New features in IMS Enterprise Suite Version 3.2 SOAP Gateway

IMS Enterprise Suite Version 3.2 SOAP Gateway supports dynamic destination routing for synchronous callout requests; supports use of a different XML converter for processing synchronous callout requests; simplifies the installation process; extends support for IBM® z/OS® Communications Server Transparent Transport Layer Security (AT-TLS) to the callout scenario; and supports customized SOAP headers in synchronous callout requests.

Dynamic destination routing for synchronous callout

You can change the target destination from what was specified in the callout web service WSDL file by using the supported tags in the control data area in the IMS ICAL call. IMS passes the tags and their values to SOAP Gateway, allowing SOAP Gateway to dynamically route the callout requests.

Three tags are provided to give you finer control of the target destination, or the endpoint URL. In the callout web service WSDL, the endpoint URL for a service is associated with a port, which has a port name. Each service might be associated with multiple ports, and therefore, multiple possible endpoint URLs. For SOAP Gateway to determine which endpoint URL to route the callout request to, or to change the endpoint URL from what is specified in the WSDL file, you can use one of the following tags to change part of or the entire endpoint URL:

DFSPORTNAME: The target endpoint, as identified by the specified port, to route the callout request to.
DFSENDPOINTURL: The target endpoint to route the callout request to, overriding the one that is defined in the WSDL file.
DFSHOSTPORT: The host and the port of the endpoint URL to route the callout request to, overriding the original host and port in the endpoint URL.

Use of a different XML converter for synchronous callout request and response processing

You can specify to use a different XML converter from the one that is specified in the correlator file for callout request and response processing. Use the supported DFSCNVTR tag in the control data area in your ICAL call to specify the XML converter. This dynamic converter specification function allows for data structure changes in the callout application without having to redeploy the callout web service and therefore no service interruption.

Installation process simplification

Installation of SOAP Gateway requires modification of multiple JCL jobs to specify the data set, the path, the high-level directory name for each of the SOAP Gateway component and for Java. The same values are also used in runtime configuration jobs and configuration member. In prior releases, the values must be entered in each job, and the process is time-consuming and error prone. In this release, an installation properties file is provided for you to specify these values one time, and a script extracts these values and generate a copy of the installation and configuration jobs with the appropriate parameter values. The original copy is left intact. The installation properties file includes detailed description for each variable and the jobs that use the value from the variable. After you run the script to generate a custom copy of the jobs, you can then submit the jobs directly.

Support for AT-TLS for the callout scenario

Before this release, AT-TLS is supported only for the provider scenario. In this release, use of AT-TLS for the callout scenario is supported.

Customized SOAP headers in synchronous callout requests

SOAP Gateway can include an optional customized SOAP header in the SOAP envelope of a synchronous callout request. You specify a customized SOAP header dynamically through a set of XML elements (tags) in the control data area of the ICAL call. You can use either or both of the following methods:

Use the DFSCSHEADERS element and one or more DFSCSHEADER elements to contain XML elements that SOAP Gateway places into the SOAP header.
Use one or more user-defined XML elements that SOAP Gateway places into the SOAPHEADERFORUSERDATA element in the SOAP header.

To use customized SOAP headers, you must have IMS Version 14 or later, and you must apply the PTF for APAR PI53765 for IMS Enterprise Suite Version 3.2 SOAP Gateway.