Developing Node.js applications

Node.js applications are written using JavaScript and involve asynchronous programming concepts that could be unfamiliar to COBOL and Java programmers. Experienced Node.js developers find that developing applications for CICS is a similar process to developing Node.js applications for other platforms. Development and debugging skills are shared, and the Node Package Manager (NPM) is used in the same way.

CICS provides an API to invoke CICS programs from your Node.js applications. The API offers a locally optimized way to interact with existing CICS assets, rather than invoking them as services over the network.

The topic Best practice for developing Node.js applications covers aspects of application programming that you need to be aware of when you are developing Node.js applications.

Limitations of Node.js in CICS

Almost all of the common Node.js libraries are available for use within CICS, subject to a few limitations. Those limitations involve both native code and interactions with the underlying operating system. If the implementation of a third-party API involves platform specific native code then it might not have been ported to z/OS. If you want to use something that hasn't been ported to z/OS, you might need to seek support from the authors of that code. If an API needs to spawn new operating system processes, then that functionality is not available within CICS; the following Node.js APIs are known to be incompatible with CICS for this reason: