Building, Modifying, and Submitting Processes

You can construct and submit Processes for execution in several ways, depending upon the user interfaces available on your operating environment. These IBM® Connect:Direct® user interfaces include:

  • Interactive User Interface (IUI)
  • Connect:Direct Browser User Interface
  • Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent
  • Batch interface

    User-written programs issued through the IBM Connect:Direct Application Program Interface (API)

For more information about monitoring and manipulating your submitted Processes, see Controlling Processes with Commands.

Note: The maximum size allowed for a Process is 1 MB.

You can also use the Connect:Direct Browser User Interface to perform some Connect:Direct for z/OS® procedures.

The following steps describe how a Process executes:

  1. You submit a Process.

    You create and submit a new Process or submit a predefined Process from a IBM Connect:Direct Process library.

  2. The parser checks the syntax of the Process.
  3. The Process is queued for execution and the submit message is issued

    If the Process passes syntax checking, it is placed in a work queue based on Process parameters, such as priority, class, and start time.

    IBM Connect:Direct work queues are referred to as the Transmission Control Queue (TCQ) or the Process queue. A Process can have one of the following queue states in the TCQ:
    State Description
    EXECUTION Indicates that the Process is executing.
    WAIT Indicates that the Process is waiting until a connection is established or available.
    HOLD Indicates that the Process is held on the queue until released by an operator or the SNODE connects with a request for held work.
    TIMER Indicates that the Process is submitted to execute at the user-specified time or date.
    PROCESS RETENTION Indicates the process has completed and would have been deleted, but PROCESS.RETENTION=YES was specified in the INITPARMs. The process can only be viewed or deleted.

    You can manipulate any Process in the TCQ with various IBM Connect:Direct commands that are described in the next chapter.

    A message indicating that the Process submitted successfully is returned when the Process is placed in the TCQ.

  4. The Process is queued for execution and the submit message is issued.

    You can manipulate any Process in the TCQ with various IBM Connect:Direct commands that are described in the next chapter.

    A message indicating that the Process submitted successfully is returned when the Process is placed in the TCQ.

  5. IBM Connect:Direct finds an available connection and Process execution begins. The Process is selected for execution based on Process parameters and the availability of the remote node.