Message sets

A message set is made up of one or more messages in a TCO script-member to be passed to an exit routine for processing. A message can consist of one or more message requests.

A message request is an 80-character string that defines data to be passed to the exit routine specified in a time schedule request.

Required fields for message sets

  • Columns 1-71 MESSAGE DATA

    IMS commands to be executed. Columns 1-5 must not contain *TIME (unless you want to specify a timed schedule request).

  • Column 72 CONTINUATION

    Allows you to include single-segment or multi-segment messages and allows segments or messages to be longer than 71 characters.

    The options for this column are:
    Blank
    Indicates the end of the segment and the end of the message. The exit routine assumes that the next statement begins a new message. At the end of the message, you must include a time schedule request with **** in columns 56-59.
    S
    Indicates the end of the segment only (that is, that the next statement begins a new segment of the same message).
    X
    Indicates the segment is continued in the next statement. Multiple statements are combined before the segment is passed to the exit routine. Only nine statements can be continued, for a total of 10 statements and 710 characters. You must be careful not to exceed the large message queue buffer size.

Optional field for message sets

  • Column 73-80 LINE NUMBER

    Sequence numbers for the requests. If IMS or the TCO Verification utility detects an error, the number found in columns 73-80 is included in the error message to help you to identify the cause of the error.

    Recommendation: Include sequence numbers for all commands and message sets.

When IMS reaches the end of the TCO script, or at the end of the day, IMS starts again at the beginning of the script. Time schedule requests for startup are not re-executed, unless you reload the script. Requests with the dispatch indicator set to O (one-time execution) are not rescheduled unless the script is reloaded.

Statements do not need to be in time sequence in the script, nor do startup requests need to be first in the file. If TCO finds multiple startup schedule requests, or more than one time schedule request for the same time, TCO processes them in the order they are listed.