CA Ideal, CA ADS for CA IDMS, CA Telon, and CA Gener/OL

Companies with CICS applications written using CA Ideal, CA ADS, CA Telon, and CA Gener/OL usually have two integration choices: screen-scraping or rewriting their legacy applications. HostBridge allows organization to maintain their investment in CA development environments without any changes to the legacy applications and without screen scraping.

HostBridge allows web server applications to invoke CA Ideal™ for CA Datacom®, CA Telon®, CA Gener/OL™, and CA ADS™ for CA IDMS™ transactions using standard interfaces and returns data as XML documents or web services in a service-oriented architecture (SOA). HostBridge has the unique ability to allow developers to integrate legacy CA mainframe applications using field names from panel definitions rather than row/column coordinates from screen scraping. With HostBridge, web-based applications call CA mainframe transactions without any changes to the existing programs.

Connecting to CA Mainframe Applications

 

Most physical middle-tier connections to CA mainframe applications will take place using TCP/IP and CICS Web Support (CWS); any middle-tier application can invoke HostBridge using simple HTTP requests or SOAP messages. HostBridge also supports WebSphere MQ and LINK interfaces. Customers who need to access the mainframe through MQ or from CICS COBOL programs can LINK to HostBridge.

Field Names Instead of Screen Scraping

HostBridge uses panel definitions from the legacy CA development environments to exchange data between the web server and mainframe applications in XML, SOAP, or HTML formats. 

The HostBridge panel mapping facility automatically creates the required definitions from the source of existing CA Ideal panels, stores the panels in a VSAM repository, and incorporates them into program compilation and promotion processes. In the case of CA Telon, HostBridge accesses the BMS maps to determine the field names for each application screen. And, for CA Gener/OL, HostBridge interacts with the applications at runtime using a CA-provided API to collect field names for each screen of an application

Benefit

Description

Eliminates screen scraping

Integration based on field names rather than screen geometry.
Screen-scraping solutions require integration developers to identify fields based on their location in a screen. Changes to the host application can break the integration if they change the screen geometry. HostBridge insulates developers from changes in geometry by recognizing changes in the screen layout and allowing developers to reference only the field names.

Faster integration; lower risk

No changes to existing applications.
Competing solutions that require changes to your existing CA mainframe applications extend development time and introduce risk into your integration projects due to the changes in source code. HostBridge works without any changes to trusted applications and preserves existing business logic without affecting users of the existing applications.

HTML, XML, and SOAP support

HostBridge returns data as HTML pages or XML documents and makes applications available via SOAP. HostBridge automatically converts transaction data to HTML or  XML and allows external applications to invoke transactions as web services. A CICS-based JavaScript engine allows a single request to drive multiple transactions and return the resulting data in a single response.

Conclusion

HostBridge complements application servers by providing a simple, scalable, secure CICS integration solution. HostBridge provides:

  • Rapid integration as it is installed in just a few hours
  • Flexible integration by using panel data
  • LINKing to applications from CICS COBOL programs
  • CICS-based process automation using JavaScript
  • HTTP, SOAP, LINK (ECI/EXCI), and WebSphere MQ interfaces
  • Support for outbound SOAP/web services requests
  • No changes to existing programs or panels!
  • No screen scraping!

Besides CA mainframe applications, HostBridge also integrates standard BMS, 3270 and COMMAREA applications in CICS, and CA Datacom, DB2 and VSAM data sources. So with HostBridge the mainframe participates fully in service oriented architectures (SOA) and web services, and the life of previous investments in CA Ideal, CA Telon, CA Gener/OL, and CA IDMS and other mainframe applications is significantly extended.