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Using Rational Developer for System z V7.1 to work with COBOL programs

Reginaldo W. Barosa (rbarosa@us.ibm.com), Senior Certified Application Development Specialist, IBM
Reginaldo Barosa photo
Reginaldo W. Barosa is an IBM Senior Certified Application Development Specialist. He provides sales support, helping customers with Enterprise Modernization Solutions and development tools, such as Rational Developer for System z. Before joining IBM US eight years ago, Reginaldo worked for 27 years in IBM Brazil. He has co-authored IBM Redbooks and has written two books, as well as other articles and tutorials for IBM developerWorks. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia, São Paulo, Brazil.
(An IBM developerWorks Professional Author)

Summary:  Traditional application developers can use IBM® Rational® Developer for System z® to significantly increase their productivity and efficiency when creating and maintaining traditional mainframe applications. This tutorial shows you how. You download and use example code in a variety of typical development scenarios. The examples include programs that use CICS, VSAM, and DB2®, including syntax checking and compiling. You also see the configuration steps to perform either local or remote syntax checking of COBOL programs. The program and associated assets (such as copybooks) can be stored on either z/OS® or the local workstation. Even though the configurations shown are for COBOL applications, PL/I programmers can follow this tutorial and then apply similar steps to their PL/I programs.

Date:  20 Feb 2008
Level:  Intermediate
PDF:  A4 and Letter (838 KB | 37 pages)Get Adobe® Reader®

Activity:  14263 views
Comments:  

Before you start

Introduction

This tutorial shows COBOL developers how to improve productivity using IBM® Rational® Developer for System z™ (hereafter called Developer for System z). You see how to check the syntax of COBOL assets located on the local workstation or by remotely accessing them on z/OS.

You also see how to compile COBOL code locally on the local workstation or remotely accessing the compiler on z/OS.Y ou play through several typical scenarios, you explore both local and remote syntax checking capabilities, and you see how to configure the workstation for the various scenarios.

This tutorial covers several of many possible scenarios, including ones using COBOL with and without CICS, one with DB2 on the local workstation, and COBOL programs that access VSAM on z/OS.

Although this tutorial demonstrates various tasks using COBOL assets, you could use similar steps to work with PL/I.

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Objectives

When you complete this tutorial, you should know how to use Developer for System z to:

  1. Work with COBOL batch code and with CICS statements that access either VSAM or DB2.
  2. Work with COBOL/CICS/DB2 code on the local workstation.
  3. Work with COBOL/CICS code on z/OS.
  4. Check syntax of COBOL code on your local workstation.
  5. Compile COBOL code on your local workstation.
  6. Check syntax of COBOL code stored on z/OS.
  7. Compile COBOL code stored on z/OS.

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Prerequisites

To get the most out of this tutorial, you should be comfortable with COBOL programming on z/OS and have some familiarity with Rational Developer for System z.

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System requirements

On your workstation you need Rational Developer for System z Version 7.1 and IBM TXSeries for Multiplatforms Version 6.1 installed to test the examples. TXSeries is included in Rational Developer for System z V7.1. You must also have the Developer for System z components installed and configured on the mainframe because you will need to connect and submit jobs for remote execution.

You need to have already defined on your workstation a remote system and you should be connected to that system. For detailed help in s creating this connection, see the IBM Rational Developer for System z Version 7.1.1 information center.

For the scenario that uses a local database, you will also need DB2 installed on your workstation and the database name SAMPLE created. This tutorial was tested with DB2 Version 8.2, but you could use a later version, if desired.

You also will need to allocate z/OS datasets to hold the assets and a VSAM file. This tutorial provides the sample programs, JCL, and properties that are used. See About the download for information about the assets provided in the download. Table 1 shows the required datasets and their characteristics to implement the scenarios. The high level qualifier is XXX. You can use the ALLOC_PDS.jcl job (provided in the download) to help you allocate the data sets.


Table 1. The z/OS data sets you need to allocate for the scenarios
Data set nameRecord formatRecord lengthBlock sizeContent
XXX.POT.COBOL FB 80 8000 COBOL programs
XXX.POT.COPYLIB FB 80 8000 COBOL copybooks
XXX.POT.LISTING FBA 133 1330 Compiler listing
XXX.POT.LOAD U 0 6233 Load module
XXX.POT.OBJ FB 80 3200 Object
XXX.GENERTED.JCL FB 80 8000 JCL

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Duration

This tutorial takes about 1 hour to complete, after you have prepared your system according to the System requirements.

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About the download

The download includes code that you can use to implement the scenarios. Unzip the download file to a temporary drive, such as c:\temp. You load the code according to the instructions that follow in the scenarios below.

The download zip includes these assets:

SCENARIO#1_Project_interchange.zip – To create the project used in the scenario #1.

SCENARIO#1_PROPERTIES.xml – Properties used in the scenario #1.

SCENARIO#2_Project_interchange.zip – To create the project used in the scenario #2..

SCENARIO#2_PROPERTIES.xml – Properties used in the scenario #2.

SCENARIO#3_PROPERTIES.xml – Properties used in the scenario #3.

SCENARIO#4_PROPERTIES.xml – Properties used in the scenario #4.

ALLOC_PDS.jcl – This JCL can be used to allocate the PDS required.

DEFVSAM.jcl – To create and load the VSAM file used in the COBOL programs.

P1VSAM.cbl – COBOL program used in the scenarios without CICS and DB2.

VSAMCOPY.cpy – COBOL copybook used by P1VSAM and P4CICS programs.

P4CICS.cbl – COBOL program used in the scenarios with CICS.

COMAREA.cpy – COBOL copybook used by P4CICS program.

P43CICS.cbl – COBOL program used in the CICS scenario with copybook with EXEC CICS.

CUSTREC, CUSTIORQ and COPYCICS – COBOL copybooks used by P43CICS program..

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