PIE®/CICS-DynamicMenus

In a native CICS environment, users get the CICS blank screen and they must enter full transactions. When one transaction is finished, users have to enter another transaction. There is nothing on the screen to assist them. Because users have to enter transaction IDs and arguments, they need to be trained in the precise syntax of their transactions. If the transaction syntax is complex or cryptic, there is plenty of room for error and frustration. Changes in transaction syntax require user re-training. The consequence of these problems is low productivity and high operating costs.

Why PIE/CICS-DynamicMenus?

Many installations create menu applications to get around the problems described above. While these menus help, often they do not completely eliminate the CICS blank screen. When users sign on, they get the blank screen and must enter the menu transaction. From time to time, users must enter another transaction to bring up a different menu or application. Most CICS menu systems give control to a menu line by either transferring control to a program with the XCTL command or using ATI START to start a transaction. These menu facilities suffer from the following problems:

• You have to modify programs to work with the menu. This is a maintenance headache. It also means that you cannot access third party applications from the menu.
• Menu displays are usually hard-coded, have very little flexibility, and are not customizable based on user or terminal ID. Users see menu options they are not permitted to use, which creates problems with usability and security.
• During an ATI START, the keyboard is unlocked before the transaction is started. Eager users can enter data that causes their CICS sessions to terminate or hang.
• When a menu uses XCTL, all work is performed under the menu transaction. Since all CICS performance monitors and chargeback systems use transaction ID for reporting and billing purposes, this makes your activity analysis reports relatively meaningless.
• There is a more serious drawback in using XCTL: since external security is done by transaction ID, performing all work under the menu’s authorized transaction ID invalidates external security for any transactions executed through the menu.
• In CICS versions before 3.3, you cannot XCTL to an application on a MRO system.
• Using ATI START avoids the problems mentioned above. However, with ATI START, there is more overhead due to the long path length of ATI scheduling and terminal bidding. This is especially high in MRO environments. This overhead can substantially increase response time.

How PIE/CICS-DynamicMenus solves the problem

PIE/CICS-DynamicMenus uses a different method, called transaction XCTL, which “XCTL’s” to the transaction instead of the program. This method solves all of these problems.

• It supports all your applications without modification. If you can execute a transaction, you can execute it with transaction XCTL. You can execute in-house programs, vendor programs, CICS commands, programs that run in MRO, programs that run in other VTAM regions.
• Each transaction runs under its own transaction ID. That means external security can protect applications by transaction ID. Your monitor program can provide meaningful data on resource usage. Your charge back systems can differentiate between applications.
• When the transaction ends, control is returned to the menu through AutoEnd. AutoEnd detects when a transaction (conversational or pseudo conversational) ends, and AutoEnd automatically returns control to the menu.
• When it executes the transaction, PIE/CICS-DynamicMenus also passes the TIOA. So you can pass the transaction any arguments you like. That means you can execute a particular function of a transaction using a menu line.
• The transaction XCTL method does not unlock the keyboard when the application starts. Users cannot enter data at the terminal to interfere with processing.

While PIE/CICS-DynamicMenus does not ordinarily use ATI START or XCTL to a program, it is flexible, and it allows you to specify either of these methods to execute a particular menu line.