Initial and continuation requests

Attention: This topic contains Product-sensitive Programming Interface and Associated Guidance Information.
DFHWBTTA distinguishes two types of HTTP requests by their context within a transaction:
Initial requests
The initial request initiates a CICS® transaction. Send the initial request in one of these ways:
  • Type the URL explicitly.
  • Select a link in an HTML page.
  • Select a button in an HTML form. Any data entered in the form will be ignored.
Continuation requests
Continuation requests continue an existing CICS transaction. Send a continuation request in this way:
  • Select a button in an HTML form that was displayed as a response to the previous request.
Continuation requests use the HTML POST method; form data is transmitted in the entity body of the HTML request.
In a conversational or pseudoconversational transaction, with several interactions between a Web client and CICS, there is one initial request, followed by one or more continuation requests. In simpler transactions, with just one interaction, there is one initial request, and no continuation request.

A hidden element (DFH_STATE_TOKEN) in the HTML form displayed by the initial request and returned by subsequent requests is used to distinguish between initial requests and continuation requests, and to associate continuation requests with the correct transaction.