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Status Delivered
Categories Runtime
Created by Guest
Created on Dec 9, 2011

CICS Web Services should support Unicode (UTF-16)

When using CICS web services, the default translation code page is UTF-8 from localccsid. This customer has user data in a DB2 sub-system stored in UTF-16. To process this data using CICS web services, they must read the DB2 tables and translate from UTF-16 into localccsid, then move the data into DFHWS-DATA, where CICS translates by default into UTF-8. Because Cobol can deal with UTF-16, it would be very easy to use UTF-16 for the whole path: DB2 - Cobol application program - CICS web service. This would reduce the overhead of unnecessary character translations.

Idea priority High
  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Oct 5, 2015

    Due to processing by IBM, this request was reassigned to have the following updated attributes:
    Brand - Servers and Systems Software
    Product family - Transaction Processing
    Product - CICS Transaction Server

    For recording keeping, the previous attributes were:
    Brand - WebSphere
    Product family - Transaction Processing
    Product - CICS Transaction Server

  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Jun 13, 2014

    This requirement is satisfied by CICS TS 5.2 which is generally available from June 13th 2014.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Apr 14, 2014

    This requirement is satisfied by CICS TS 5.2 which was announced 7th April 2014 with a planned general availability date of June 13th 2014. For more information see the IBM CICS Transaction Server for  z/OS, V5.2 announcement letter

    http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=an&subtype=ca&supplier=897&letternum=ENUS214-107

  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Apr 8, 2014

    This requirement is satisfied by CICS TS 5.2 which was announced 7th April 2014 with a planned general availability date of June 13th 2014. For more information see the IBM CICS Tools for  z/OS, V5.2 announcement letter

    http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=an&subtype=ca&supplier=897&letternum=ENUS214-107

  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Jan 8, 2014

    This is something we would like to address. The RFE is being moved into 'Planned for Future release' status.  Please note:
    IBM’s statements regarding its plans, directions, and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice at IBM’s sole discretion.   Information regarding potential future products is intended to outline our general product direction and it should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. The information mentioned regarding potential future products is not a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality. Information about potential future products may not be incorporated into any contract. The development, release, and timing of any future features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Dec 15, 2011

    The general desire to process text data through the CICS data mapping technology in UTF-16 is absolutely valid, and this isn't the first time it's been requested. However, even if the CICS data-mapping service is changed to support UTF-16, this will not remove the need for code-page conversion. SOAP messages are almost always sent in UTF-8, and the CICS Pipeline processes them in UTF-8, so a UTF-8 to UTF-16 conversion will be unavoidable in most (probably all) scenarios.

    The legitimate requirement is to remove the need for the intermediate EBCDIC data representation. It is perhaps worth noting that if the CICS supplied data mapping service is *not* used then it's feasible to avoid EBCDIC entirely. The underlying Pipeline in CICS does not care what data encoding is used. For example, the 'compiled' converter technology in RDz supports UTF-16 text.