z/Ware z/OS

Easy and powerful web-enabling and web services for your 3270 apps.

z/Ware transforms your pure 3270 screens into rich, Web-browser applications that anyone can access and understand. z/Ware provides integration to other data sources including CICS COMMAREAs, making it both flexible and versatile.

Running natively on z/OS-OS/390, there's no need to incur extra time and cost in using additional platforms just to get to your mainframe data. Additionally, z/Ware has a robust script-processing facility to automate interaction between applications and platforms across the enterprise, and a document facility for creating templates to exchange with XML/Web Service-enabled applications like Java or Microsoft’s .Net platform. z/Ware can also integrate your data from MS-SQL, Oracle and other databases.

z/Ware is built for mainframe users, allowing results in hours, not months. z/Ware is the easiest way to transform the tried and trusted back-end logic of your existing 3270 applications into a fully functional web-browser application and/or Web Services that connect with other platforms.

The z/Ware application doesn't just look better -- it also adds functionality, including one-click macros, widgets for pop-up calendars and calculators, and even a pop-up for looking up information from the Postal Service! z/Ware's AJAX support enables your Web-based applications to function like a Windows application, with drag-and-drop, right-mouse click behavior, and dynamic updating of data without refreshing.

All of these capabilities enable z/Ware to provide a better user experience and increases productivity like never before!

At a glance

Modernize your mainframe applications with z/Ware and realize tangible savings and benefits.

Enhance user experiences without changing underlying mainframe applications

Increase productivity and train users in hours instead of days with more intuitive user interfaces

Present your mainframe applications and data to customers on the Web

Integrate mainframe and web-based applications into a single application

Simplify application workflow with automated processes

Features

z/Ware features that extend and transform your 3270 applications to the Web.

Common infrastructure

The z/Ware Common Infrastructure (ZWC) has been created to support multiple products and will make future development faster and easier while simplifying the code of each product.

Scripts

Executable statements, referred to as scripts, can be used to perform important functions, such as comparing or extracting data in a COMMAREA buffer or a generated document.

Document creation and deletion

Script statements can invoke the document facility to create or delete named user documents. Documents can be created from templates stored as library members, using substitution of user variables to create dynamic custom documents containing any desired statement format.

Document formats and handling

Documents can contain HTML, XML or any other format suitable for the intended purpose. User documents can be returned to the requesting client program or placed into COMMAREA buffers. Data can be extracted from documents using the ASSIGN script statement.

Named scripts

Name scripts are not associated with existing 3270 sessions. They can use any of the functions available to the scripting language to perform processing. The source statements are stored in a library member and are defined in the configuration file at start up or dynamically activated by command after start up.

Named script execution

Named scripts are invoked by HTTP client requests. The request can specify desired data in the usual form of name=value parameters in a URL or generated from a web form or taken from an XML document. Specified parameters are assigned to user variables before script execution so all specified information is available to the script.

COMMAREA program execution

Script statements, executed through CICS EXCI, enable seamless named COMMAREA data handling in CICS. Data can be created, mapped, updated, and extracted without 3270 sessions. Data from the returned COMMAREA can be used in the creation of a user document that is returned to the requesting program, or for any other need. Ideal for web users, client programs, and diverse scripting environments.

CICS COMMAREA events

CICS programs utilize COMMAREA events, separate from 3270 sessions. This allows user programs to trigger script execution on the z/Web-Host Server. The server matches received COMMAREA data with active events, executes the defined script, and updates the COMMAREA for return to the calling CICS program.

Fully IPv6 ready

z/Ware supports IPv6 alongside IPv4. No extra configuration needed for IPv6, other than to use IPv6 addresses or domain names where IPv4 was used. Mixed environments are handled effortlessly and z/Ware interrogates the connected stack to determine its capabilities. If IPv6 addresses are found in the z/Ware configuration file, but an IPv4 only stack is connected, error messages are issued at start-up.

XML and Web Services support

z/Ware processes client requests in the form of XML documents as well as HTML. The ZWC Web Server accepts Web Service requests and generates Web Service responses (SOAP envelopes). Web Screen definitions can be used with 3270 sessions to gather data and generate the response. Named scripts can also be used to execute CICS programs and return XML documents.