I’m at a new job and we have a huge number of different systems.
I just got access to the PCICS mainframe system and I was getting trained by a coworker on how to navigate to certain screens and print them out.
I was exploring the GUI (we use Extra) and I saw a file transfer dialog box. Now I’m thinking, it would be much easier to download the report/screen to a text file then manipulate it via VBA at my PC.
The help file in Extra is most unhelpful. It tells you how to download a host file to your PC but not how to create the file in the first place.
How do I tell the CICS system to create a host file so that I can download it? When I do create it, how do I determine the path in the mainframe?
Under what OS is the CICS running? os/390? VSE? VM? That is going to determine the file description and name you will use. I am guessing that if you found a dialogue box, they already have an ftp link and software established. If so, the dialogue may already walk you through the steps, but you’re still going to have to probably get permission to move the stuff around (particularly if you intend to ever send it back to the mainframe).
Then there is the question of whether you’re on a system accessing pure VSAM files, DL/I files, or DB2 files. (CICS is communication only and the files are always under a separate organization.) Your ability to actually transfer data from any of those systems can vary widely.
The fastest person to be able to answer those questions will be an application programmer (in an os/390 shop) or a systems engineer (in a VSE shop).
(I’m also curiouis whether you’re actually touching the mainframe. EXTRA! was initially an emulator and in the only shop I saw it used, it was actually not touching the “real” CICS data, but data already downloaded from that system, so knowing the mainframe files would have been irrelevant. Of course, every shop uses this stuff differently and I had pretty limited access to the EXTRA! I saw.)
I didn’t know it was so complex. I remember learning how to do something similar a long time ago with ISPF and TSO and I thought it would be just as easy.
Time to call the IT help desk…
I used Extra!. I miss that job.
Our raw data was uploaded by our Data Centre in Texas. We processed the data using COBOL programs that were either run automatically, or manually using JCL. (I also wrote Easytrieve Plus programs that would be integrated into the job with JCL, or as ‘stand alone’ jobs – again run with JCL, but not the normal programs – for generating special reports.) So in our case, the output datasets were specified in the JCL:
//FILEB DD DSN=**OUTPUT.FILE.NAME**,
// DISP=(NEW,CATLG,CATLG),
// UNIT=SYSDA,SPACE=(CYL,(250,50),RLSE),
// DCB=(RECFM=FB,LRECL=350,BLKSIZE=23450)
Where FILEB is what we call the output file in the program (e.g., ‘PUT FILEB’) and OUTPUT.FILE.NAME is the name of the output file on the mainframe.
find out if you’re using VM or whatever, and then let us know. You may be restricted in your usage as well.
I had a DSN on my mainframe at EDS that had all my D&D character information. I just gave a print command after cut and pasting a bit of JCL from one of our libraries, and it would print right up.
On the VPS dot matrix printer. I was retro before retro was cool.
If your new job is at the same company, then you are most likely running under os/390 (or MVS or z/OS which amount to the same thing). This would be good news, because it is really rare for such shops to run CICS-DL/I, more frequently using IMS. This is good because native VSAM files and DB2 files (the natural targets of CICS systems) are much easier to get at than DL/I files–TSO/ISPF can get to DB2 files and (with help) VSAM files, itself.
Of course, if this is a new company with different software, all bets are off.
Yeah, that depends on your shop. Where I worked, most files were available to browse (TSO option 1 or 3.4/B, IIRC); but you needed authorisation to edit (again, IIRC, TSO option 2 or 3.4/(S or E).
So how’d it work out for you?
It turned out to be a non-issue. That particular mainframe system is an old one and will be decommissioned soon.
Thanks for the help!