CCSID Conversion Tables

To use the CICS Web Services (CWS) feature requires the following:

Installing the IBM-37, IBM-437, and 002501B5 CCSID conversion tables
Updating the SIT to identify the conversion table to use
Creating and installing a replacement program file to facilitate conversion from EBCDIC to ASCII

Acquiring the IBM CCSID Conversion Tables

The IBM CCSID conversion tables are available from cdctables.zip, and must be installed to Visual COBOL before you can use them. The cdctables.zip file contains a set of .zip files - intro.zip and several Packagen.zip files. Intro.zip contains three .txt files that provide details about the conversion tables.

readme.txt: Detailed information on the tables themselves, including the various types of tables, how they are created, how to use them, and conventions and terminology.
tabindex.txt: An exhaustive list of each table including a description, filename, and package specification for each.
HINTS.TXT: Hints to help you locate the tables you need.

See To install CCSID tables for detailed installation instructions.

Updating the SIT

Once you have installed the required CCSID tables, you must provide the EBCDIC local CCSID to the CICS SIT associated with your enterprise server region.

See To specify a CCSID table in the CICS SIT for details.

Note: If you create your enterprise server region from Visual COBOL using the CICSWebServices.xml template, the default EBCDIC local CCSID is set by default.

Converting from EBCDIC to ASCII

If your CICS application running on Enterprise Server is in ASCII, you must provide a replacement MFCCSIDMAP module that identifies the ASCII CCSID that corresponds to the EBCDIC local CCSID specified in the SIT. At startup, your enterprise server region calls MFCCSIDMAP to identify the ASCII CCSID. A return code of zero (0) indicates that the call is successful.

See To specify the corresponding ASCII CCSID for an EBCDIC CCSID for details.

Using IANA Registered Names

If you want to specify a CCSID using an Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) registered name, use the CICS GET CONTAINER and PUT CONTAINER statements.

Important: Only a subset of IBM CCSIDs have an IANA-equivalent registered name. See character-sets.xml and Mappings of CCSIDs to encoding names for serialized XML output data for details.