JZOS on open systems question

Discussion:

(too old to reply)

Frank Swarbrick

2017-12-30 00:14:06 UTC

Can JZOS be used off mainframe to process (yes, that's vague) a file that is a combination of ECBDIC fields, binary integer fields and packed-decimal fields? Basically, the file is defined by a (mainframe) COBOL copybook and would be transmitted in binary to a distributed platform to be processed.

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Paul Gilmartin

2017-12-30 01:07:09 UTC

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Post by Frank Swarbrick
Can JZOS be used off mainframe to process (yes, that's vague) a file that is a combination of ECBDIC fields, binary integer fields and packed-decimal fields? Basically, the file is defined by a (mainframe) COBOL copybook and would be transmitted in binary to a distributed platform to be processed.

Andrew Rowley

2017-12-30 07:30:20 UTC

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Post by Paul Gilmartin
I believe it would be less trouble to convert it with a COBOL program
using the copybook to a portable format such as XML, CSV, or even
fixed-field text before transmitting it.

That seems to add a lot of processing for no gain. My experience
(processing SMF data) is that it is much easier to transfer the data
unconverted. JZOS makes it easy to process the mainframe format data.

--
Andrew Rowley
***@blackhillsoftware.com

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Frank Swarbrick

2018-01-02 23:02:49 UTC

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Unfortunately the vendor wants to charge us an unreasonable amount for this "custom coding". :-(
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Subject: Re: JZOS on open systems question

I believe it would be less trouble to convert it with a COBOL program
using the copybook to a portable format such as XML, CSV, or even
fixed-field text before transmitting it.

-- gil

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John McKown

2018-01-02 23:44:38 UTC

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Post by Frank Swarbrick
Unfortunately the vendor wants to charge us an unreasonable amount for
this "custom coding". :-(

I am a bit confused by the above. You have a z/OS data set which contains
PIC X(...) type data and PIC 9(...) type data (PACKED DECIMAL, BINARY,
etc). You need to download this to an ASCII system to processes. Can this
process XML input? if so, then a simple z/OS COBOL program can generate it
with a GENERATE XML verb. We do this _all the time_ in CICS in order to
communicate with Windows servers.

ref:
http://m.ibm.com/http/publibfp.dhe.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/handheld/BOOKS/igy3pg50/5.2.1?SHELF=&DT=20090820210412&wirelessshow=2

If the particular program cannot handle XML, what can it handle? There are
utilities which can convert XML to equivalent JSON, or even a "field
oriented flat file". In fact, since you've already mentioned Java, I will
say that Java eats XML for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a midnight snack.

Post by Frank Swarbrick
________________________________
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2017 6:08 PM
Subject: Re: JZOS on open systems question

Post by Frank Swarbrick
Can JZOS be used off mainframe to process (yes, that's vague) a file that

is a combination of ECBDIC fields, binary integer fields and packed-decimal
fields? Basically, the file is defined by a (mainframe) COBOL copybook and
would be transmitted in binary to a distributed platform to be processed.
I believe it would be less trouble to convert it with a COBOL program
using the copybook to a portable format such as XML, CSV, or even
fixed-field text before transmitting it.
-- gil
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Frank Swarbrick

2018-01-04 00:11:27 UTC

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For reasons I won't get in to, we don't want to touch this data on our mainframe. We want the distributed system(s) to be able to handle the data directly from the vendor. Whether this is reasonable or not is not at the moment under discussion. :-)
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Sent: Tuesday, January 2, 2018 4:45 PM
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Subject: Re: JZOS on open systems question

Post by Frank Swarbrick
Unfortunately the vendor wants to charge us an unreasonable amount for
this "custom coding". :-(

Post by Frank Swarbrick
________________________________
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2017 6:08 PM
Subject: Re: JZOS on open systems question

Post by Frank Swarbrick
Can JZOS be used off mainframe to process (yes, that's vague) a file that

--
I have a theory that it's impossible to prove anything, but I can't prove
it.

Maranatha! <><
John McKown

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John McKown

2017-12-30 01:27:46 UTC

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On Fri, Dec 29, 2017 at 6:15 PM, Frank Swarbrick <

Post by Frank Swarbrick
Can JZOS be used off mainframe to process (yes, that's vague) a file that
is a combination of ECBDIC fields, binary integer fields and packed-decimal
fields? Basically, the file is defined by a (mainframe) COBOL copybook and
would be transmitted in binary to a distributed platform to be processed.

I've not tried, but I would be _amazed_ if it works. Even though JZOS
comes with a lot of "Java ARchive (jar)" files, if you really inspected
them closely, I'd bet that many of the routines are C language JNI
routines. That is, they are z/OS specific.

