Process Components

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The following example shows the components of a IBM® Connect:Direct® Process:

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

The following table describes these components:

Component Description
Label A user-defined 1-8 character alphanumeric string that identifies the IBM Connect:Direct statement. The label must begin in column one. The first character of the label must be alphabetic. The PROCESS statement is the only statement that requires a label; it is optional on all other statements. The PROCESS statement must be on the same line as the label.
Statement The statement specifies the requested function Statements must begin after column one. If a statement begins in column one, IBM Connect:Direct considers it a label.

For more information on how to code IBM Connect:Direct statements to transfer files and submit business processes to IBM B2B Integrator, see Transmitting Files between IBM Connect:Direct and B2B Integrator.
Parameters and Subparameters Parameters and subparameters specify further instructions for the statement. They must be separated from statements by one or more blanks or commas. Multiple symbolic substitutions must be separated by one or more spaces.

There are two types of parameters: keyword and positional.

  • Keyword–Keyword parameters are usually followed by an equal sign and may have a set of subparameters.
  • Positional–Positional parameters must be entered in a specific order, with commas replacing any parameter omitted. These parameters are always to the right of the equal sign. Positional parameters must be enclosed in parentheses, with the parentheses optionally preceded and followed by blanks or commas.

A positional parameter or the variable information in a keyword parameter sometimes is a list of subparameters. The list may contain both positional and keyword parameters. Positional subparameters must be enclosed in parentheses, with the parentheses optionally preceded and followed by blanks or commas.
SYSOPTS SYSOPTS (system operations) are a specialized type of parameter used by every IBM Connect:Direct platform. SYSOPTS specify platform-specific commands to perform during a Process. For example, when transferring a file from a mainframe system to a UNIX system, you use SYSOPTS to specify that the file be translated from EBCDIC to ASCII and that any trailing blanks be removed.

See SYSOPTS Syntax for more information about using SYSOPTS.