Process Language

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A IBM® Connect:Direct® Process uses its own scripting language that defines the work that you want the Process to do. The following are the statements used in IBM Connect:Direct Processes:

Statement Description
PROCESS Defines general Process characteristics. This statement is always the first statement in a Process. Among the items the Process statement specifies are:
  • The name of the secondary node in the Process
  • The Process priority
  • When to start the Process
  • Who to notify upon completion
  • Whether IBM Connect:Direct should keep a copy of the Process to execute in the future
COPY performs a data transfer. The COPY statement also specifies various file transfer options, including:

File allocation

File disposition options

File renaming

Data compression options
RUN JOB submits a job or application to the host operating system. The Process continues running and does not wait for the submitted job or application to complete. This is known as asynchronous processing.
RUN TASK submits a job or application to the host operating system. The Process waits for the job or application to complete before continuing. If the job or application does not complete, the rest of the Process does not run. This is known as synchronous processing.
SUBMIT submits a Process from within another Process. The SYMBOL statement enables Processes to be modular. This enhances processing flexibility, as you can modify Process modules as necessary without altering the master Process.
SYMBOL replaces symbolic strings within a Process with parameter values. The SYMBOL statement eliminates the need to hard-code file names and values within a Process. Instead, the SYMBOL statement allows values to be substituted within a Process, enabling a Process to be reused for different file transfers.
Conditional (IF, EIF, ELSE, EXIT, GOTO controls Process execution by testing Process step return codes with conditional logic statements. For example, if a file transfer successfully completes, the Process can use the SUBMIT statement to initiate a second Process. If the Process transfers files, it can also send an error message to the operator.
pend indicates the end of a Process. This statement is only valid for Connect:Direct for UNIX and Microsoft Windows.

The Process statement must be the first statement in a Process. The statements after the Process statement can follow in any sequence. Each statement uses parameters to control Process activities such as execution start time, user notification, security, or accounting data. These parameters can be specified within the Process or you can specify them when you submit the Process. The parameters for a statement vary according to platform.