z/OS conversion
services
Unlike previous levels of CICS® Transaction Server, CICS TS V3 can use z/OS® services to perform conversions beyond
those supported by CICS TS
in previous releases. An example is conversions to and from Unicode,
which might be required to support Web services. This requires z/OS to have the initial conversion
image installed, which can only be done on a system IPL. If it is
wished to install CICS TS V3
without a re-IPL of z/OS, this
can be done provided the initial conversion image is installed during
a previous system IPL. The conversion image does not include any code
from CICS TS; it can also be
refreshed without any need for a further IPL.
JVM modes in CICS
Customers
using Java™ programs in CICS TS V3.1 are recommended to
use continuous mode. Support for continuous mode was introduced in CICS TS V2.3; in order to bring CICS use of Java into line with standard practices, support
for resettable mode will be removed in a future release of CICS TS.

SOAP for CICS feature
Applications
developed to use the SOAP for CICS feature
will continue to run with CICS TS
V3.1. However, customers are recommended to migrate to the Web services
support capabilities of CICS TS
V3.1 because support for the SOAP for CICS Feature
support will cease when support of CICS TS
V2.3 ceases.

Common Connector Framework (CCF)
The Common
Connector Framework (CCF), which was the predecessor interface to
the Common Client Interface (CCI), is not supported by CICS TS V3.1. The intention to remove this support
was indicated in the announcement of CICS TS
V2.3.
ECI Base Classes (ECIREQUEST)
The ECI Base
Classes (ECIREQUEST, which were introduced for compatibility with
the CICS Transaction Gateway),
are not included in CICS TS
V3.1. The recommended replacement is the COMMON CLIENT INTERFACE CONNECTOR
FOR CICS TS (CCI Connector
for CICS TS), introduced in CICS TS V2.3, when it was announced
that ECIREQUEST would be removed.
Transaction Affinities utility
CICS TS V3.1
does not include the detector and reporter components previously provided
as part of the CICS Transaction
Affinities utility. These components are now incorporated in IBM® CICS Interdependency
Analyzer for z/OS V1.3, announced
in August 2004, which has the capability of analyzing both interdependencies
and affinities. The load library scanner component of the CICS Transaction Affinities utility
remains in CICS TS V3.1, and
can produce reports on application programs which have potential affinities.