John, As you point out, the cost of creating a Java JVM in a batch COBOL jobstep can be a problem. For short running jobs, or ones that only need to make a couple of WS calls, it may not make sense. For long running COBOL jobs that make many calls, you can start a JVM and then reuse it so that the performance may be more than acceptable.
Other than Java, I can think of these options: - write your own SOAP client in COBOL or C or Assembler. I would probably do the XML mapping to/from the SOAP structures in COBOL directly using z/OS XMLSS, and then do the rest of the http SOAP client in C (reusing one of the many open source http C clients). - port gSOAP (written in C++) to z/OS and build your own COBOL glue routines to it. I really like gSOAP, having used it on Windows and Solaris several years ago. I would expect it to readily port to z/OS, but I haven't tried it myself. - I believe that there are also several vendors that have SOAP clients for batch COBOL, but I don't know any specifics. Kirk Wolf Dovetailed Technologies http://dovetail.com On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 3:41 PM, Roberts, John J <[email protected]>wrote: > At this installation we have a business rules engine from a company called > Corticon. The interface to the Corticon servers is via SOAP web services. > We also have Windows Web Servers that expose ASP.Net Web Services. > > We need to be able to access these web services from Batch COBOL programs. > I have developed a solution that seems to work well enough. In my > architecture, batch programs invoke CICS programs via the EXCI interface. > These CICS programs in turn issue the EXEC CICS INVOKE WEBSERVICE > commands. So far so good. > > But I have concerns about this architecture. For one, it requires the > CICS region to be alive when we are processing Batch Runs in the evening. > And I wish performance was a bit better. > > So, I wonder if there is a better way? I know that Batch COBOL invoking a > JAVA Web Client is possible and I have seen stuff in the IBM-MAIN archives > talking about the JZOS Batch Toolkit developed by the guys at Dovetailed > Technologies. But I am a bit hesitant since I have heard stories about > poor performance. > > So my questions for the list: > > (1) How many have gone this route for consuming web services from a > Batch COBOL client? > > (2) How easy/tricky to setup and code? > > (3) What kind of performance? > > (4) Are there any comparisons between the JAVA approach versus the > EXCI/CICS approach re performance, developer effort, etc? > > John > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO > Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
