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iPlanet Application Server Enterprise Connector for CICS Administrator's Guide

 

Chapter 1 Overview
 

The iPlanet Application Server Enterprise Connector for CICS is used for building and delivering scalable applications that integrate the application server with legacy CICS applications. The iPlanet Application Server Enterprise Connector for CICS enables communication between an end user and a remote CICS system. This chapter introduces the three-tier, web-based computing model and describes the basic connector concepts.

This chapter contains information about the following topics:

• Unified Integration Framework




• Three-tier Application Model




• Enterprise Connector Tools for CICS

 

 

Unified Integration Framework 

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The Unified Integration Framework (UIF) is an application programming framework that provides a single Application Programming Interface (API) to access different Enterprise Information Systems (EIS). A connector is developed for each EIS to allow communication between the UIF API and the EIS, see Figure 1-1. The UIF API is the only API necessary to access the EIS.

Figure 1-1    CICS Integration

The UIF enables development of server extensions that integrate with legacy CICS applications and systems, client-server applications, and third party Internet solutions. These extensions provide a consistent access layer to disparate EISs, dramatically reducing development effort. The framework provides support for features such as object pooling, distributed state and session management.

A generic data repository, also a part of the UIF, which is used to hold metadata parameters and other information about the EIS. For example, the metadata often describes the physical connection between systems, the data that is available, and methods you can use to process data. See Figure 1-2.

Figure 1-2    The Unified Integration Framework

Since EISs are implemented differently, the details for each EIS implementation differ.
 

UIF Services

The UIF is a component of the iPlanet Application Server. The iPlanet Application Server plays a prominent role in a three-tier application model. See the Three-tier Application Model for a description. The UIF mediates between the iPlanet Application Server application and the EIS tier, namely the data sources and databases.

The UIF provides an API to access the following services:

• Runtime




• Data Object Services




• Repository and Metadata Services

 

 

Runtime

The UIF runtime services supply core services for resource management, thread management, communication and life cycle management, and exception management. The UIF runtime services understand and interpret metadata repository contents.
 
 

Data Object Services

The Data Object Services implements universal data representation common to all connectors. See the iPlanet Application Server Enterprise Connector for CICS Developer's Guide for a description of data objects. 
 
 

Repository and Metadata Services

The UIF repository and metadata services model a persistent information hierarchy that supports datatype definitions, and inheritance. It also manages the instances and reuse of data objects from datatype definitions.
 
 

Three-tier Application Model

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The machine and software involved are divided into the following three tiers:

• Client Tier




• Server Tier (iPlanet Application Server)




• EIS Tier

 

 

The connectors serve as an essential link allowing the server tier to communicate with the EIS tier, as shown in Figure 1-3. Communication between the application server and the EIS is facilitated by the UIF API. This layer of functionality resides as an added layer to the iPlanet Application Server, and enables data communication with diverse EISs in a seamless and uniform manner. 

Figure 1-3    Three-tier Web-based Computer Model

 

Client Tier

The client tier is represented as the user interface. Requests for data originate here, represented by web browsers or rich clients (such as a Java applet).
 

Server Tier 

The server tier is represented by an application server, and optionally a web server such as the iPlanet Web Server Enterprise Edition. The server tier houses the business logic (your application servlets and/or Enterprise Java Beans), and provides scalability, high availability load balancing, and integration with a variety of data sources. 
 

EIS Tier

The EIS tier is represented by Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems or other EIS data systems such as CICS.
 
 

Enterprise Connector Tools for CICS

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The Enterprise Connector Tools are as follows: 

• Management Console - includes User Mapping and Data Mining Tools
• User Mapping - allows you to map user IDs for access into the EIS, and to edit and manage data sources.




• Data Mining Tool - includes capabilities such as determining the available functions in the EIS, translating and reformatting data, and loading data into the data repository.

 

 

• Repository Browser - allows you to browse data in the repository. You can view the available functions (input and output parameters) for the EIS.

 

 

The Management Console

The iPlanet Application Server Enterprise Connector for CICS has an interactive Management Console Tool. The Management Console is used by the administrator to do the following:

• data mine function objects and data types from the EIS metadata, and populate the repository with these data mined definitions




• administer repository contents for creating new data sources, editing settings, and altering pooling settings




• populate user mapping tables in the data repository

 

 

For more information on the Management Console, see Chapter 4.
 

The Repository Browser

The Repository Browser allows the user to explore the repository contents. While not used for editing, however, the Repository Browser provides import, export, and delete actions on repository nodes.

Repository contents are modified/populated using the import function. This feature is available as a browser function and as a command line tool and imports XML under a specified repository node. Additionally, the export function is available as a browser function and as a command line tool, and exports a selected subtree as an XML document. For more information on the Repository Browser, see Chapter 4.