Application binding

Before an application can be deployed, the application must be bound, or mapped, to the target platform. Each CICS® bundle in the application must be bound to one or more CICS region types in the platform. The application binding specifies how applications are bound to platforms and ensures that CICS bundles are deployed correctly on the target platform.

A simple example CICS topology might require three CICS bundles to be installed into a single CICS region. A more sophisticated example topology might require one CICS bundle to be deployed to a region type in the platform, and the other two CICS bundles to both be deployed to a different region type in the platform. The application binding, rather than the application bundle, controls the deployment of the CICS bundles, so you do not include deployment information in the application itself. An application binding that maps CICS bundles to region types is required to install an application bundle.

Application bindings also support more complex scenarios in which different CICS resources are deployed on different platforms and region types. For example, URIMAP resources containing different URIs can be deployed on different platforms and region types. This type of customization can be achieved by including additional CICS bundles in the application binding. Each bundle, in this case containing a different URIMAP resource, is specified in the application binding, but the application itself does not require modifying. This type of application binding is optional.

You create an application binding in CICS Explorer®.The CICS Application Binding Project generates an application binding bundle, which is a type of management bundle, and updates the application definition with details of the bind directory. XML files are created:

After you have created an application binding, you can use the application binding descriptor editor in CICS Explorer to change how the CICS bundles from both the application and the application binding are deployed to region types in a platform. You can also add or remove CICS bundles that are deployed with the application binding.

When you make changes to the CICS bundles for an application, you use CICS Explorer to change the application binding to specify the new version of the application, and also to update the version number of the application binding to match the application version. You cannot use an existing version of an application binding with a new version of an application bundle. You must update the versions of the application bundle and application binding whenever you update the CICS bundles for the application.

For instructions on using CICS Explorer to create, deploy, and manage an application binding, see Creating a CICS Application Binding project in the CICS Explorer product documentation.