Extending the IMS Synchronous Request sample

This sample illustrates how to interact with IMS synchronously within a message flow. It shows how a simple transaction can be called with one input segment message and a multiple-segment reply. You can convert the same sample to run other transactions. The main resource that is required to convert the sample is the COBOL definition of the data structures. After you have imported these structures, the Mapping nodes can be changed to map to the new structures.

The Request node itself does not define which transaction is run, therefore it can run any required transaction without modification. The node can also run IMS commands in the same way that it runs IMS transactions, except that a forward slash (/) must be the first character in the message data after LLZZ. The node has no option to explicitly identify that a command is being run.

For the purposes of this sample, the connection details for the Request node are set as node properties, which is sufficient for testing and running the sample. When moving from a test system to a production system, the IMS system details can be changed without modifying the message flow or BAR file by using the IMSConnect configurable service instead of the node properties. To change the IMSRequest node to use configurable services rather than node properties:

  1. Open the message flow, select the IMSRequest node, and display the Properties view.
  2. On the Basic tab, clear the Use connection properties defined on the node check box. The connection details become unavailable.
  3. In Configurable Service, enter the value ims_sample_system (or a name of your choice for this configurable service): Configurable service property

  4. Create the configurable service on the integration node by using the following commands: 
    mqsicreateconfigurableservice IB9NODE -c IMSConnect -o ims_sample_system -n Hostname,PortNumber,DataStoreName 
-v <hostname>,<port number>,<data store name>
    mqsistop IB9NODE
    mqsistart IB9NODE
    substituting <hostname>, <port number>, and <data store name> with the correct values.
  5. Rebuild the IMSSyncRequestSampleArchive BAR file and redeploy it to the integration node. The flow is now using configurable services for its connection details.

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