Introduction

In VisualAge® for Java^TM Enterprise Edition Version 4.0, the Enterprise Access Builder (EAB) tools enable you to develop applications that comply with the J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA) specification. These JCA-compliant applications utilize CICS®, IMS^TM, and other backend systems to access existing enterprise information systems. You can deploy and run these VisualAge for Java JCA applications on WebSphere® Application Server Advanced Edition Version 3.5.3.

In WebSphere Studio Application Developer Integration Edition Version 4.1.1 (hereafter called Integration Edition), you can also develop JCA applications for use with CICS, IMS, and other systems. However, until recently, you could deploy and run these applications only on the powerful WebSphere Application Server Enterprise Edition.

A fixpak is now available that enables you to run Integration Edition JCA applications on WebSphere Application Server Advanced Edition. These applications can access CICS (through ECI) and IMS. This article tells you how to apply the fixpak and run Integration Edition JCA applications on the two advanced editions of WebSphere Application Server.

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WebSphere Application Server Version 4.0 Fix Pack 4

WebSphere Application Server Version 4.0 Fix Pack 4, which is also known as WebSphere Application Server Version 4.0.4, was released in August, 2002. It provides multiple fixes and performance improvements for WebSphere Application Server. With the fixpak applied, you can develop JCA applications in Integration Edition and then deploy and run them on the following editions of WebSphere Application Server:

• WebSphere Application Server Version 4.0 Advanced Single Server Edition
• WebSphere Application Server Version 4.0 Advanced Edition

For detailed information about the fixpak, see the Readme, Release Notes, and List of Defects files that accompany the fixpak. Note that the fixpak does not endow Advanced Edition with support for service flows or other enterprise function.

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Deploying and running JCA applications on Advanced Edition

Prior to the availability of Fix Pack 4, any JCA applications that you developed in Integration Edition Version 4.1.1 could be deployed only to WebSphere Application Server Enterprise Edition. Generally, to create a JCA application and then deploy it to Enterprise Edition, you complete the following steps:

1. Create the application in Integration Edition and package it in an Enterprise Archive (EAR) file.
2. Test the application in the Integration Edition test environment (which incorporates the Enterprise Edition run time).
3. Deploy the application to the Enterprise Edition production server environment.

With Fix Pack 4, you can now develop your JCA application in Integration Edition and then deploy it to either Enterprise Edition or Advanced Edition. To create a JCA application and then deploy it to Advanced Edition, you complete the following steps:

1. Create the application in Integration Edition using a J2EE enterprise application project.
2. Deploy and test the application on a local copy of WebSphere Application Server Advanced Single Server Edition that has been upgraded with Fix Pack 4. A copy of Advanced Single Server Edition is included in your Integration Edition product box. (If you intend to deploy your Integration Edition JCA application to an Advanced Edition production server, use Advanced Single Server Edition as your unit test environment. The Integration Edition test environment incorporates the Enterprise Edition run time, which is not an appropriate environment for testing JCA applications that are targeted for deployment to Advanced Edition.)
3. Package your enterprise application project in an EAR file and deploy it to an Advanced Edition production server environment that has been upgraded with Fix Pack 4.

These three high-level tasks for developing a JCA application in Integration Edition and then deploying it to Advanced Edition are described in detail in the following sections:

• Step 1. Develop the JCA application in Integration Edition
• Step 2. Apply Fix Pack 4 to Advanced Single Server Edition
• Step 3. Install the resource adapters on Advanced Single Server Edition
• Step 4. Deploy and test the application on Advanced Single Server Edition
• Step 5. Apply Fix Pack 4 to Advanced Edition
• Step 6. Install the resource adapters on Advanced Edition
• Step 7. Deploy and run the application on Advanced Edition

Step 1. Develop the JCA application in Integration Edition

In Integration Edition Version 4.1.1, develop your JCA-compliant application as you normally would using an enterprise application project. No special development practices are required as a result of targeting the application for deployment to Advanced Edition.

Not all Integration Edition JCA applications can run on Advanced Edition. This is true regardless of whether Advanced Edition has been upgraded with Fix Pack 4. For example, Advanced Edition does not support Integration Edition JCA applications that have flows or IBM resource adapters other than CICS ECI or IMS.

