Creating a channel description document

Channel description documents are used by the IBM® z/OS® Connect build toolkit when building a service archive file for the CICS® service provider to define the channel interface to your CICS program.

Use an XML editor to create the channel description document. The document must conform to the following schema:


<schema xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"  
 targetNamespace="http://www.ibm.com/xmlns/prod/CICS/channel"  
 xmlns:tns="http://www.ibm.com/xmlns/prod/CICS/channel" elementFormDefault="qualified">  
  <element name="channel">  NOTE 1 
   <complexType>
    <sequence>
     <element name="container" maxOccurs="unbounded" "unbounded" minOccurs="0">  NOTE 2 
      <complexType>
       <sequence>
        <element name="structure" minOccurs="0">  NOTE 3 
         <complexType>
          <attribute name="location" type="string" use="required"/>
          <attribute name="structure" type="string" use="optional"/>
         </complexType>
        </element>
       </sequence>
       <attribute name="name" type="tns:name16Type" use="required"/>
       <attribute name="type" type="tns:typeType" use="required"/>
       <attribute name="use" type="tns:useType" use="required"/>              
      </complexType>
     </element>         
    </sequence>
    <attribute name="name" type="tns:name16Type" use="optional" />
   </complexType>
  </element>
 <simpleType name="name16Type">
  <restriction base="string">
   <maxLength value="16"/>
  </restriction>
 </simpleType>
 <simpleType name="typeType">
  <restriction base="string">
   <enumeration value="char"/>
   <enumeration value="bit"/>     
  </restriction>
 </simpleType>
 <simpleType name="useType">
  <restriction base="string">
   <enumeration value="required"/>
   <enumeration value="optional"/>
  </restriction> 
 </simpleType>
</schema>

Note:

This name="channel" element represents a CICS channel. This element has an optional name attribute to specify the name of the CICS channel.
This name="container" element represents a CICS container within the channel. You must specify one name="container" element for each container in the channel. Each element must specify the attributes name with the name of the container, type with the type of the container (either char or bit) and use to indicate if the container is required or optional.
A structure element can only be used with bit mode containers. The location attribute indicates the location of a file that maps the contents of the container. The file can be a member of a partitioned dataset or a UNIX System Services file. The structure attribute can be used in C and C++ to indicate the name of the structure in the header file.
Do not use container names starting with BAQ or DFH, unless directed to do so by IBM.

The following example shows a channel called myChannel with three containers with different attribute values. Containers "cont1" and "cont2" are character containers, container "cont3" is a bit container whose content is defined in a language structure located in a partitioned data set member.


<channel name="myChannel" xmlns="http://www.ibm.com/xmlns/prod/CICS/channel">  
  <container name="cont1" type="char" use="required"/> 
  <container name="cont2" type="char" use="optional"/> 
  <container name="cont3" type="bit"  use="required">  
    <structure location="//hlq.pdsname(member)"/>  
  </container>
</channel>

Note: Context containers do not need to be included in the channel description document.