The CICS JSON assistant

The CICS® JSON assistant is a set of batch utilities that creates a mapping between JSON schema and language structures. This mapping is used by CICS at runtime to do the transformation between JSON and application data. The assistant supports rapid deployment of CICS applications for use in service providers and service requesters, with the minimum of programming effort.

When you use the JSON assistant for CICS, you do not have to write your own code for parsing inbound messages and for constructing outbound messages; CICS maps data between the JSON message and the application program's data structure.

The assistant can create a JSON schema from a high-level language structure or a high-level language structure from an existing JSON schema, and supports COBOL, C/C++, and PL/I. It also generates information used to enable automatic runtime conversion of the JSON messages to containers and COMMAREAs, and vice versa.

The CICS JSON assistant comprises two utility programs:

DFHLS2JS: Generates a web service binding file from a language structure. This utility also generates a JSON schema.
DFHJS2LS: Generates a web service binding file from a JSON schema. This utility also generates a language structure that you can use in your application programs.

The JCL procedures to run both programs are in the hlq.XDFHINST library.

For more information about the JSON assistant utility programs and data mappings, see the following topics.