
Sometimes referred to a reply message, this is a message sent out of the CICS Service Flow Runtime in response to an adapter service request that is sent from the service requestor. An adapter service response message contains the result of processing the business transaction that was defined in the request message. Not every adapter request message merits a reply. At build time the request message is formatted to indicate whether or not a reply is required.

The adapter service response message is an application-level reply. It is different from a response that is required by a communications protocol. For example, EXCI requires that all requests be responded to at the protocol level. Therefore, if the service requestor used EXCI for the adapter request message and if no adapter reply message was required, a protocol-level response would still be sent. However, this protocol-level response would not be performed by the CICS Service Flow Runtime. This protocol-level response would not have to be addressed during build time, diagnostics and tracing.

asynchronous
An event that occurs at a time that is unrelated to the time at which another event occurs. The two events are mutually asynchronous. The relationship between the times at which they occur is unpredictable.
asynchronous mode
A type of CICS Service Flow Runtime processing in which the BTS process implements an instance of the CICS Service Flow Runtime is run asynchronously from the initiating unit-of-work. All BTS activities within that BTS process will be run asynchronously from their parent activities. This has the effect of running the BTS process and all activities as separate units-of-work each with a distinct commit scope.

You would typically want to process a request in asynchronous mode if as a result of the processing, data will be updated.

asynchronous processing
A means of distributing the processing of an application between systems in an intercommunication environment. The processing in each system is independent of the session on which requests are sent and replies are received. No direct correlation can be made between requests and replies and no assumptions can be made about the timing of replies.
auditing
Collecting and recording information about the state of the CICS Service Flow Runtime for the purpose of diagnostics and tracing. CICS Service Flow Runtime uses BTS facilities for auditing.
audit trail utility
A CICS-supplied utility program, DFHATUP, that enables you to print selected BTS audit records from a specified logstream.
authentication
In computer security, verification of the identity of a user or the user's eligibility to access an object. In CICS Service Flow Runtime, the authentication process is established within the WebSphere MQ-CICS bridge via an AUTH parameter passed to the bridge monitor at startup.

B

basic mapping support (BMS)
Basic Mapping Support (BMS) is a design component of a CICS application that handles the presentation logic of the CICS transaction and relieves the application developer from having to encode and decode 3270 terminal data streams. BMS is an application programming interface between CICS programs and terminal devices. A BMS map set is made up of maps that specify how field data is to be formatted. At build time, an Application developer can use the BMS importer function in Service Flow Modeler to import a BMS map set from an application on the EIS into the workbench studio. An application developer can also assign the actual BMS field names to fields on 3270 application screens that he or she has imported. Using the 3270 screen importer you can add BMS to non-BMS CICS target application screens. At run time, CICS Service Flow Runtime V3.1 uses the compiled BMS source code in the form of a load module to determine field information such as type and length as well as extended attributes. Application screens that are real BMS would already have this load module. This feature allows developers to create the BMS-equivalent for non-BMS CICS screens.
build time
The time period when business transaction processing is defined, modeled or modified electronically. At build time, a programmer that is familiar with the enterprises business processes uses the Service Flow Modeler tool to:
  • capture existing EIS interfaces
  • model a newly composed business service using these interfaces
  • generating a new adapter
  • deploy the adapter as a service to the supported runtime environment
build time environment
A modeling environment. The Adapter service modeling environment for the CICS Service Flow Runtime is provided by the Service Flow Modeler, which is an eclipse-based application integration plug-in to the WebSphere Developer for System z product.
business process
A group of logically related activities that use the resources of the organization to provide defined results in support of the organization's objectives.
business transaction
A self-contained business function. An account transfer for example. Traditionally, in CICS a business transaction might be implemented as multiple user transactions. Using BTS, a business transaction might be implemented as multiple activities. In CICS Service Flow Runtime, the adapter service that was modeled, generated and deployed to the runtime environment enables the processing that will manage and complete the business transaction.

