Release Notes for Version 2.5.0 of the IBM WebSphere Business Integration Mainframe Adapter Suite

These release notes cover release information for version 2.5.0 of the IBM(R) WebSphere(R) Business Integration Mainframe Adapter Suite. These release notes contain the following sections:
New in this release WebSphere Business Integration Adapters API and run time
Product fix history Limitations
Hardware and software requirements Known problems and workarounds
Installation, migration, upgrade, configuration Documentation

Note: Important information about this product may be available in Technical Support Flashes issued after these release notes were published. These can be found on the WebSphere Business Integration support Web site, http://www.ibm.com/websphere/integration/wbiserver/support. Select the component area of interest and search the flashes section.

New in this release

New features and improvements made in this release include the following:

Refer to the Mainframe Adapter Suite User Guide for detailed information about the adapter and the new features.

Product fix history

Between release 2.4.0 and 2.5.0, the following CRs, based on customer-reported cases, were fixed.
Tracking
number
Description
CR 32508/
CR 14585
The connector uses the default value for polling if the object key uses a name-value pair.
CR 30774 Performance improvements are needed for the Mainframe adapter.
CR 28588 Traceable SQL messages are built only if tracing is enabled.
CR 28591 Improvements are needed in the tracing mechanism.
CR 28868 Stored procedures should be supported for the DeltaUpdate verb.
CR 29375 Sequences for DB2(R) should be supported.
CR 30436 The Mainframe Adapter Suite causes a null pointer exception when the event or archive time is blank.
CR 32484 The connector's treatment of date fields should be modified.
CR 32390 Issues with SQL scripts in the dependencies subdirectory should be resolved.
CR 32647 The sample needs to be changed, so that a NumberFormat exception does not occur.
CR 29080 The Mainframe Adapter Suite calls are not obeying the timeout.
CR 31569 The Mainframe Adapter Suite should return output parameters even when the result set is "true" and empty.
CR 32392 When the database goes down, the polling connection is not refreshed in the Event Monitor.
CR 29822 The connector generates an unsupported ObjectEventID format.
CR 28594 DeltaUpdate verb support should be added in the ODA.
CR 32473 The ODA should expose nicknames.
CR 34612 A means to reduce the number of commits in the Mainframe Adapter Suite connector is needed

Hardware and software requirements

Hardware and software requirements are included in the product documentation. See Installation, migration, upgrade, and configuration information for links to those guides.

Installation, migration, upgrade, and configuration

Whether you are installing the software from the CD or downloading it from Passport Advantage and installing it from a local directory, refer to the appropriate guide:

These guides also include general migration, upgrade, and configuration information.

For hardware and software requirements and configuration information specific to this adapter, refer to the Mainframe Adapter Suite User Guide.

The following folders must be added to the PATH environment variable so that the drivers are recognized:

WebSphere Business Integration Adapters API and run time

Make sure that you run this version of the adapter with WebSphere Business Integration Adapters run-time version 1.7.0 or later.

The WebSphere Business Integration Adapters API .jar files and the associated scripts (CWConnEnv.bat and CWODAEnv.bat for Windows(R); CWConnEnv.sh and CWODAEnv.sh for UNIX platforms) are installed by the WebSphere Business Integration Adapters API. Before installing the adapter, make sure that the WebSphere Business Integration Adapters run time is installed. If the version is not 1.7.0 or later, you must download the latest API. This section provides instructions for verifying the API version, downloading the latest version, and enabling the adapter to run on various versions of InterChange Server and Adapter Development Kit (ADK).

Verifying the run-time version

To check the run-time version, locate the manifest file (ProductDir\lib\WBIA.jar) and open it in a suitable Java JAR editor. Look for the following lines:

Implementation-Title: "CWConnectorAPI"
Implementation-Version: 1.7.0

Implementation-version indicates the installed version of the API. If the version is not 1.7.0 or later, you must download the latest run time.

Downloading the run time

To download the latest version of the run time:

  1. Go to http://www.ibm.com.
  2. Click the Support & downloads tab.
  3. Under the Downloads heading, click Downloads & drivers.
  4. In the Enter search terms field, type "wbia api" and click Submit.

