Micro Focus Enterprise Developer 3.0 for Visual Studio 2013 > Programming > Mainframe Programming > HCO for SQL Server (HCOSS) > Migrating Applications > Binding Applications

Binding Applications

Once you have built your application such that it generates the necessary DBRMs, you must bind the DBRMs to your application by directly binding the DBRMs, or by binding the DBRMs into packages and/or plans that can be accessed by your run-time application.

You have several options for binding applications:

Use the Manage Packages and Plans tool to generate bind script files (.hcodsn files) containing BIND script commands that you can execute immediately to achieve application binding, or that you can save for later execution.
Use the Manage Packages and Plans tool to create and save bind script files to execute using the DSN Bind utility at a command prompt or as a post-build event.
Manually code bind script files to execute using the DSN Bind utility at a command prompt or as a post-build event.
Note: For a listing of commands that are valid in HCOSS bind script files, see the topic Bind Script Commands.
Bind from JCL by coding DSN commands directly into the JCL.

Whether you bind your applications via the Manage Packages and Plans tool or directly with the DSN Bind utility, the results are the same. This is because the Manage Packages and Plans tool actually runs the DSN Bind utility for you when you execute a script command.

We recommend that you bind your applications by creating collections and packages from DBRM members and then binding those packages to one or more plans. This method offers a significant advantage over binding DBRM members directly into a plan. For example, if you need to change the SQL in a single source member, and that source member is bound into a package that has been bound into a plan, you only need to rebind the changed member to its package. However, if the changed member is bound directly into a plan, you must rebind the entire plan to include the change.