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Connecting CICS to the Web

CICS® can interface with the Web as a server, receiving requests from Web clients; or as a client, making requests to a server.

Web client requests serviced by CICS applications

Using CICS Web support
CICS Web support enables a CICS region to act as an HTTP server.
  • CICS Web support can provide static responses to Web clients, using CICS documents or static files.
  • Web-aware user application programs can receive and analyze HTTP requests, and provide dynamic application-generated responses.
  • CICS Web support includes a range of CICS services supporting Web client access to non-Web-aware applications. Web clients can make requests to access CICS programs which are designed to communicate with virtual 3270 terminals, and CICS programs which are designed to be linked to from another CICS application using COMMAREAs or channels.
  • CICS Web support also supports non-HTTP requests from clients.
CICS Web support is described in CICS Web support concepts and structure.
Using Web services
A Web service is a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. It has an interface which is described in a machine-processable format (specifically, Web Services Definition Language - or WSDL). CICS Transaction Server Version 3 can be a requester or a provider of Web services. Web services are described in the CICS Web Services Guide.
Using IBM® HTTP Server
IBM HTTP Server provides access to CICS applications through the External CICS Interface (EXCI) and the CICS business logic interface. For more information, see The CICS WebServer plugin and Introduction to the CICS business logic interface.
Using CICS Transaction Gateway
The CICS Transaction Gateway provides a set of Web server facilities for access to CICS applications by a Web client. These include Java™ classes and Java beans for writing application-specific server programs (servlets) and browser programs (applets), as well as IBM-supplied code for common functions. There are classes for access to both traditional and object-oriented CICS applications. Applets and servlets use CICS-supplied classes to construct ECI (External Call Interface) and EPI (External Presentation Interface) requests. (Note that CICS Transaction Gateway for z/OS® supports ECI but not EPI.) For more information, see CICS Transaction Gateway: z/OS Administration.

For guidance about choosing a Web solution, see the IBM Redbook Revealed! Architecting Web Access to CICS, SG24-5466, which is available from http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg245466.pdf.

CICS applications accessing the Web

CICS Web support enables a CICS region to act as an HTTP client. A user application program in CICS can initiate a request to an HTTP server, and receive responses from it. CICS Web support handles the messages in response to EXEC CICS WEB commands in the user application program. CICS Web support is described in CICS Web support concepts and structure.

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