Step 2. Apply Fix Pack 4 to Advanced Single Server Edition

To apply Fix Pack 4 to Advanced Single Server Edition:

1. Go to the WebSphere Application Server support site.
   
2. In the Search support for this product field, enter Version 4.0.4 and click Submit. This will bring up a link to Fix Pack 4 that you can then follow to the Fix Pack 4 download site.
3. Read the relevant documentation for the Fix Pack and then download and install it by following the instructions in the Fix Pack Readme file. When you reach the point in the installation where you have to run the install.bat command, the following JAR files (in addition to others) should appear in the AppServer\lib directory of Advanced Single Server Edition:
   • wsif.jar
   • wsdl4j.jar
   • physicalrep.jar
   • marshall.jar
   • wsatlib.jar
   • jdom.jar
4. If any of the JAR files listed above does not appear in the AppServer\lib directory, ensure that you correctly followed the installation instructions in the Fix Pack 4 Readme file.
5. When you have finished installing Fix Pack 4 on Advanced Single Server Edition, navigate to the Integration Edition directory <WSInstallDir>\plugins\com.ibm.etools.ctc.runtime. This directory contains the following JAR files:
   • jca.jar
   • ccf.jar
   • j2c.jar
   • ccf2poolmgr.jar
6. Copy the four JAR files to the AppServer\lib directory of Advanced Single Server Edition. These JAR files are needed to supplement the JCA support provided by Fix Pack 4.

Step 3. Install the resource adapters on Advanced Single Server Edition

Advanced Single Server Edition does not come with the resource adapters (connectors) that a JCA application requires to access enterprise information systems using CICS, IMS, and other backend systems. Before you can test an Integration Edition JCA application on Advanced Single Server Edition, you need to obtain the required resource adapters from Integration Edition. To get the resource adapters and install them on Advanced Single Server Edition, complete the following steps:

1. In the Integration Edition install path, navigate to the directory <WSInstallDir>\workspace\Installed Resource Adapters. This directory contains the CICS ECI and IMS subdirectories, which in turn contain the following resource adapter JAR files:
• CICS ECI directory
  • ccf2.jar
  • cicseci.jar
  • cicsecitools.jar
  • cicsframe.jar
  • ctgclient.jar
  • ctgserver.jar
• IMS directory
• ccf2.jar
• imsico.jar
• imstools.jar
2. Depending on whether your JCA application uses the CICS ECI resource adapters or the IMS resource adapters, copy the appropriate group of JAR files to the AppServer\lib directory of Advanced Single Server Edition. If you are unsure about the group of JAR files that you need, you can copy all of the JAR files from the two subdirectories.

The Integration Edition 4.1.1 licensing agreement permits you to copy the resource adapter files to Advanced Single Server Edition and use them in conjunction with the Integration Edition product for development and testing purposes only. To meet the terms of this agreement, Advanced Single Server Edition must reside on the same machine as Integration Edition.

For additional information, see the licensing agreement located in the Integration Edition directory <WSInstallDir>\license. For example:

C:\Program Files\IBM\Application Developer Integration Edition\license

Step 4. Deploy and test the application on Advanced Single Server Edition

Even though your Advanced Single Server Edition installation resides on the same physical machine as Integration Edition, you must configure and run IBM© Agent Controller in order to use Advanced Single Server Edition as a test environment that can be run and controlled from Integration Edition. A copy of Agent Controller can be found in one of two locations:

• If you installed Agent Controller separately prior to installing Integration Edition, then you either accepted the default install location or you specified your own install location for it. The default install location is C:\Program Files\IBM\IBM Agent Controller.
• If you did not install Agent Controller separately prior to installing Integration Edition, then Agent Controller was automatically installed as a result of installing Integration Edition and can be found in the Integration Edition directory <WSInstallDir>\IBM Agent Controller.

Before testing your JCA application on Advanced Single Server Edition, your main Agent Controller configuration task is to ensure that the Agent Controller file config\serviceconfig.xml contains the wteRemote.exe entry described in the Integration Edition online help topic "Testing a project remotely". Additional information about Agent Controller is found in the online help topic "Working with the Agent Controller".

To deploy your JCA application from Integration Edition and start it on Advanced Single Server Edition, you need to create a remote server instance and server configuration, add the enterprise application project that contains your JCA application to the server configuration, and then start the server instance. These tasks are all described in the Integration Edition online help topic "Testing a project remotely" and in the related topics to which it links.

To test your JCA application on Advanced Single Server Edition:

1. In Integration Edition, browse to the online help sample "Creating an Enterprise service for a CICS ECI program." (Although this is a CICS sample, the deployment and testing activities described in it are similar for IMS.)
2. Do one of the following:
• If you have already developed your JCA application but you have not yet tested your CICS service using a CICS proxy, skip to the section "Testing a CICS service using a CICS proxy", then complete the instructions in the section and in all subsequent sections. (Additional information about CICS proxies is also found in this section of the topic.)
• If you have already developed your JCA application and tested your CICS service using a CICS proxy, skip to the section "Deploying a CICS service", then complete the instructions in the section and in all subsequent sections.
3. Wherever you see the ServicesServer server instance and configuration mentioned, replace it with the name of the remote server instance and configuration that you created earlier when you followed the instructions in the topic "Testing a project remotely" and its related topics.