However, this may be of some help:
https://developer.ibm.com/cics/2016/05/12/java-cics-using-ibmjzos/

====

IBM Record Generator for Java

The Record Generator is a scriptable Java based utility that takes as input
the ADATA from the COBOL compiler, and uses this to generate Java helper
classes to access the fields in a COBOL record structure. The ADATA
provides additional program data that can be used to extract information
about the program for symbolic debugging or cross-reference tools. The
Record Generator is based upon function in the IBM JZOS Toolkit which
provides field converter classes
<https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSYKE2_8.0.0/com.ibm.java.zsecurity.api.80.doc/com.ibm.jzos/com/ibm/jzos/fields/package-summary.html>
for
mapping byte array fields into Java data types.

====

Later, it says that the product is freely downloadable _IF_ you are
licensed for z/OS 2.1 or above.
--
I have a theory that it's impossible to prove anything, but I can't prove
it.

Maranatha! <><
John McKown

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Paul Gilmartin

2017-12-30 01:36:46 UTC

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Post by John McKown
<https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSYKE2_8.0.0/com.ibm.java.zsecurity.api.80.doc/com.ibm.jzos/com/ibm/jzos/fields/package-summary.html>
for
mapping byte array fields into Java data types.
====
Later, it says that the product is freely downloadable _IF_ you are
licensed for z/OS 2.1 or above.

Does "freely" mean that one may download it to a filesystem shared by someone
who is not so licensed, and that someone ...

-- gil

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Kirk Wolf

2017-12-30 01:54:55 UTC

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Some parts of the JZOS jar can be used off of the mainframe, although I do
not believe that IBM offers official support on other platforms.

For example, the record generators, and com.ibm.jzos.fields runtime classes
do work fine. The FileFactory class is designed to be agnostic as well,
and RDWInput/OutputStream classes are also useful off the mainframe.

I commonly download ADATA from Cobol/Assembler records and use the
RecordGenerator and Fields classes to not only generate Java record
classes, but also to run programs that consume mainframe data. SMF data
for example.

If you try to use z/OS system services wrappers like ZFile or ZUtil, you
will get an UnsatisfiedLinkError exception when the class is loaded.

Kirk Wolf
Dovetailed Technologies
http://dovetail.com

On Fri, Dec 29, 2017 at 6:15 PM, Frank Swarbrick <

Post by Frank Swarbrick
Can JZOS be used off mainframe to process (yes, that's vague) a file that
is a combination of ECBDIC fields, binary integer fields and packed-decimal
fields? Basically, the file is defined by a (mainframe) COBOL copybook and
would be transmitted in binary to a distributed platform to be processed.
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Andrew Rowley

2017-12-30 07:26:14 UTC

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JZOS does an excellent job of processing mainframe data types on other
systems. My understanding is that it uses specialized native code on
z/OS, but has Java implementations for conversion on other platforms.

I don't know the licensing and support details.

Timothy Sipples

2017-12-30 07:58:56 UTC

Permalink

Post by Kirk Wolf
Some parts of the JZOS jar can be used off of the mainframe, although I do
not believe that IBM offers official support on other platforms.

Please check the license agreements, but to my knowledge JZOS is a
copyrighted, licensed component of the IBM SDK Java Technology Edition for
z/OS, which is licensed at no additional charge with/for z/OS, to licensed
z/OS customers.

I have personal knowledge of an incident in which somebody foolishly
"borrowed" a "small" portion of OS/390 and used it improperly, without a
license. IBM was understandably quite upset, and... well, you really don't
want to know the price. :-(

Post by Kirk Wolf
Does "freely" mean that one may download it to a filesystem shared by

someone

Post by Kirk Wolf
who is not so licensed, and that someone ...

Quoting IBM: "The Record Generator for Java V3.0 is available to clients of
z/OS V2.1, or later, at no additional charge. It can be downloaded from
IBM. License redistribution rights are provided for deployment to non-z/OS
platforms to support distributed development and build."

So it's a qualified yes. Yes, a licensed z/OS 2.1 (or higher) customer can
redistribute the IBM Record Generator for Java V3.0 but only for
development and build.

For license information, please visit:

http://www.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf

The license terms for the IBM Record Generator for Java and SDK for z/OS
(Java Technology Edition) are both available there. At this moment in time
the "LI" numbers are L-APIG-AN3FEN and L-JPLW-AS3PVH.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy Sipples
IT Architect Executive, Industry Solutions, IBM Z and LinuxONE, AP/GCG/MEA
E-Mail: ***@sg.ibm.com

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