The IBM z/OS Connect build toolkit
The build toolkit is supplied with IBM z/OS Connect for generating artifacts that z/OS needs to participate in the RESTful API economy as an API provider, as an API consumer, or both.
- When IBM z/OS Connect acts as an API provider
- The build toolkit is used to generate service archive (.sar) files from z/OS assets. The service archive files enable APIs to connect to back-end applications on z/OS subsystems.
- When IBM z/OS Connect acts as an API requester
- The build toolkit is used to generate API requester archive (.ara) files from API description files. The API requester is the function that facilitates RESTful API calls by z/OS applications.
The build toolkit is the key to your DevOps process
Enterprises need a DevOps process to support agile development, testing, and deployment of services, APIs, and API requesters for continuous delivery. The build toolkit is the key to such an automated process.
In a DevOps pipeline, the source files for defining a service, API, and API requester are treated as the source code and stored in a source control management (SCM) system. A build automation script then generates the required archive files from the latest source files in the SCM by using the build toolkit. For more information, see DevOps with IBM z/OS Connect.
How the build toolkit is supplied
The build toolkit is supplied in a compressed file called zconbt.zip that you can download from the product installation directory. When you install a IBM z/OS Connect server instance, you automatically have access to the zconbt.zip file. The compressed file contains both the command line interface (CLI) and Software Development Kit (SDK) versions of zconbt. A readme file that contains instructions on how to use zconbt is included in the package.