Developer: My Application Uses CICS

CICS is an application server for IBM Z that supports mixed languages. CICS provides features for scalability, reliability, and availability to support the operation of mission critical applications that process a high volume of transactions or requests. It supports Java, Java EE, COBOL and PL/I among other programming languages.

Before you start, you can check the following overview of migrating CICS applications to a PC.

The following steps provide guidance on how to create mainframe projects in Enterprise Developer for your COBOL and PL/I applications that use CICS, and how to debug and test them. The assumption is that you will be adding your existing application sources to an Eclipse project.

1. Start Eclipse and open the Team Developer perspective which is the default one for Enterprise Developer.

   You can also choose the COBOL or PL/I perspective, depending on the main programming language.

2. Configure Eclipse for CICS development.

   The default settings in Enterprise Developer are settings aimed at Mainframe Subsystem Application development. You can check and fine-tune settings for the editor and for setting Compiler directives from Window > Preferences > Micro Focus.

3. Create a Mainframe Subsystem Application project for COBOL or PL/I.
4. Add your source files - see how for COBOL or for PL/I projects.
5. Set Compiler directives on the source files - for COBOL and for PL/I.
6. Specify project and build configuration properties - for COBOL and for PL/I projects.

   For example, you can specify a CICS and SQL preprocessor settings, a character set and for COBOL, the mainframe dialect.

7. Edit your source files - see some tips for COBOL, PL/I, and BMS files.
8. Build your COBOL or PL/I application.
9. Debug your application - Enterprise Developer comes with a testing environment for applications that run in Enterprise Server.
   • Configure Eclipse for debugging on Enterprise Server
   • Debug using a temporary region
   • Use the supplied Rumba TN3270 terminal emulator to connect to your application

Further, to get familiar with the process of developing CICS applications in Enterprise Developer, Micro Focus recommends that you go through the following tutorials and samples:

• Getting started with Enterprise Developer tutorial
• A Set of Tutorials on CICS Support with COBOL
• Also, check the PL/I CICS Demo in the product's samples