Creating the pipeline definition

The complete definition of a pipeline consists of a PIPELINE resource and a PIPELINE configuration file. The file contains the details of the message handlers that act on web service requests and responses as they pass through the pipeline.

About this task

The example application uses the supplied SOAP 1.1 handler to deal with the SOAP envelopes of inbound and outbound requests. CICS® provides sample pipeline configuration files, which you can use in your service provider and service requester.

More than one web service can share a single pipeline, therefore you need define only one pipeline for the inbound requests of the example application. You must, however, define a second pipeline for the outbound requests because a single pipeline cannot be configured to be both a provider and requester pipeline at the same time.

If you want to use Java-based pipelines, you must specify the sample service provider configuration file basicsoap11javaprovider.xml instead of basicsoap11provider.xml in step 1b. And specify the sample service requester configuration file basicsoap11javarequester.xml instead of basicsoap11requester.xml in step 2b. For more information about sample configuration files, see Pipeline configuration files. Also, if you want to use the Axis2 application handler in your Java-based pipeline, you must replace EXPIPE01 with EXPIPE03 in step 1a and EXPIPE02 with EXPIPE04 in step 2a

Procedure

  1. Use the CICS Explorer® to create a pipeline definition for the service provider.
    1. Create a PIPELINE definition for the wrapper programs using the CICS Explorer by selecting Definitions > Pipeline Definitions. Right-click in the Pipeline Definitions view and select New to create a new pipeline definition. Type DFH$EXWS in the Resource Group text box, and type EXPIPE01 in the Name text box. Click Finish to create the PIPELINE definition.
      Alternatively, you can copy the PIPELINE definition from CICS supplied group DFH$EXWS. Right-click DFH$EXWS in the Resource Group Definition view and select New > Pipeline Definition.
    2. Double-click the PIPELINE definition and select the Attributes tab from the Pipeline Definition (EXPIPE01) editor. Under Details, the Configuration File must be set to the location of the sample files /usr/lpp/cicsts/samples/pipelines/basicsoap11provider.xml, where /usr/lpp/cicsts is the path to the files on your directory, Shelf must be /var/cicsts/, Status must be ENABLED, and WS Directory must be /usr/lpp/cicsts/samples/webservices/wsbind/provider/.

      The z/OS® UNIX entries are case-sensitive and assume a default CICS z/OS UNIX installation root of /usr/lpp/cicsts.

  2. Use the CICS Explorer to create a PIPELINE definition for the service requester.
    1. Create a PIPELINE definition for the wrapper programs using the CICS Explorer by selecting Definitions > Pipeline Definitions. Right-click in the Pipeline Definitions view and select New to create a new pipeline definition. Type DFH$EXWS in the Resource Group text box, and type EXPIPE02 in the Name text box. Click Finish to create the PIPELINE definition.
      Alternatively, you can copy the PIPELINE definition from CICS supplied group DFH$EXWS.
    2. Double click the PIPELINE definition and select the Attributes tab from the Pipeline Definition (EXPIPE02) editor. Under Details, Configuration File must be set to the location of the sample files /usr/lpp/cicsts/samples/pipelines/basicsoap11requester.xml, where /usr/lpp/cicsts is the path to the files on your directory, Shelf must be /var/cicsts/, Status must be ENABLED, and WS Directory must be /usr/lpp/cicsts/samples/webservices/wsbind/requester/.