CICS® Java™ programs often interact with data that was originally designed for use with other programming languages. For example, a Java program might link to a COBOL program using a COMMAREA defined in a COBOL copybook, or read a record from a VSAM file where the data is defined using a C++ header file. You can use an importer to interact with these forms of structured data.
CICS supports copybook importers so that you can use structured data from other programming languages in Java. Supported importers are provided by JZOS tools and by Rational®. Rational tools use the Java EE Connector Architecture (JCA also known as J2C).
The importers map the data types contained in the source program so that your application can access individual fields in data structures. You can use the JZOS or Rational J2C tools to interact with data to produce a Java class, so that you can pass data between Java and other programs in CICS.
You can create Java EE Connector artifacts that you can use to create enterprise applications. The RAD J2C wizard helps you create a class or set of classes that map to COBOL and other application program data structures.
You require RAD on a Windows or Linux workstation to use the Rational J2C importer.
The IBM JZOS Batch Toolkit for z/OS SDK is a set of tools that provide Java batch capabilities on z/OS. JZOS includes a launcher for running Java applications directly as batch jobs or started tasks, and a set of Java methods that make access to traditional z/OS data and key system services directly available from Java applications.
JZOS supports automatic generation of record classes from COBOL copybooks and Assembler DSECTs.
The JZOS download includes the JZOS COBOL Record Generator User’s Guide and the JZOS Assembler Record Generator User’s Guide in PDF format.