C

CICS
(Customer Information Control System) is an online transaction processing (OLTP) program from IBM® that, together with the COBOL programming language, has formed over the past several decades the most common set of tools for building customer transaction applications in the world of large enterprise mainframe computing. A great number of the legacy applications still in use are COBOL/CICS applications. Using the application programming interface (API) provided by CICS, a programmer can write programs that communicate with online users and read from or write to customer and other records (orders, inventory figures, customer data, and so forth) in a database (usually referred to as "data sets") using CICS facilities rather than IBM's access methods directly. Like other transaction managers, CICS can ensure that transactions are completed and, if not, undo partly completed transactions so that the integrity of data records is maintained.
message header
The required portion of the adapter request message that provides the meta information used by the CICS Service Flow Runtime for the processing of a message in CICS.
CICS transaction
A unit of application data processing (consisting of one or more application programs) initiated by a single request, often from a terminal. A transaction may require the initiation of one or more tasks for its execution.
CICS Business Transaction Services (CICS/BTS)
A CICS domain that supports an application programming interface (API) and services that simplify the development of business transactions. Using BTS, each action that comprises the business transaction is implemented as one or more CICS transactions.
communication area (COMMAREA)
A CICS area that is used to pass data between tasks that communicates with a given terminal. The area can also be used to pass data between programs within a task. At run time, the DPL Stub program (DFHMADPL or DFHMADPP) requires that information from the service requestor be passed in the form of a communication area.
compensation
The act of modifying the effects of a child activity. Typically, compensation undoes the actions taken by an activity. For example, compensation for an order activity might be to cancel the order. Compensation is taken under consideration at build time. If a business transaction is to include compensation, the adapter service model needs to reflect it. It can modify the effects of many activities within a given process.
connector
A connector is a well defined, durable communication or programming interface to an Enterprise Information System. A connector provides a means of accepting data in a definable format, invoking an operation, and receiving results in a definable format.

Examples of a connector include the following:

  • Host On Demand (HOD) - 3270 or 5250 connector style
  • CICS Transaction Gateway (CTG) – data structure / transactional style
  • Java™ Messaging Service WebSphere MQ – asynchronous Messaging style
  • JCA connectors for these interfaces, IMSConnect interfaces and JCA connectors, runtime modules produced with CICS Service Flow Runtime, and CICS’s FEPI, DPL, Link3270, and Web Bridge
  • SOAP listener.
custom program
A program that augments adapter service request processing. A custom program can contain complex rules such as logic and complex I/O that could not be modeled using the Service Flow Modeler. To invoke the custom program is exactly the same as the mechanism to invoke sequence flow processing with CICS transactions, ( that is, DPL.)

D

data-container
A named area of storage, maintained by BTS and used to pass data between activities or between different invocations of the same activity. Each data-container is associated with an activity; it is identified by its name and by the activity for which it is a container. An activity can have any number of containers as long as they all have different names. A data-container can be read by all the activities that comprise a process.
deployment
The word "deploy" means to place files or install software into an operational environment. In J2EE, this involves creating a deployment descriptor suitable to the type of application that is being deployed. In the case of Service Flow Modeler, the deployment descriptor would define the components and operating system parameters of the Adapter service. Service Flow Modeler will be one of multiple tools the WebSphere Developer for zSeries® product that allows for multiple deployment environments that are required to create the programmatic interfaces to Enterprise Information Systems. In Service Flow Modeler, a deployment for existing EIS may require both native, non-Java and standard Java deployments (such as HATS) to maintain Quality of Service (QoS), skills and existing IT investment in target EIS environments Deployment properties for the Adapter service are set at generation time.
deployment descriptor
Deployment descriptors are standard text files, formatted using XML notation and you package them in the application that you are deploying. Deployment descriptors define components and operating parameters for the application that you are deploying. In Service Flow Modeler, the deployment descriptor describes the Adapter service implementation.
deployment pattern
Sometimes referred to as an access pattern, a deployment pattern refers to way in which an Adapter service (composed using the Service Flow Modeler) complies with a set of well defined usage patterns for execution in a supported runtime environment. As part of the sequence of tasks associated with modeling an Adapter service, the developer sets properties that specify the Adapter service deployment pattern. The deployment pattern defines a combination of elements or characteristics that are passed to the CICS Service Flow Runtime when the Adapter service is generated and deployed. Deployment patterns describe how the Adapter service behaves on the supported runtime environments.

Deployment patterns vary depending on the characteristics of the Adapter service and the nature of the request. For example, an Adapter service of a complex business function may require access to multiple target applications and may result in data being updated. While an Adapter service of a simple business function may require access to only a single target application and may result in no data being updated (a simple inquiry, for example). The differences between simple and complex deployment patterns manifest at run time, as the CICS Service Flow Runtime performs the necessary program processing to handle the specific deployment patterns.

Distributed Program Link (DPL)
A function of CICS intersystem communication that enables CICS to ship LINK requests between CICS regions. CICS Service Flow Runtime can initiate programs, including custom programs using one or a sequence of DPLs, via CICS LINK.

E

EIS interface
An EIS interface will vary from organization to organization and its nature will be determined by the systems and application architecture. From the perspective of the Service Flow Modeler user, the EIS interface represents the data source on which the user will focus his or her development efforts. Many enterprise information systems have interfaces that do not lend themselves to participation in SOA. Developers are able to use Service Flow Modeler to model and compose the EIS interface (5250 and 3270 screens, COBOL record descriptions, transactions) to a more SOA compliant programmatic interface, enabling the enterprise to transform or adapt to a new set of operations and methods that move the application towards SOA.

