Developer: My Application Uses IMS

IMS is a hierarchical database and database management software with transaction processing. It consists of IMS DB (Database Manager), IMS TM (Transaction Manager), and a number of system services. IMS runs on z/OS and on zSeries hardware.

IMS programs can be written in Enterprise COBOL for z/OS, Enterprise PL/I for z/OS, IBM Assembler, among others. For example, your application can use:

  • IMS DB with an IMS TM - DB/TM environment
  • IMS TM with DB2 and IMS DB
  • IMS DB with CICS (transaction management)
  • JCL with IMS BMP, batch
  • DB2 (to store the data) with IMS TM

The best way to become familiar with using Enterprise Developer to develop IMS applications is to start with the IMS Support tutorial. In this tutorial, you use the Eclipse IDE to create, configure, compile, and debug a sample IMS application.

This topic provides a brief summary of how to get up and running with an IMS application in Enterprise Developer. For a more in-depth discussion, check out Migrating Existing IMS Applications.

The following steps provide general guidance on how to create mainframe projects in Enterprise Developer for your COBOL applications that use IMS, and how to test them using the debugger. The assumption is that your COBOL or PL/I source code and IMS data is downloaded to the PC, and that you are adding these existing application sources and data to an Eclipse project.

  1. Start Eclipse and open the Team Developer perspective, which is the default perspective for Enterprise Developer.

    You can also choose the COBOL or PL/I perspective, depending on the main programming language.

  2. Configure Eclipse for IMS development.

    The default settings in Enterprise Developer are settings aimed at Mainframe Subsystem Application development. You can check and fine-tune settings for the editor and for setting Compiler directives from Window > Preferences > Micro Focus.

  3. Create a Mainframe Subsystem Application project for COBOL or PL/I.
  4. Add your COBOL or PL/I source files - see how for COBOL or for PL/I projects.
  5. Add PSB, DBD, and MFS source, and your IMS stage 1 definition file to the project.
  6. Specify project and build configuration properties for COBOL or PL/I projects.

    For example, you can specify a COBOL dialect, and either the ASCII or EBCDIC character set.

  7. Configure PDB, DBD, and MFS properties.
  8. Optionally edit your source files - see some tips for COBOL and PL/I.
  9. If Eclipse is not set to build automatically, build your COBOL or PL/I application.
  10. Load the IMS database.

At this point, you can deploy and then debug the application in Enterprise Server. See Deployer: Deploy and Debug a Mainframe Application with IMS Support for details.

Further, to get familiar with the process of developing IMS applications in Enterprise Developer, Micro Focus recommends that you check the following: