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Using the ECI resource adapters with channels and containers

To use channels and containers in the J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA), use a MappedRecord structure (ECIChannelRecord) to hold your data. When the MappedRecord is passed to the execute() method of ECIInteraction, the method uses the MappedRecord itself to create a channel and converts the entries inside the MappedRecord into containers before passing them to CICS®.

The MappedRecord allows multiple data records to pass over the same interface to and from the execute() method of ECIInteraction. A container is created for each entry within the channel. There are two data types of container and you can have a combination of container types in one channel. The containers are the following types:

You can create your own data records, which must conform to existing JCA rules (they must implement the javax.resource.cci.Streamable and javax.resource.cci.Record interfaces). Any data records you create are treated as containers with a data type of BIT.

You can also use an existing Record type, for example, JavaStringRecord, to create a container with a data type of BIT.

The MappedRecord.getRecordName method gets the name of the channel. When creating your Record, you must make sure that the name is not an empty string. The record.getRecordName method retrieves the name of the containers.

The JCA resource adapter handles MappedRecords and Records differently, when it receives the data in the execute() method of ECIInteraction.
Figure 1. Data conversion by the execute() method of ECIInteraction, depending on whether it receives a Record or MappedRecord
This image summarizes the points made in this topic. A Record and Streamable Record are passed to the execute() method of ECIInteraction, which implements a COMMAREA. Four Records (byte[], String, JavaStringRecord,, and Record and Streamable) are passed in a MappedRecord to the execute()method of ECIInteraction. Each record is implemented in a CHAR container (String) or a BIT container (byte[], JavaStringRecord,, and Record and Streamable).
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