Developing applications using the CICS Explorer SDK

The CICS Explorer Software Development Kit (SDK) provides an environment for developing and deploying Java applications in CICS, including support for OSGi.

About this task

You can use the SDK to create new applications or repackage existing Java applications to comply with the OSGi specification. The OSGi Service Platform provides a mechanism for developing applications using a component model and deploying those applications into a framework as OSGi bundles. An OSGi bundle is the unit of deployment for an application and contains version control information, dependencies, and application code. The main benefit of OSGi is that you can create applications from reusable components that are accessed only through well-defined interfaces called OSGi services. You can also manage the life cycle and dependencies of Java applications in a granular way. For information about developing applications with OSGi, see the OSGi Alliance website.

You can use the SDK to develop a Java application to run in any supported release of CICS. Different releases of CICS support different versions of Java, and the JCICS API has also been extended in later releases to support additional features of CICS. To avoid using the wrong classes, the SDK provides a feature to set up a target platform. You can define which release of CICS you are developing for and the SDK automatically hides the Java classes that you cannot use.

See the CICS Java Developer Guide in the SDK help for full details on how you can perform each of the following steps to develop and deploy applications.

If you are new to developing Java applications for CICS, you can use the JCICS examples provided with the CICS Explorer® SDK to get started.

To use JCICS in a Java application, you must import the com.ibm.cics.server package.

Notes:
  • CICS bundles can contain one or more OSGi bundles and are the unit of deployment for your application in CICS.

    Put OSGi bundles that you want to update and manage together in a CICS bundle. You must know the name of the JVMSERVER resource in which you want to deploy the application.

Procedure

  1. Set up a target platform for your Java development.
    1. The target platform ensures you use only the Java classes that are appropriate for the target release of CICS in your application development.
  2. Create a plug-in project for your Java application development.
  3. Develop your Java application using best practices.
  4. Deploy your Java application to zFS by exporting the project or save it in a source repository for deployment.

Results

You have successfully developed and exported your application using the CICS Explorer SDK.

What to do next

Install the application in a JVM server. If you do not have authority to create resources in CICS, the system programmer or administrator can create the application for you. You must tell the system programmer or administrator where the exported bundle is located and the name of the target JVM server. For details, see Installing OSGi bundles in a JVM server.