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3270 Connect User's Guide
CHAPTER 1
Welcome to the 3270 Connect Guide. This Guide is a companion to the Integration Manager User's Guide, which details how to use all the features of Integration Manager, except the Connect Component Editors. So, if you haven't looked at the User's Guide yet, please familiarize yourself with it before using this Guide.
Integration Manager provides separate Component Editors for each Connector, like 3270. The special features of each component editor are described in separate Guides like this one.
If you have been using Integration Manager, and are familiar with the core component editor, the XML Map Component Editor, then this Guide should get you started with the 3270 Component Editor.
Before you can begin working with the 3270 Connect, you must have installed it into your existing Integration Manager. Likewise, before you can run any Services built with this Connector in the Integration Manager Enterprise Server environment, you must have already installed the Server side software for this Connector into Integration Manager Enterprise Server.
NOTE: To be successful with this Component Editor, you must be familiar with the IBM 3270 environment and the applications that you want to XML-enable.
Integration Manager is built upon a simple hub and spoke architecture. The hub is a robust XML transformation engine that accepts requests via XML documents, performs transformation processes on those documents and interfaces with XML-enabled applications, and returns an XML response document. The spokes, or Connectors, are plug-in modules that "XML-enable" sources of data that are not XML aware, bringing their data into the hub for processing as XML. These data sources can be anything from legacy COBOL/applications to Message Queues to HTML pages.
Integration Manager Connectors can be categorized by the integration strategy each one employs to XML enable an information source. The integration strategies are a reflection of the major divisions used in modern systems designs for Internet- based computing architectures. Depending on your B2B needs and the architecture of your legacy applications, Integration Manager can integrate your business systems at the User Interface, Program Logic, or Data levels.
The 3270 Connect XML-enables IBM compatible mainframe legacy system data using the User Interface integration strategy by hooking into the Terminal Data Stream (TDS). The term 3270 is commonly used to refer to the generic "dumb terminal" types used to connect to IBM mainframe systems. When connecting to an IBM Mainframe, the 3270 TDS uses IBM's EBCDIC character-encoding scheme. The 3270 TDS, which was developed in the 1960s, emerged as that generation's standard, and persists today. The 3270 TDS allows users to interact with legacy applications through the use of attention keys (e.g., Enter and PF Keys) that are interpreted by the application running on the mainframe to perform the appropriate actions. This interaction, through a dumb terminal, means that all the data is processed information from the mainframe computer. 3270 terminal emulation software can be used to make a microcomputer or PC act as if it were a 3270-type terminal while it is communicating with a mainframe.
Using the 3270 Connect, you can make legacy applications and their business logic available to the internet, extranet, or intranet processes. You can navigate through an application as if you were at a terminal session, use XML request documents to drive the inquiries and updates into the screens rather than keying, use the messages returned from applications screens to make the same decisions as if you were at a terminal, and move the data and responses into XML documents that can be returned to the requestor or continue to be processed. The 3270 screens appear in the Native Environment pane of the 3270 Component Editor.
Much like the XML Map component, the 3270 component is designed to map, transform, and transfer data between two different XML templates (i.e., request and response XML documents). However, it is specialized to make a connection (either TN3270 or EPI) to a mainframe application, process the data using elements from a DOM, and then map the results to an output DOM. You can then act upon the output DOM in any way that makes sense for your integration application. In essence, you're able to capture data from, or push data to, a legacy system without ever having to alter the legacy system itself.
A 3270 component can perform simple data manipulations, such as mapping and transferring data from an XML document into a mainframe transaction, or perform "screen scraping" of a 3270 transaction, putting the data into an XML document. It can also perform sophisticated operations, such as mapping and manipulating multi-row and multi-screen transactions. The 3270 component has all the functionality of the XML Map component and can process XSL, send mail, and post and receive XML documents using the HTTP protocol.
The following illustration shows how a 3270 component uses a TN3270 or EPI connection to interact with data on the mainframe.
The 3270 User Interface Component Editor allows you to extend any XML integration you are building to include any of your business applications that support 3270-based terminal interactions (See Integration Manager User's Guide for more information.) For example, you may have an application that retrieve a product's description, picture, price, and inventory from regularly updated databases and displays it on a Web browser. By using the 3270 Component Editor, you can now get the current product information from the operational systems and the static information (e.g., the picture) from the database and merge the information from these separate information sources before displaying it to a user. This provides the same current information to both your internal and external users.
Perhaps the best way to understand the 3270 Connect in Integration Manager is to see it in action. If you would like to take a Tutorial for the 3270 Connect that provides access to legacy transactions in a test environment, please contact Novell Technical Support for the connection information, tutorial instructions and any other supporting materials.
Additionally, you will find information on the Novell website: www.Novell.com.
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