START

Function

To start a transaction.

Syntax

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>>-START--TRANSID(transid)--+---------------+------------------->
                            '-,CICS(applid)-'
 
>--+-----------------+------------------------------------------>
   '-,TERMID(termid)-'
 
>--+----------------------------------------------------------+-->
   '-,DATA(data)-+----------------+-+-----------------------+-'
                 '-,LENGTH(value)-' '-,HEXPADCHAR(hex_byte)-'
 
>--+-----------------------------+-----------------------------><
   '-,NOTACTIVE(-+-CONTINUE--+-)-'
                 '-TERMINATE-'
 

Description

The CICS BAC batch request utility issues message CBKxx5009I if the request executes successfully in the target CICS® region. However, be aware that this simply means that the EXEC CICS START TRANSID(name) command was executed and returned a normal response, at which point the next command, if any exists, is processed. It does not necessarily mean that the specified transaction ran successfully. It could fail, for example, if the program that the transaction is to execute is disabled. If you think this is a possibility, you might want to precede the CICS BAC START request with a SET PROGAM(progname) ENABLESTATUS(ENABLED).

Parameters

CICS(applid)
Specifies the applid of the CICS region to which this command is to be routed. If you omit this option, the command is routed to the default CICS region specified by the most recent DEFAULTcommand.
DATA(data_string)
Specifies the data you want to pass to the transaction in CICS. You can specify up to a maximum of 256 bytes, with no restrictions on the contents, except that you cannot have an unmatched parenthesis within the outer parentheses that enclose the data. For example, DATA(abc(def) is not valid, but DATA(abc(123)) is valid.

If you specify the DATA parameter, you can also specify the LENGTH parameter.

HEXPADCHAR(hex_byte)
Specifies the hexadecimal character that you want to use to pad the data up to the data length as specified by the LENGTH parameter. For example, if you want to pad with spaces, specify HEXPADCHAR(40). If you omit this option the pad character defaults to a null value.

You can specify HEXPADCHAR only if you also specify both the DATA and LENGTH parameters

LENGTH(hex_byte)
Specifies the length of the data to be passed to the CICS transaction being started. If you omit this option, the length defaults to the length of the actual data specified on the DATA operand. The maximum value you can specify is 256

You can specify LENGTH only if you also specify the DATA parameter.

NOTACTIVE({CONTINUE | TERMINATE})
Specifies the action you want the CICS BAC batch request utility to take if the target CICS region is not available, or if the CICS BAC startup procedure has not been run in the region, as follows:
CONTINUE
Specify CONTINUE if you want the CICS BAC batch request utility to ignore the command and continue on processing the next command in the input data set.
TERMINATE
Specify TERMINATE if you want the CICS BAC batch request utility to terminate because of the failed command.
TERMID(termid)
Specifies the 1-4 character CICS terminal ID name that you want the started transaction to be associated with. Note that the CICS BAC request server checks to see that the terminal identified by termid is defined to the CICS region and if it is not, it rejects the request.
TRANSID(transid)
Specifies the 1-4 character CICS transaction ID name you want to start asynchronously in the target CICS region.
Note:
The CICS BAC request server can verify only that the EXEC CICS START command itself successfully executes, not that the transaction specified on the START command successfully completes, or even starts.