For information on how developers work with and manipulate the artifacts that comprise an existing EIS interface to create, generate and deploy a service of an existing EIS application, see the Service Flow Modeler help in the WebSphere Developer for z/Series information center.

Enterprise Information System (EIS)
The applications that comprise an enterprise's existing mission critical system(s) for handling company-wide information. These applications provide an information infrastructure for an enterprise. An enterprise information system offers a well defined set of services to its clients. These services are exposed to clients as local and/or remote interfaces. Examples of enterprise information systems include:
  • enterprise resource planning systems
  • mainframe transaction processing systems
  • legacy database systems
Many organizations are now tasked with evolving existing application infrastructure to a modern service oriented architecture (SOA).
error logging
the process of writing error information to a file.

F

FEPI
Front End Programming Interface. A terminal emulator that permits CICS programs to interact with other 3270-based applications through virtual terminal sessions. In CICS Service Flow Runtime, a server adapter can interface with IBM's FEPI as part of processing a business transaction. The server adapter interaction with FEPI must be modeled and defined at build time. Using IBM's FEPI product, the server adapter can send requests to and receive replies from any CICS and IMS™ application whose 3270 datastream is intended for a SLU2 3278 Model 2 terminal (24 rows by 80 columns), that is, the returned buffer in the a single send and receive is not greater than 3600 bytes.
flow
Sometimes referred to as a sequence flow, a flow is a graphical representation of the sequence of activities performed in accordance with the business processes of an enterprise. Flows consist of a graph of nodes, with defined entry and exit points. Each node represents invoking a service operation, controlling the flow of the sequence, or performing reusable business logic. Flows are exposed as a service themselves, to be driven externally.

At build time, developers can use the flow editor component of the Service Flow Modeler to compose a visual model of an Adapter service. The flow illustrates the sequence of screens and the flow of information of an existing EIS application, for which a service is being created.

H

HATS
(Host Access Transformation Services) IBM software set of tools that provides Web-based access to legacy data sources and host-based applications. Using Service Flow Modeler, an enterprise developer can deploy an Adapter service to multiple supported runtime environments, including Host Access Transformation Services I/O on WebSphere Application Server.
host
In CICS Service Flow Runtime, the host is the computer system (such as a mainframe transaction processing system) on which EIS applications may reside. Developers can use components of the Service Flow Modeler to access applications that run on a host and import resources (such as screens and BMS maps) into the build time environment. Developers can then manipulate the imported resources to create, generate and deploy service-like interface of the host application.
host application
An application residing on the host computer system.
host connection properties file
The resource in a Service Flow Modeler project that contains the information necessary for connecting to the host system during build time. The host connection information that is stored on the host connection properties file enables you to access the host system for the purpose of capturing screens and recording dialogs. The host connection properties file also stores configuration properties that define the connection to the Enterprise Information System (EIS) at run time.

I

importer
Importers are a set of components in the Service Flow Modeler that are used to populate parts of the information model from existing resources. These resources may be data format definitions for messages or control blocks used by host applications, screen format definitions, for either entire screens or parts of screens, existing navigation information such as emulator macros, or captures of actual screens. For format definitions and screen captures, when the resource is imported, a schema is created. When navigation information is imported, flow info, WSDL and, if possible, schema are created. Data format importers are specific to the language the resources are written in and screen format importers are specific to the application environment the formats are for.
inline DPL
Inline DPL refers to the use of a DPL command within a FEPI sequence flow modelled using the Service Flow Modeler. This feature allows the generation of a FEPI server adapter that not only performs 3270 screen navigation, but also can connect to a back end program for data access and processing using a distributed program link. See Distributed Program Link.
interface
The contract between the service requester and the service provider expressed as a defined set of operations and the defined message formats for each operation. An Interface component describes sequences of messages that a service sends and/or receives. It does this by grouping related messages into operations. An operation is a sequence of input and output messages, and an interface is a set of operations. Thus, an interface defines the design of the application.

J

journal
A set of one or more data sets to which records are written during a CICS run:
  • By CICS to implement user-defined resource protection (logging to the system log).
  • By CICS to implement user-defined automatic journaling (to any journal, including the system log) .
  • Explicitly by the JOURNAL command from any application program (user journaling to any journal, including the system log).
journaling
The recording of information onto any journal (including the system log), for possible subsequent processing by the user. The primary purpose of journaling is to enable forward recovery of data sets. In CICS Service Flow Runtime, journaling refers to the collecting and maintaining information about the state of the runtime environment and application data to enable the compensation and recovery of the processing of an adapter request message.