After you download and install the run time, you should see the following files:

lib\WBIA.jar
lib\WBIA\3.0.0\WBIA.jar
lib\WBIA\4.0.0\WBIA.jar
lib\WBIA\4.1.1\WBIA.jar
lib\WBIA\4.2.0\WBIA.jar
bin\CWConnEnv.bat (Windows)
bin/CWConnEnv.sh (UNIX)
bin\CWODAEnv.bat (Windows)
bin/CWODAEnv.sh (UNIX)
connectors\messages\CwConnectorAgentMessages.txt

Enabling adapters for earlier versions of Adapter Development Kit and InterChange Server

To enable an adapter to work with various versions of ADK or InterChange Server, follow the appropriate procedure below:

InterChange Server versions 4.1.x (except 4.1.0), ADK versions 2.1.x
InterChange Server versions 4.2.0 and 4.2.1, ADK versions 2.3.0 and 2.3.1
Running an Object Discovery Agent (ODA) against InterChange Server versions 4.1.x (except 4.1.0), ADK versions 2.1.x
Running an Object Discovery Agent (ODA) against InterChange Server versions 4.2.0 and 4.2.1, ADK versions 2.3.x

Limitations

Tracking
number
Description
CR 42155 VSAM ODA When any of the Tables, Views, or Synonyms nodes are selected, all the VSAM datasets are displayed. The datasets should be displayed only when Tables node is selected. A case has been opened with NEON to address this issue.
CR 42074 DB2 ODA When the business object is created, the isRequired property should not be "true" for columns which are nullable. This is a NEON client issue that is being addressed by NEON.
CR 42046 ADABAS ODA When the Views and Synonyms nodes are picked, the NEON JDBC driver returns an error instead of being null. NEON is addressing this issue.
CR 35033 The Mainframe Connector places commas in integers of a retrieved business object. The WebSphere Business Integration Adapters component's setInt method applies the default locale settings on the numbers before setting attributes on the business object. This applies default number formatting on the number and places the commas in the numbers.

Use WebSphere Business Integration Adapters API 1.6.2 Fix Pack and add or set the following adapter properties to "true:" DisableNumberFormatGrouping and DisableLocaleFormating. If set to "true," the DisableNumberFormatGrouping alone will handle the commas in the numbers. The DisableLocaleFormating is a master property which overrides all formatting, It can be used if any other problems are encountered due to formatting.
CR 42435 The DB2, VSAM, and ADABAS ODAs print some useless messages when generating a business object. These messages are coming from the NEON client versions 3.9.390 through 3.9.398. You can ignore these messages. NEON is addressing this issue.

Known problems and workarounds

The following problem has been found in this release:

Tracking
number
Description
CR 41967 The framework cannot process more than 20,000 property values either when displaying the ODA configuration properties or when asking the user for business object definition-specific properties. Ensure that no more than 10,000 values are returned in the drop down list, or the ODA will hang.
CR 46118 For a RetrieveByContent request that returns MULTIPLE_HITS, the following exception occurs: "An unexpected exception occurred during the construction of a business object. Reason: java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 1, Size: 1." This will be fixed in Fix Pack 2.4.0.1 for the Adapter Framework, which will be published shortly.
The Installer and splashscreens for IBM WebSphere Business Integration Shadow(R) Mainframe Server Installation Cartridge for ADABAS, CICS, DB2, IDMS DB, IMS DB, IMS TM, Natural, and VSAM have the version number 4.8.0 instead of 4.8.4. Also, IBM WebSphere Business Integration client and documentation for Shadow(R) Mainframe Adapters Installer reflects version number 3.9.0 instead of 3.9.3.

Documentation

Product documentation is not included as part of the product package, either by CD or by electronic product distribution. The documentation for this product can be found in the following InfoCenters:

To obtain the product documentation, visit the Web site and download the current documentation set for the release that you are using. Follow the instructions provided on the InfoCenter page to complete the installation.

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