Developing with XML

For any purpose, you can write application programs to transform application binary data into XML and vice versa. CICS supports a number of high-level languages and provides an XML assistant to map how the data is transformed during runtime processing. CICS uses the same technology for mapping application data to XML in SOAP messages, as part of the web services support.

Before you begin

You must have Java™ installed to run the XML assistant and to optionally perform validation when CICS transforms the data or XML.

About this task

The advantage of using this approach to transform application data to and from XML is that CICS goes beyond the capabilities offered by an XML parser. CICS can interpret the XML and perform record-based conversions of the application data. Therefore, it is easier and faster for you to create applications that work with XML using this approach.

The CICS XML assistant is a supplied utility that helps you to create the required artifacts to transform application binary data to XML or transform XML to application binary data. The XML assistant can create the artifacts in a bundle directory or another specified location on z/OS UNIX.

Procedure

  1. Create the mappings using the XML assistant.
  2. Create the XMLTRANSFORM resources in CICS to make the mappings available.
  3. Create or update an application program to use the TRANSFORM API command.
    The application must use a channel-based interface.
  4. Run the application to test that the transformation works as you intended.
    You can turn on validation to check that CICS converts the data correctly.

    These steps are explained in more detail in the following topics.