IMS Universal drivers overview
The IMS Universal drivers are software components that provide Java™ applications with connectivity and access to IMS databases from z/OS® and distributed environments through TCP/IP. Java applications that use the type-2 IMS Universal drivers must reside on the same logical partition (LPAR) as the IMS subsystem. Java applications that use the type-4 IMS Universal drivers can reside on the same logical partition (LPAR) or on a different LPAR from the IMS subsystem.
Programming approaches
The IMS Universal drivers provide an application programming framework that offers multiple options for access to IMS data. These programming options include:
- IMS Universal Database resource adapter
- Provides connectivity to IMS databases from a Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) environment, and access to IMS data using the Common Client Interface (CCI) and Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) interfaces.
- IMS Universal JDBC driver
- Provides a stand-alone JDBC 4.0 driver for making SQL-based database calls to IMS databases.
- IMS Universal DL/I driver
- Provides a stand-alone Java API for writing granular queries to IMS databases using programming semantics similar to traditional DL/I calls.
Open standards
The IMS Universal drivers are built on the following industry open standards and interfaces:
- Java EE Connector Architecture (JCA)
- JCA is the Java standard for connecting Enterprise Information Systems (EISs) such as IMS into the Java EE framework. Using JCA, you can simplify application development and take advantage of the services that can be provided by a Java EE application server, such as connection management, transaction management, and security management. The Common Client Interface (CCI) is the interface in JCA that provides access from Java EE clients, such as Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) applications, JavaServer Pages (JSP), and Java servlets, to backend IMS subsystems.
- Java Database Connectivity (JDBC)
- JDBC is the SQL-based standard interface for database access. It is the industry standard for database-independent connectivity between the Java programming language and any database that has implemented the JDBC interface.
- Distributed Relational Database Architecture™ (DRDA) specification
- DRDA is an open architecture that enables communication between applications and database systems on disparate platforms. These applications and database systems can be provided by different vendors and the platforms can be different hardware and software architectures. DRDA provides distributed database access with built-in support for distributed, two-phase commit transactions.