User exit parameters

The CICS® Configuration Manager server passes parameters to user exit programs in the communication area (COMMAREA). How a user exit program accesses the communication area depends on the programming language it is written in. For example, a user exit program written in Assembler uses the DFHEICAP (communication area pointer) field to refer to the communication area. For details on accessing the communication area in other programming languages, see the CICS Transaction Server for z/OS® documentation.

To access the parameters in the communication area, user exit programs must contain a definition of the layout of the communication area. CICS Configuration Manager supplies programming language-specific layout definitions for each type of exit point:

Table 1. User exit parameters: programming language-specific layout definitions (supplied in SCCVSAMP library members)
Layout describes Name of SCCVSAMP library member containing programming language-specific layout definition
Assembler DSECT C typedef struct  1  COBOL copybook PL/I DCL structure
Resource attribute update exit parameters CCVXRAA CCVXRA3 CCVXRAC CCVXRAP
Change package pre-processing exit parameters CCVXCRA CCVXCR3 CCVXCRC CCVXCRP
Change package post-processing exit parameters CCVXCPA CCVXCP3 CCVXCPC CCVXCPP
Package-scheme  2  CCVXPSA CCVXPS3 CCVXPSC CCVXPSP
 1 
C programmers: Character variables in these structs are not null-terminated. If you update the values of these character variables, do not add a null terminator.
 2 
The change package pre- and post-processing exit parameters include a pointer to a package-scheme structure whose layout is described in these members..

The communication area for each type of exit point begins with an identical set of parameters (a "common header") followed by parameters specific to the type of exit point. This enables you to write a single user exit program to handle all CICS Configuration Manager user exit points, if you wish. Your user exit program can query the exit point name in the common header, and then choose the appropriate layout definition for the subsequent parameters.