VB Demo is a Windows user interface provided with the MAS connector.
This interface is used to access data structures. The following
sections describe how to use VB Demo:
- Overview
- Planning considerations
- Administering VB Demo
- Starting VB Demo
- Making a SQL request
- Closing VB Demo
VB Demo was installed onto your computer during the MAS installation (see Installing and configuring the connector). By default, it is stored in the Systems folder,
located on your C:\ drive as follows:
ProductDir\connectors\Mcs\MCS_Shadow\Win32\Shadow\Bin32\VBdemo32.exe
With VB Demo, you can use Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Crystal
Reports, and many other tools to access DB2, IMS, CICS, and ADABAS
data. You can also use standard SQL statement calls to access data from
IMS, ADABAS, and VSAM.
You can also use VB Demo to verify installation of the Shadow Direct
Interfaces for ADABAS, DB2, IMS, CICS, and VSAM.
Before you begin, ensure that the following actions have been
completed:
- Microsoft Visual Basic has been installed.
- Microsoft Data Access Component (latest version) has been
installed.
- MAS components have both been installed.
- The MAS drivers have been configured and connected to the data
source.
To run VB Demo, perform the following steps:
- Open the Start Menu and select Programs/Neon Systems/VB Demo 32-bi
application.
The system will display the VB Demo window.
- From the Connections menu, select Add New
Connection.
- Note:
- You can have more than one connection open at the same time.
The system will display the Select Data Source dialog box, as
shown in Figure 12.
Figure 12. Select data source dialog box

- Select the Machine Data Source tab, and then click
NEON_Client_Demo.
- Click OK. The system will display the User
Authentication dialog box.
- Enter your mainframe userid in the Userid field, and enter your
mainframe password in the Password field.
- Click OK. The system issues a message indicating that
the connection was established.
- Click OK to return to the VB Demo window.
Perform the following steps to make an SQL request:
- Enter one of the following statements, depending on the type of data you
are accessing:
For DB2-OS/390:
select * from q.staff
- Note:
- If you select the Tables button, only the tables defined in the table filter
are shown. The table filter was defined during data source
configuration (see "Configuring the ODBC driver" and "Configuring the JDBC driver"). If you did not define a table filter, the
system will display only those tables that you own or that you created under
your user id.
For ADABAS:
('select first_name birth sex from employees where last_name =
"jones"')
Figure 13. Example of Adabas query

- Note:
- You must include CALL SHADOW _ADABAS as part of your
SQL passthrough statement as shown in the example above.
For CICS:
call shadow_cics('EXCI','EXCS','EXCI','DFH$AXCS',
2,'FILEA ',' 1',",150,",'MAP(NAME(EXCIMAPFIELDS(*))')
- Note:
- In the above statement FILEA is followed by three spaces (for a total of
eight characters) and 1 is preceded by five spaces (for a total of six
characters). Also, you must include CALL SHADOW _CICS as
part of your
SQL passthrough statement as shown in the example above.
For IMS:
call shadow_IMS('IME','/DISPLAY','MKT2AIMS', 'PROGRAM','ACTIVE','APPC-IMS-DATA')
- Note:
- You must include CALL SHADOW _IMS as part of your
SQL passthrough statement as shown in the example above.
For VSAM (read-only access):
('select(5)*from vsam1')
- Note:
- You must include CALL SHADOW _VSAM as part of your
SQL passthrough statement as shown in the example above.
For VSAM via CICS (read/write access):
('exvs','select(5)*from filea')
- Note:
- You must include CALL SHADOW_CICS as part of your
SQL passthrough statement as shown in the example above.
- Click Query. The system displays the following
information, depending on the type of data you requested.
To close VB Demo, perform the following steps
- To exit the VB Demo program, click Disconnect. The
system will display a message indicating that the connection was
closed.
- Close the VB Demo window.