The runtime journaling facility uses CICS/BTS container services to support compensation. Journal information is maintained only during the processing of each adapter request message, except in the case of failure. In the case of failure, CICS Service Flow Runtime retains state information and application data for subsequent use in a compensation flow.

The Navigation Manager, Navigators and server adapters participate in capturing two types of data that are used for compensation:
  • State information is stored in the process and status data-containers as part of the BTS process.
  • Journal data is stored in the journal data-container as part of the BTS process.

M

message
A set of data that is passed from one application to another. In Service Flow Modeler, a message can be modeled by a message definition file that describes the structure and content of the message. Messages must have a structure and format which is agreed by the sending and receiving applications.

N

Navigator
CICS Service Flow Runtime programs that perform adapter request processing, manage states during the microflow processing and invoke server adapters. The Navigator and the server adapters are generated as the result of modeling via the Service Flow Modeler.

Not every Adapter service created with Service Flow Modeler requires a Navigator. In Adapter services of the single connector type, there is only the Navigation Manager product program, DFHMAMGR, and a single generated and deployed server adapter program. There is no generated and deployed adapter Navigator program since there is no need to control and manage the flow as is the case when multiple server adapter programs (aggregate connector type).

Navigation Manager
CICS Service Flow Runtime program that invokes the Navigator programs. Runs as DFHROOT in BTS process.

O

operation
A service that can be requested from an object to effect behavior. A web service can have multiple operations. An operation has a signature, which may restrict the actual parameters that are possible. EIS operations are generally not independent of each other. Only certain sequences are possible and the business client end of the conversation must be kept active for the duration of the conversation. This implies that the developers view of stateless connections and tasteful ones should not be the same. Operations on a stateless connection are complete operations like those implemented by an EIS service.

P

persistence
An instance state of data that is maintained across session boundaries, or of an object that continues to exist after the execution of the program or process that created it, usually in nonvolatile storage such as a database system. In Service Flow Modeler, certain runtime patterns will allow and adapter service to be can categorized persistent or nonpersistent. In Service Flow Modeler, the term persistent characterizes whether or not the transactional instance data will be persist or remain in a BTS repository data set for the named process under which the Adapter service is executing. A developer would want to make an adapter nonpersistent if he or she were not concerned with maintaining data should the process under which the adapter is running fails. Session state information is a good example of persisted state data.

CICS Service Flow Runtime supports persistence in the processing of adapter services of both the single connector and the aggregate connector type.

process
In BTS, a collection of one or more activities. A process is the largest unit that CICS BTS can work with and has a unique name by which it can be referenced and invoked. In CICS Service Flow Runtime, the process is uniquely identified by the 36 byte process name value in the message adapter message header (DFHMAH).
process container
A data-container associated with a process. Process containers can be read by all the activities that make up the process. Note that they are not the same as the root activity's containers.

R

Request message
A message sent by the service requestor to the CICS Service Flow Runtime to invoke an Adapter service to process a business transaction. If the service requestor is WebSphere MQ-enabled, the adapter request message is of the form of an WebSphere MQ message. If the service requestor is using a CICS-supplied interface the request message is of the form of a communication area (COMMAREA).
Resource Access Control Facility (RACF®)
An IBM licensed program that provides access control by identifying users to the system; verifying users of the system; authorizing access to protected resources; logging detected, unauthorized attempts to enter the system; and logging detected accesses to protected resources. RACF is included in z/OS® Security Server and is also available as a separate program for the MVS™ and VM environments. In CICS Service Flow Runtime, RACF is used to make sure that a user has the authority to run a particular CICS DPL bridge task.
runtime environment
The supported environments to which the Adapter services, modeled and generated using the Service Flow Modeler are deployed.
run time
The time period during which the Adapter service instance is operational, with business transactions being managed and completed in the application server.

S

screen
In its native state, a screen represents the user interface to a 3270 or 5250 application on a host system. A single host application can contain many screens, each of which has a purpose within the context of the application. Screens contain both text and control (or formatting functions) and traditionally display as “green screens” on 3270 or 5250 terminals. In Service Flow Modeler a screen represents a schema or message that corresponds to a known terminal screen structure. Keep in mind that a single screen can have more than one state. Using Service Flow Modeler, you can address multiple states of a single screen by assigning a description that corresponds to each screen state. Therefore, a single screen may have multiple screen descriptions.
screen navigation
A form of data transfer between two application programs in which the first program accesses the second program through a terminal emulator or other communications program, and obtains data that would appear at known screen locations if the second program was being accessed by a human operator. The FEPI server adapter performs screen navigation to capture 3270 screen images from CICS and IMS applications.
sequence flows
In the Service Flow editor, a graphical representation of a composed service. A sequence flow is composed of a sequence of operations, assignments, and conditionals that are wired together into finite paths such that a request message is processed resulting in a response message. A sequence flow has a WSDL operation interface. A sequence flow directs actions from a beginning point (Receive node) through a number of operations to an end point (Reply node). A sequence flow can be representative of and existing application running on an enterprise information system (EIS). In Service Flow Modeler, the sequence flow represents the re-purposing of the EIS application as a service. See flow.
server adapters
Any one of three types of programs in the server run time that are invoked by the Navigator program to perform the business transaction activity defined within a sequence flow at build time.
Server adapters include the following:
  • The FEPI server adapter that interfaces to the CICS and IMS applications. It performs screen navigation. It also supports inline DPL commands.
  • The CICS server adapter that interfaces to the existing CICS transactions, including custom programs that can be developed to augment the Message Adapter, via DPL.
  • The WebSphere MQ server adapter that interfaces to the WebSphere MQ-enabled applications.
  • The Link3270 server adapter that interfaces to CICS applications. Typical 3270 application programs use CICS Basic Mapping Support (BMS) SEND MAP and RECEIVE MAP commands to communicate with the terminal user. The BMS commands reference the BMS symbolic map, which contains field data. These programs can be accessed using a generated Link3270 server adapter, with the CICS Link3270 bridge mechanism as modelled and deployed via the Service Flow Modeler at build time.
service
An external entity outside the organization that affects the organization's processes.
Service Flow Modeler
An eclipse-based application integration toolset that is targeted to the Application Transformation space. Service Flow Modeler is delivered as a developer plug-in to the WebSphere Developer for zSeries product. The Service Flow Modeler represents a single set of core components that enable the developer to:
  • capture existing EIS interfaces
  • model a newly composed business service using these interfaces
  • generate a new adapter
  • expose the new adapter as a service.

The end result enables the organization to expose their existing applications as a service-like interface, facilitating the move to service oriented architecture (SOA).

service provider
The business owner of the service. Technically, the service provider is the application that hosts access to the service. A service provider describes its service using WSDL. This definition is published to a directory of services. The directory could use Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI). Other forms of directories can also be used.
service requestor
The business that requires certain function to be satisfied. Technically, a service requestor is the application that is looking for and invoking or initiating an interaction with a service). The requestor role can be played by a browser driven by a person or a program without a user interface, e.g. another Web service. A service requestor issues one or more queries to locate a service and determine how to communicate with that service.

T

target application
The target application is the CICS or IMS application that contains the data or information required to fulfill the business transaction. Using the Service Flow Modeler, a developer can model an adapter that uses various interfaces / access patterns to CICS/IMS target applications. The runtime also supports passthrough processing as a way to access CICS target applications. Passthrough processing does not require developers to use the Service Flow Modeler. Regardless of how developers choose to access the target application, the data that is retrieved from the target application is sent back in a response message to the service requestor that made the request.
transaction
A transaction is the controlled interaction between two entities, usually involving the passing of information. Transactions enforce ACID properties (atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability), and in certain cases transactions can be rolled back, or reversed to a certain point. A unit of processing consisting of one or more application programs initiated by a single request. A transaction can require the initiation of one or more tasks for its execution.
transform
The process of changing the structure and values of data from one form to another. Service Flow Modeler transforms or “adapts” existing interfaces on an EIS in order to facilitate participation of EIS applications in a service in an SOA.
transform connectivity
An application transformation style that enables customers to change the way in which enterprise applications are accessed and used. Using Service Flow Modeler, one can transform connectivity by exposing existing applications as a service-like interface, facilitating the move to service oriented architecture (SOA).

W

Web Services Definition Language (WSDL)
The standard format for describing a web service. An XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints operating on messages containing either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information. A WSDL definition describes how to access a web service and what operations it will perform.

#

3270
The 3270 Information Display System, a product from IBM, was, prior to the arrival of the PC, the way that almost the entire corporate world interfaced with a computer. Many thousands of corporate legacy application programs written to interact with users at 3270 terminals are being used from PCs equipped with software known generally as 3270 emulators. TN3270 is a program that provides PC users remote (Telnet) connection to an IBM computer that is running 3270 applications. At build time, a developer can use Service Flow Modeler to connect to legacy application programs and to import resources (screens, COBOL record descriptions) into a project created in the WebSphere Developer for zSeries workbench.