IMS catalog API (DFS3CATQ macro)

Your application programs can retrieve database and program specification block definitions from the IMS catalog through the IMS catalog application programming interface (API), a release-independent assembler macro interface.

The IMS catalog API is provided with IMS in the DFS3CATQ macro.

To write a program that uses the IMS catalog API, you must have a working knowledge of the following subjects:

  • Assembler language programming
  • z/OS® and the services it supplies
  • IMS
  • The IMS catalog

The DFS3CATQ macro supports the following actions:

  • Acquire resources as needed to read the IMS catalog
  • Get an object definition and return the information back to the calling application, optionally limiting the result to objects that match a name pattern
  • List the objects that exist within the IMS catalog, optionally limiting the result to objects that match a name pattern
  • Release resources held across invocations of the API