Working with the IBM CICS Transaction Gateway

The Windows versions of the ACUCOBOL-GT runtime support calls to the IBM CICS Universal Client Interface for Windows. The runtime attempts to automatically load the CICS dynamic link library (DLL) if any subroutine beginning with "CICS" is called. If the DLL is available and loadable, the CICS function is called using the standard DLL call interface.

In some cases, the IBM CICS Transaction Gateway product may include a ".lib" file instead of a DLL. When this occurs, the Windows runtime DLL must be relinked to include the ".lib" file in order to access CICS functions. The relinking process is described below.

Whether you are working with a DLL or ".lib" file, a properly configured ACUCOBOL-GT runtime allows you to access IBM applications on a mainframe or other host, and to use ACUCOBOL-GT graphical interface capabilities as a front end to your IBM COBOL applications.

To take advantage of these capabilities, you must install the appropriate combination of the CICS Transaction Gateway and CICS Universal Client Interface on your machine and configure it according to the IBM documentation. IBM documentation includes specific information on CICS and sample COBOL programs that you can use to test your client/server connection.