Manually importing Java libraries

In some circumstances, you need to manually import dependencies to develop Java™ applications for use in CICS®. For example, to create your own build scripts, or if your application uses the IBM® JZOS Batch Toolkit for z/OS® SDK.

CICS libraries

The CICS Java libraries are provided as Maven Central artifacts and with the IBM CICS SDK for Java. If you want to manually import the libraries to resolve dependencies instead, you can copy the .jar files out of the CICS installation directories.

Note: Copying .jar files manually makes them prone to get out of sync with updates. You can use the artifacts on Maven Central to ensure that you always have the correct version of libraries. Otherwise, you must have a mechanism to refresh the copied .jar files. A full refresh is necessary when a new release of CICS is installed.

The .jar files are located within the /lib directory of the CICS USSHOME directory on zFS.

The following application development .jar files are available:
  • com.ibm.cics.jcicsx.jar, which provides support for the JCICSX API.
  • com.ibm.cics.server.invocation.jar, which provides support for the CICS annotation processor, a Java library that is used to create metadata that enables CICS programs to invoke Java applications in a Liberty JVM server.
  • com.ibm.cics.server.jar, which provides support for the JCICS API and CICS annotations, a Java library that provides the @CICSProgram annotation to enable CICS programs to call Java applications in a Liberty JVM server. The @CICSProgram annotation was originally provided by com.ibm.cics.server.invocation.annotations.jar, which is still available for compatibility with earlier versions.

JZOS Toolkit

If your application uses the IBM JZOS Batch Toolkit for z/OS SDK, you need to import the ibmjzos.jar library for application development on platforms other than z/OS.

  • Java 11Java 17Java 21 The JZOS Toolkit library JAR is available to download from Java SDK Products on z/OS for Java 11, Java 17 and Java 21.
  • Java 8 With Java 8, you can transfer the ibmjzos.jar file from the lib/ext directory in the IBM Java SDK on z/OS to your workstation.

6.3 Support for Java 8 and Java 11 is removed as of CICS TS 6.3.