In this Issue
 |
President's Letter |
|
Web-Enabling CICS Using XSLT and the Web Interface |
|
Upcoming events |
|
Demo registration |
|
Tech Notes |
|
President's Letter
HostBridge remains a product that XML-enables CICS applications. However, after several requests from customers for the ability to see and interact with an HTML version of their CICS applications, we wrote this newsletter to introduce a couple of techniques for web-enabling the XML output from HostBridge.
There are further HostBridge development efforts on the horizon that will help with the use of XSLT to transform our XML output to HTML and we will continue to release sample code to help organizations jumpstart their integration. For now, I invite you to attend our next online demo or request an evaluation copy of our software to find out for yourself how you can take advantage of HostBridge in your company.
 Thank you very much for your interest in HostBridge Technology.
Russ Teubner
Founder & CEO
Web-Enabling CICS Using XSLT and the Web Interface
HostBridge facilitates program-to-program interaction by allowing a non-CICS program to invoke a CICS transaction and receive its output as an XML document. By generating XML (which is independent of the user interface), HostBridge allows you to integrate CICS applications with other web-based applications and use their existing presentation tools to create the user interface.
One way to accomplish this is to use the industry standard Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) to convert the XML output from HostBridge to HTML for consumption by a web browser. This method is most useful when you simply need to present transaction data to users without requiring them to interact directly with the CICS application. A simple example of this can be seen using the links below.
- output.xml shows a sample output file from HostBridge.
- xml2html.xsl shows a sample transformation of output.xml to HTML using XSLT.
- output.html shows the final result a user might see in a browser.
This is a very simple example. The basic configuration required for this example is shown below.
Figure 1. Basic configuration for XSLT web-enablement
Several of our customers, however, need components that would allow an end-user to interact with a CICS application through a browser as though they were using a 3270 terminal. In other words, they need web-based "terminal emulation" without the emulator. Furthermore, they need a programmatic interface that would allow them to write an Active Server Page, or other server-based program, that could participate in the process.
To meet this requirement, we developed a software component to act as a HostBridge output post-processor, and an input pre-processor. This component runs on a server, not on the mainframe. The output post-processor accepts as input the XML generated by HostBridge, and returns as output an HTML representation of the screen (to be displayed by the browser). The input pre-processor accepts as input the HTML post data from the end user/browser, and returns as output the command string to be sent to HostBridge. Together, the output post-processor and input pre-processor define a server-based programming interface that can be called from within an Active Server Page, or any other server-based program. That basic configuration for using the Web Interface appears below.
Figure 2. Basic configuration for the HostBridge Web Interface
Built using Active Server Pages and JavaScript, the Web interface is a simple implementation of the programmatic interface. It presents users with an HTML-based presentation of a 3270 screen and allows users to submit data and interact with the back-end CICS applications using PF keys and other AID keys. The Web Interface illustrates how developers can build ASP-based applications that communicate directly with HostBridge. (See sample output from the Web Interface that shows the same information presented by the XML/XSLT/HTML samples.)
If you have any questions about web-enabling your applications using HostBridge with either XSLT or the Web Interface, let us know. See our web site for more information on HostBridge and more information on ROI. Or, call us at 1-866-XML-CICS (965-2427).
 Upcoming events |
 |
|
|
Come see us at the 2003 Transaction and Messaging Technical Conference
Date: February 10-14, 2003
Location: Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas NV
Booth: 26
Presentation Information
Title: Integrate CICS Applications as Web Services
Speaker: Bob Yelavich
When: Monday, February 10, 2003 from 1:45 PM to 3:45 PM
Where: Hilton Ballroom A
Session: V06
|
|
 Demo registration |
|
|
If you are available on either of the dates below, register for an online demonstration.
|
 Tech Notes |
|
|
This column seeks to answer common technical questions.
If you have any specific questions you want answered or have ideas for questions you might like to see here, send them to questions@hostbridge.com
|
| Q. |
Can I use InterTest/CICS (from Computer Associates) to debug a transaction invoked through HostBridge?
|
| A. |
HostBridge changes nothing about the CICS transaction or its execution. With HostBridge, the only thing different is how the transaction is invoked and the how it communicates to the outside world. The transaction itself is absolutely unchanged.
One of the key features of products like InterTest or Xpeditor (from Compuware) is the ability to intercept and and moderate a transaction's interaction with a terminal user. Thus, if you are having problems with a particular transaction and want to debug it with one of these tools, then we suggest logging on to CICS and simply running the transaction from a terminal and use Intertest as you normally do.
|
|
|