Step 5. Apply Fix Pack 4 to Advanced Edition

To apply Fix Pack 4 to Advanced Edition:

1. Go to the WebSphere Application Server support site.
2. In the Search support for this product field, enter Version 4.0.4 and click Submit. This will bring up a link to Fix Pack 4 that you can then follow to the Fix Pack 4 download site.
3. Read the relevant documentation for the Fix Pack and then download and install it by following the instructions in the Fix Pack Readme file. When installing the Fix Pack, ensure that you install the Fix Pack 4 resource adapters (connectors) by running the install.bat -connectors command. The following JAR files (in addition to others) should appear in the AppServer\lib directory of Advanced Edition:
   • wsif.jar
   • wsdl4j.jar
   • physicalrep.jar
   • marshall.jar
   • wsatlib.jar
   • jdom.jar
   • jca.jar
   • ccf.jar
   • j2c.jar
   • ccf2poolmgr.jar
4. If any of the JAR files listed above does not appear in the AppServer\lib directory, ensure that you correctly followed the installation instructions in the Fix Pack 4 Readme file.

Step 6. Install the resource adapters on Advanced Edition

Advanced Edition does not come with the resource adapters that a JCA application requires to access enterprise information systems using CICS, IMS, and other backend systems. You must obtain the appropriate resource adapter archive (RAR) files, which contain the required resource adapter JAR files. Once you have obtained the RAR files, you need to install them on Advanced Edition.

If your JCA application uses the CICS ECI connector, you can obtain the CICS ECI RAR file (cicseci.rar) from your installation of IBM CICS Transaction Gateway (Version 4 or later). For additional information about the CICS ECI RAR file, see the Integration Edition online help topic "Deploying a CICS service to the production server". After you have obtained and installed the CICS ECI RAR file, you must also obtain a CICS ECI resource adapter JAR file from Integration Edition in order to run your Integration Edition JCA application on Advanced Edition. To get the resource adapter JAR file and install it on Advanced Edition, complete the following steps:

1. In the Integration Edition install path, navigate to the directory <WSInstallDir>\workspace\Installed Resource Adapters\CICS ECI
2. Copy the cicsecitools.jar file to the AppServer\lib directory of Advanced Edition.

If your JCA application uses the IMS connector, you can obtain the IMS RAR file from the IMS download site.

For additional information about the IMS RAR file, see the Readme file that accompanies the IMS RAR file.

Ensure that you carefully read the license agreements that govern the use of the CICS ECI and IMS RAR files.

Step 7. Deploy and run the application on Advanced Edition

To deploy and run your JCA application on the Advanced Edition production server environment:

1. In Integration Edition, export your Enterprise Application project (which contains your JCA application) as an EAR file.
   1. Select File > Export. The Export wizard opens.
   2. In the left frame, select EAR file and click Next.
   3. Select ServicesEAR from the What resources do you want to export? drop-down list.
   4. Beside the Where do you want to export resources to? field, click Browse and select the destination for the resources; for example, C:\CustomerInfo.ear.
   5. Click Open and then click Finish.
2. In Integration Edition, browse to the online help topic "Deploying a CICS Enterprise service to a production server", then locate the similarly named section of the topic "Deploying a CICS service to the production server". (Although this is a CICS topic, the deployment activities described in it are essentially similar for IMS.)
3. Follow the instructions in the "Deploying a CICS service to the production server" section, but omit the instructions that appear in the "Adding the cicsecitools.jar" subsection. (You will already have the cicsecitools.jar file as a result of installing the CICS ECI RAR file in Step 6 above.)
4. After you have completed the instructions in the "Deploying a CICS service to the production server" section, complete the instructions in all of the subsequent sections to the very end of the topic.
5. If you encounter problems in using the Advanced Edition Administrator's Console to install the EAR file that you exported from Integration Edition, then see the Advanced Edition online help topic "Installing enterprise applications and modules with the Java administrative console".

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Conclusion

Integration Edition Version 4.1.1 enables you to develop JCA-compliant applications that work with CICS, IMS, or other backend systems to access enterprise information systems. Previously, JCA applications that you developed in Integration Edition could only be deployed and run on WebSphere Application Server Enterprise Edition. However, with the recent release of WebSphere Application Server Version 4.0 Fix Pack 4, you can now develop your JCA applications in Integration Edition and then deploy and run them on either Enterprise Edition or Advanced Edition.

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About the authors

John McLean is the Manager of Scenario Development for WebSphere Studio Application Developer Integration Edition at the IBM Toronto Lab. You can reach John at jmclean@ca.ibm.com .

Rob Stevenson is an Information Developer for WebSphere Studio Application Developer Integration Edition at the IBM Toronto Lab. You can reach Rob at rstevens@ca.ibm.com .

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Table of contents

• Introduction
• WebSphere Application Server Version 4.0 Fix Pack 4
• Deploying and running JCA applications on Advanced Edition
• Conclusion
• About the authors
• Comments

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