A WEBSERVICE resource defines aspects of the run time environment for a CICS application program deployed in a Web services setting, where the mapping between application data structure and SOAP messages has been generated using the CICS Web services assistant. Although CICS provides the usual resource definition mechanisms for WEBSERVICE resources, they are typically installed dynamically, using the output produced by the assistant.
An inbound Web service request (that is, a request by which a client invokes a Web service in CICS) is associated with a WEBSERVICE resource by the URIMAP resource. The URIMAP identifies the WEBSERVICE resource that applies to the URI in the inbound message; the WEBSERVICE specifies the processing that is to be performed on the message.
Although CICS provides the usual resource definition mechanisms for creating WEBSERVICE resources, and installing them in your CICS region, you can instead use the scanning mechanism to dynamically install WEBSERVICE resources in your running CICS system. The advantages of this approach are that it reduces the amount of resource definition required, and that CICS can make direct use of information provided at development time.
To invoke the scanning mechanism, use the PERFORM PIPELINE command.
The name of a dynamically-installed WEBSERVICE is derived from the name of the Web service binding file from which the WEBSERVICE definition is generated, and has a maximum length of 32 characters; the names of WEBSERVICE definitions installed from the CSD or with the EXEC CICS CREATE WEBSERVICE are limited to eight characters. For example, a Webservice binding file whose HFS name is /samples/Webservices/WSDir/InquireSingle.wsbind generates a WEBSERVICE definition named InquireSingle