Developing applications that use optimized local adapters

Use this task when you are implementing the optimized local adapters support for calling programs in external address spaces from WebSphere® Application Server for z/OS® applications.

About this task

Use optimized local adapters to make outbound calls from an application running under WebSphere Application Server for z/OS to a server program that is running in an external address space, and make inbound calls to Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) applications that are deployed on a local WebSphere Application Server for z/OS server from an external address space.

The following illustration shows the flow when using optimized local adapters with Customer Information Control System (CICS®).The following illustration shows the flow when using optimized local adapters with Customer Information Control System (CICS).

The next illustration is the flow when using optimized local adapters with Information Management System (IMS).

The following steps describe the process required to call a native language z/OS server program that is running in an external address space.

1. Enable the server environment.
   In this step, activate support for the optimized local adapters in the WebSphere Application Server daemon group or cell. This prepares the WebSphere Application Server to make outbound requests.
2. Prepare an existing application.
   A resource adapter archive (RAR) file, ola.rar, is provided for applications to use the Java™ Connector Architecture (JCA) 1.5 programming model for connecting to and calling native language external server programs. Read the topic, Using the optimized local adapter to call an application in an external address space from a WebSphere application for more information about how to accomplish this.

   If you are calling from a Cobol or C/C++ program, you might want to use the IBM® Rational® Application Developer assembly tools, such as Rational® Application Developer, to create a Java class with getter and setter helper methods that correspond to the Cobol copybook or C/C++ structure. These methods help convert binary form to Java objects. The Java 2 Connector (J2C) tools in Rational Application Developer can be used to accomplish this conversion. Read about assembly tools for more information about tooling support for WebSphere Application Server applications.

3. (Optional) Use the CICS environment.
   Complete this step only if you want to activate the adapters in the CICS region. If you are not using CICS, skip to the next step.

   Attention: Make sure that the product is using a SAF-based user registry if you plan to propagate a SAF user ID from WebSphere Application Server for z/OS to CICS.
4. (Optional) Use the IMS environment.
   Complete this step only if you want to activate the adapters in the IMS region. If you are not using IMS, skip to the next step.
5. Register an external address space.
   For the optimized local adapters to establish a server task, you must bind the current address space to the WebSphere Application Server group and establish connection attributes using the Register API.
6. Secure optimized local adapters for outbound support.
7. Make outbound calls.
   Depending on what you want to achieve and what systems you are working with, choose the method you want to use to make calls with the native APIs.
   1. Using optimized local adapters to connect to an application in an external address space from a WebSphere application.
   2. Using the outbound APIs with the external address space or subsystem .
      Create an interaction between the outbound APIs and the external address space or subsystem.
8. (Optional) Monitor optimized local adapters.