A PIPELINE resource definition is used when a CICS application is in the role of a Web service provider or requester. It provides information about the message handler programs that act on a service request and on the response. Typically, a single PIPELINE definition defines an infrastructure that can be used by many applications.
The information about the processing nodes is supplied indirectly: the PIPELINE specifies the name of an HFS file which contains an XML description of the nodes and their configuration.
An inbound Web service request (that is, a request by which a client invokes a Web service in CICS) is associated with a PIPELINE resource by the URIMAP resource. The URIMAP identifies the PIPELINE resource that applies to the URI associated with the request; the PIPELINE specifes the processing that is to be performed on the message.