System and method for facilitating XML enabled IMS transactions

• US 8,190,775 B2
• Filed: 04/07/2008
• Issued: 05/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Haller, Daniel M., Ho, Shyh-Mei F., Hughes, Gerald D., Hung, Jenny C., Huyah, Bill T., Kuo, Steve T.
• Primary Examiner(s): HIGA, BRENDAN Y
• Application Number:
  US12/099,044
• Publication Number:
  US 20080183879A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,513 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-219, 709227-229, 709/246, 707 1- 10
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/84 Mapping; Conversion

Abstract

A system for facilitating XML enable IMS transactions includes a generic XML processor inside an IMS connect program to facilitate any TCP/IP clients, including WebSphere and non-WebSphere, to send and receive XML documents to and from existing IMS transaction business logic. Translations between XML documents and IMS transaction message data structures occur within the IMS connect program under an XML task to parse and transform XML requests and responses. Further, the generic XML processor within the IMS connect program can provide data translation for both non-formatted and formatted IMS transactional messages in XML.

Claims

1. A system configured to:

receive an input request at an information management system (IMS) connect program from a roll your own (RYO) client that provides software access to the IMS connect program independent of a web server;

transmit the input request to a queue header of the IMS connect program, if the input request is an extensible markup language (XML) input request;

retrieve an XML input request control block from the queue header;

invoke a RYO transformer to parse and translate the input request to create an input request byte array;

transmit the input request byte array to an IMS application program;

receive an output response byte array from the IMS application program;

transmit the output response byte array to the queue header;

retrieve an output response control block from the queue header;

invoke the RYO transformer to parse and translate the output response byte array to create an XML output response; and

transmit the XML output response to the RYO client via a communication path that is independent of the web server.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one XML server adapted to invoke an XML initialization routine, an XML adapter routine, an XML terminator routine, or any combination thereof.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising an XML adapter routine adapted to invoke a PL/I transformer, a COBOL transformer, a C transformer, a message format services (MFS) transformer, a high level assembler (HLSAM) transformer, the RYO transformer, or any combination thereof.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising a mainframe server that includes an XML metadata interchange (XMI) repository that is adapted to communicate with one or more of the PL/I transformer, the COBOL transformer, the C transformer, the MFS transformer, the HLSAM transformer, or the RYO transformer.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the IMS connect program further includes logic to:

retrieve the XML input request control block from the queue header; and

invoke the XML adapter routine.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the IMS connect program further includes logic to:

receive the output response byte array from the IMS application program;

transmit the output response byte array to the queue header;

parse and translate the output response byte array to create the XML output response; and

transmit the XML output response to the RYO client via the communication path that is independent of the web server.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the output response byte array is at least partially based on an input request byte array.

8. A method to facilitate extensible markup language (XML) enabled information management system (IMS) transactions, the method comprising:

receiving a first input request via a first communication path at an IMS connect program from a roll your own (RYO) client that provides software access to the IMS connect program independent of a web server;

receiving a second input request via a second communication path at the IMS connection program, wherein the second communication path is independent of the first communication path;

transmitting the first input request to a first queue header of the IMS connect program, if the first input request is an XML input request;

retrieving a first input request control block from the first queue header;

invoking a RYO transformer to parse and translate the first input request to create a first input request byte array;

transmitting the first input request byte array to an IMS application program;

receiving a first output response byte array from the IMS application program;

transmitting the first output response byte array to the first queue header;

retrieving a first output response control block from the first queue header;

invoking the RYO transformer to parse and translate the first output response byte array to create a first XML output response; and

transmitting the first XML output response to the RYO client via a communication path that is independent of the web server.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first communication path does not include a web server and the second communication path does include a web server.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

transmitting the second input request to one of the first queue header and a second queue header included in an XML processor of the IMS connect program; and

wherein the first queue header is included in the XML processor of the IMS connect program.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

retrieving a second input request control block from the first queue header or the second queue header; and

invoking a second transformer to parse and translate the second input request.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the second transformer is for a first application language if the IMS application program is associated with the first application language, and the second transformer is for a second application language if the IMS application program is associated with the second application language.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

creating a second input request byte array based on the second input request within the IMS connect program; and

transmitting the first input request byte array and the second input request byte array from the IMS connect program to the IMS application program.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving the first output response byte array at the IMS connect program from the IMS application program;

receiving a second output response byte array at the IMS connect program from the IMS application program; and

invoking the second transformer to transform the second output response byte array to a second XML output response.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

transmitting the second XML output response to a second user computer via the second communication path.