ContainerInteraction

The ContainerInteraction activity functions much like the CICS Interaction activity using containers with the exception that there might be any number of input and output containers. The containers are described and mapped in the input and output schema tabs rather than in fields in the activity configuration panel. The output of the activity contains a container segment for every container created by the program and those which are used as input unless the input only indication was used.

General

In the General tab, you can establish a connection to a CICS region.

The following table lists the configurations in the General tab of the ContainerInteraction activity:

Field Module Property? Description
Name No Specify the name of the region resource.

Default: ContainerInteraction

Region Yes Specify a link to the CICS region shared resource to be used for this interaction.
Program Name Yes Specify the name of the CICS program that you want to invoke.
Interaction Timeout Yes Specify the number of seconds that the activity waits for the CICS system to return from the called program. Zero disables the timeout, which means that interactions wait forever for the CICS system to return. A blank value implements the 60 second default.

Default: 60

Range: 0 - 255

Logger Name Yes Enter the name of any logger you have reconfigured for this purpose, or leave it blank to use the default logger.
To configure loggers to display log messages in TIBCO Business Studio returned by the plug-in, add the following stanzas to the logback.xml file located in the TIBCO_HOME\bw\6.x\config\design\logback directory: 
<logger name="com.tibco.bw.palette.cics">
    <level value="DEBUG"/>
  </logger>

Note that if no logger is specified and the root logger for the run time is set to WARN or higher, the plug-in incurs overheads related to retrieving log records from the CICS system at run time. To ensure that performance is acceptable, it is best to use a dedicated logger, which is not set to DEBUG.

Create Timing Report No Select this check box to enable the plug-in to produce a timing report on the output schema.

This check box is provided to assist TIBCO Support to resolve a performance problem with the plug-in. It is good practice to clear this check box for production applications.

Description

In the Description tab, provide the short description for the ContainerInteraction activity.

Advanced

In the Advanced tab, you can configure response related information for the ContainerInteraction activity.

The following table lists the configurations in the Advanced tab of the ContainerInteraction activity:

Field Module Property Description
CICS Resource Commit Point No Specify a CICS resource commit point.
Options are:
  • Auto: the CICS interaction interface program automatically commits CICS resources at the completion of the program call.

    This is the default.

  • User: it is expected that the called program explicitly commits CICS resource changes if it is necessary to do so.
  • Remote: the remote CICS system automatically commits all resources at transaction end.
DB2 Transaction Id Yes Optionally, provide a transaction identifier to be used by programs accessing DB2 by way of plans that have a specific transaction ID bound into them.
Enable CICS Remote No Select this check box to enable the CICS routing options.

After you select this check box, the Remote CICS Sys Id, Remote CICS Trans , and Sync On Return fields become enabled.

Remote CICS Sys Id Yes Specify a four-character system identifier for the CICS region where the program ultimately runs.

Use alphanumeric characters only.

Remote CICS Trans Yes Specify a four-character transaction identifier responsible for running the program on the remote CICS system.

Use alphanumeric characters only.

Sync On Return Yes Select this check box to automatically commit CICS resources on the remote CICS system when the program returns.

If this check box is not selected, the remote CICS program cannot issue a CICS SYNC or a CICS ROLLBACK.

Default: disabled

Input

In the Input tab, you can configure information for a container to be sent as input.

The Input tab includes the CommanProperties and InputContainer nodes.

The InputContainer node represents a container object to be sent as input to the called program. For programs that require or accept multiple containers as input, simply duplicate the provided node as many times as necessary and map the fields appropriately.

The following table lists the configurations in the Input tab of the ContainerInteraction activity:

Input Item Module Property? Data Type Description
CommanProperties
Userid Yes String Override the user ID for this container interaction. This field is only available for container interactions using non-pooled connections.
Password Yes String Override the password for this container interaction. This field is only available for container interactions using non-pooled connections.
TranId Yes String This optional field can hold or override a custom transaction identifier that is used to account for application resources for each transaction.

This identifier becomes the transaction on whose behalf the connection to CICS is made and under which all plug-in container interactions on this CICS region or regions run.

To enable this transaction ID, copy the transaction SXNE CSD provided by TIBCO to the name of the custom transaction.

This field is only available for container interactions using non-pooled connections.

MroTran Yes String Override the four-character transaction identifier responsible for running the program on the remote CICS system.

Uses alphanumeric characters only.

MroSys Yes String Override the four-character system identifier for the CICS region where the program ultimately runs.

Uses alphanumeric characters only.

MroSync Yes String Override the Boolean. This input item indicates whether the CICS link is completed with or without the SYNCONRETURN parameter. The valid input is TRUE or FALSE.
ChannelName Yes String Optionally, enter the name of the CICS Channel object which contains the input containers for this program execution. This is only required to support programs which explicitly open a named channel rather than use the default.
InputContainer
InputOnly Yes Boolean Indicate that this container is not to be returned to the activity. It is input only. Containers that are not changed by the program do not need to be returned by the interface. Setting this option to 1 saves network resources.

Default: 0

Range: 0 or 1

ContainerName Yes String A required one to 16 character name for the container. Most programs require specific named containers for input.
bytes No Binary Map the data that is used to represent the body of the container. This is usually the output of the Render Copybook Data activity, but any mechanism which provides valid input is permitted.

Output

In the Output tab, you can find the results of the ContainerInteraction for a commarea or a container.

The Output tab contains the ContainerOutput node, which represents an output container produced by the activity. Unless input containers have their "Input Only" values set to 1, they are duplicated here.

The following table lists the configurations in the Output tab of the ContainerInteraction activity:

Output Item Data Type Description
ContainerName String Displays the name given to the container by the program.
bytes Binary Displays the body of the container.
responsetimemillisec Integer Displays the number of milliseconds that the CICS interaction took for performance monitoring reasons.
timings String Displays a list of strings describing the execution times for plug-in functions.

If the Create Timing Report check box is selected in the General tab, this node is present. It is intended to be used by TIBCO Support when they are assisting you with a performance problem. It is good practice for this option to be normally turned off.

Fault

In the Fault tab, you can find the error code and error message of the ContainerInteraction activity.

The following table lists error schema elements in the Fault tab of the ContainerInteraction activity:

Error Element Data Type Description
msg String Displays the error message.
msgCode String Displays the error code.
errorMessage String Displays the CICS specific error information such as the abend code when error occurred in CICS.