Skip to Main Content
IBM Z Software


This portal is to open public enhancement requests against IBM Z Software products. To view all of your ideas submitted to IBM, create and manage groups of Ideas, or create an idea explicitly set to be either visible by all (public) or visible only to you and IBM (private), use the IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com).


Shape the future of IBM!

We invite you to shape the future of IBM, including product roadmaps, by submitting ideas that matter to you the most. Here's how it works:

Search existing ideas

Start by searching and reviewing ideas and requests to enhance a product or service. Take a look at ideas others have posted, and add a comment, vote, or subscribe to updates on them if they matter to you. If you can't find what you are looking for,

Post your ideas
  1. Post an idea.

  2. Get feedback from the IBM team and other customers to refine your idea.

  3. Follow the idea through the IBM Ideas process.


Specific links you will want to bookmark for future use

Welcome to the IBM Ideas Portal (https://www.ibm.com/ideas) - Use this site to find out additional information and details about the IBM Ideas process and statuses.

IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com) - Use this site to view all of your ideas, create new ideas for any IBM product, or search for ideas across all of IBM.

ideasibm@us.ibm.com - Use this email to suggest enhancements to the Ideas process or request help from IBM for submitting your Ideas.

Status Submitted
Workspace z/OS Connect
Created by Guest
Created on Dec 19, 2024

Tool to expose a large number of CA GEN COBOL programs in zOS Connect

We got hundreds of CICS Cobol programs which were generated from that we expose so far with Cics Transaction Gateway (CTG), and we want to migrate and expose them in zOS Connect.

We do that manually, one Cobol by one Cobol, and this process is pretty heavy :

  1. From the Cobol we extract a copy of commarea, we edit it to delete word like REDEFINE witch is not supported by DFHLS2JS

  2. With DFHLS2JS in a JCL we create a JSON (DFHLS2JS: High-level language to JSON schema conversion for request-response services - IBM Documentation)

  3. Transform the JSON in YAML contract

  4. In zOS Connect import the YAML and create the zOS Asset

  5. In zOS Connect do the mapping for each variable of the copy and the equivalent in Yaml contract. Sometime up to 50 variables, only with the mouse...

All the COBOL copy from GEN have the same shape. The name of the level 01 variable end with IA for the input :
01 A-1362053309-IA.
05 IMP-0001EV.
07 SR00-HAND-SHAKE-0001ET.
09 C-COMPONENT-ID-0001 PIC X(3).
09 C-COMPONENT-ID-0001XX REDEFINES
C-COMPONENT-ID-0001 PIC X(3).
09 C-DOMAIN-ID-0001 PIC X(3).
09 C-DOMAIN-ID-0001XX REDEFINES C-DOMAIN-ID-0001
PIC X(3).
09 C-USER-ID-0001 PIC X(8).
09 C-USER-ID-0001XX REDEFINES C-USER-ID-0001 PIC
X(8).

The name of the level 01 variable end with OA for the output:

01 A-1362053311-OA.
05 EXP-0004EV.
07 SR00-HAND-SHAKE-0004ET.
09 C-COMPONENT-ID-0004 PIC X(3).
09 C-COMPONENT-ID-0004XX REDEFINES
C-COMPONENT-ID-0004 PIC X(3).
09 C-DOMAIN-ID-0004 PIC X(3).
09 C-DOMAIN-ID-0004XX REDEFINES C-DOMAIN-ID-0004
PIC X(3).

And we found this variables into the mapping of the response.

It will be great to have a tool that take a PDS of Cobol or a COBOL copy and generate YAML contract and do the mapping in zOS Connect.

Idea priority Medium