Transformation rules
Each migration path in a migration scheme can refer to a set of transformation rules. During migration, CICSĀ® Configuration Manager uses these rules to transform candidate resource definitions and any packaged commands that apply to the source CICS configuration of a migration path.
Transformation processing is a system option: by default, it is inactive, and transformation rules are ignored. To use transformation rules, you need to activate this system option.
Each transformation rule contains three parts:
- Qualification criteria
- Limit the candidate resource definitions to which the rule applies, based on a combination of:
- Migration scheme name
- Source and target CICS configuration names
- Resource definition group, type, and name
- Whether a specific field in the resource definition has a specific value; this is not necessarily the field that you want to transform
Qualification criteria apply to the candidate resource definitions; the original resource definitions in the source CICS configurations for the migration.
A transformation rule can apply either to all resource types or to one resource type. A rule that applies to all resource types can refer only to these common fields: GROUP, CHANGETIME, DESCRIPTION, NAME, and USERDATAn. To transform other fields, you must define a separate rule for each resource type.
- Field name and from/to masks
- Identify the
field to transform and the mask strings that define the transformation. For example, a "from"
mask of SYSDEV.* and a "to" mask of SYSTEST.* transforms a
field value of SYSDEV.VSAM.FILEA to SYSTEST.VSAM.FILEA. For
details of the masks you can specify, see Defining masks for transformation rules.
For lists, you can use the special "field name" of GROUP to transform the names of groups. For example, you can use a "from" mask of *D and a "to" mask of *T to transform a group name in a list from PAYROLLD to PAYROLLT.
- Processing option
- Specifies what to do when a field matches the qualification criteria, the field name, and the
"from" mask:
- Transform and continue
- Transform the field according to the "to" mask, and allow further transformation by subsequent rules in the set.
- Transform and lock field
- Transform the field according to the "to" mask, but do not transform the field any further.
- Transform and lock record
- Transform the field according to the "to" mask, but do not transform the resource definition any further.
- Stop migration
- Do not migrate this resource definition. Do not process any more transformation rules for this resource definition.
CICS Configuration Manager processes transformation rules in the order that the rules appear in the transformation rule set. While each rule can perform only the simple change defined by its "from" and "to" masks, their effect is cumulative. A migrated resource definition might be the result of many transformation rules. The input to the first rule is the candidate as it appears in the source CICS configuration. The input to the second rule is the (possibly transformed) output of the first rule. The input to the third rule is the output of the second rule, and so on, until the last rule in the set is processed, or a rule stops the resource definition from being migrated, or locks a field, or locks the entire record.
Note:However, remember that a resource definition is transformed only if it passes the qualification criteria test, which applies to the original resource definition in the source CICS configuration.

Transformation groups
A transformation group is a group of transformation rule sets. The transformation group provides a way of logically grouping transformation rule sets for processing when migrating a change package. The migration scheme can optionally specify, for each source and target CICS configuration, a set of rules to transform or modify the definitions in the target. This set of rules can be either a single transformation rule set or a transformation group, which can name one or more transformation rule sets for processing.
In a transformation group, the order of the transformation rule sets is significant. The rules in the first transformation rule set are processed from first to last. Then the rules in the second rule set are processed, and so on. Transformation groups enable you to reuse and combine transformation rule sets, avoiding duplicate rules in different sets.
The following figure shows an example with two migration schemes, a transformation group, and some transformation rule sets.

