Products

JavaScript Web Services for CICS & Mainframe

HostBridge Process Automation Engine

Using the HostBridge Process Automation Engine – our JavaScript-based mainframe web services/integration scripting facility – organizations can rapidly develop and deploy reusable web services from mainframe applications and data resources.

As a mainframe-resident engine, running under z/OS or inside CICS, HostBridge Process Automation also offers a uniquely powerful and flexible solution to the toughest CICS integration challenge – orchestrating and integrating the transaction micro flows of CICS terminal-oriented applications.

ECMAScript/JavaScript Web Services and Scripting

HostBridge Process Automation includes a development facility and runtime engine. With HostBridge Process Automation, application developers, process designers, and integration architects can use the industry-standard ECMAScript/JavaScript to write integration scripts and/or web services that access mainframe data resources or automate mainframe application processes. HostBridge scripts and services use industry-standard protocols – SOAP, REST, etc. – for ready interoperability with distributed systems.

For information about the development facility, please refer to the HostBridge Eclipse IDE page.

Predefined Objects

HostBridge Process Automation ships with predefined program objects that can be used within a script, allowing it to perform a wide range of operations – virtually anything a COBOL program can do.

Some predefined objects included with HostBridge Process Automation are:
CICS command-level access
CICS transaction execution
COMMAREA program execution
Simple API for XML (SAX) parser
SOAP RPC response writing support
Others.

HostBridge Direct Data Access modules for VSAM, DB2, DL/I, and Datacom integration are also predefined in the HB Process Automation Engine. The modules are described on the HB Direct Data Access page.

Orchestrate & Integrate CICS Transaction Micro Flows

Leveraging flexible, industry-standard ECMAScript/JavaScript, HostBridge Process Automation enables developers to orchestrate, automate, and integrate the most complex CICS transaction micro flows as a single web service.

Terminal-oriented CICS transaction processes commonly require interaction with dozens or even hundreds of screens. Integrating these complex micro flows has been problematic. Users accessing early web-enabled CICS applications had to interact with CICS one screen/one transaction at a time. Similarly, distributed applications connected to the mainframe via middle-tier servers were limited to communicating with CICS on a transaction-by-transaction basis. Each interaction required a full request-response cycle and a full transit of the network, increasing process latency and impacting system performance.

HostBridge Process Automation handles transactions far more efficiently, effectively, and – in terms of system resources – economically. Accessing the mainframe via HostBridge Process Automation, distributed applications can now call a single service, invoking HostBridge Process Automation to complete the whole complex transaction sequence on the mainframe and then return a single response. The result is significantly higher system performance and a highly stable, reliable integration.