A CICS® Application
project defines an application bundle. An application bundle is a
type of management bundle that describes a CICS application, including the application
name, description, and version. The application bundle references
the CICS bundles that contain
the application resources, application entry points, dependencies,
and any CICS policies relating
to the application.
Before you begin
CICS bundle projects
must have an ID and a version number to be included in an application
bundle. CICS bundle projects
that were created for releases before CICS Transaction Server Version 5 Release 1 did not have an
ID and a version number. If you want to include these CICS bundle projects, use the bundle manifest
editor in the CICS Explorer® to add an ID and version number to the projects.
About this task
You can reference one or many CICS bundles in an application
bundle. By packaging your application in this way, you can deploy
an application and its bundles as a single entity to CICS, making it easier to update and manage
the application in CICS. A CICS bundle can be installed in CICS regions by more than one application
if it contains only resources that are eligible for multi-versioning.
Applications
deployed on platforms that use the CICS resources that are supported as private resources, in combination
with other resources designed for applications and with imported resources,
are eligible for multi-versioning. The following resources are supported
as part of multi-versioned applications:
- PROGRAM resources defined in CICS bundles that are part of the application
- LIBRARY resources defined in CICS bundles that are part of the application
- Policies
- Statements of application entry points
- Any resource that is defined as a dependency, or import, for the
application
A CICS bundle that contains other resource types
cannot be included in other applications that are installed in the
same CICS regions in the platform,
and you cannot add it to the platform if it has already been installed
for an application. If your application requires a resource that is
not supported for multi-versioning and has already been used in a CICS bundle that has been installed
in the target region type in the platform, create a new CICS bundle project. Declare the resource as
a dependency for the new CICS bundle, by specifying an import in the manifest file. Then include
the new CICS bundle project
in your application project. For instructions to declare a resource
as a dependency, see Defining bundle
dependencies.
When you define a TRANSACTION resource in a CICS bundle, and deploy the CICS bundle as part of an application, or add
the CICS bundle to a platform,
autoinstall of the initial program for the transaction is not supported.
For a TRANSACTION resource defined in a CICS bundle that is deployed as part of an application, you
must define and deploy the PROGRAM resource for the transaction's
initial program as part of the same application.
Procedure
- Open the CICS Cloud
perspective. In the Project Explorer view, check that the CICS Platform
project for the target platform is present in your local workspace. CICS Explorer requires this project to validate your applications
and application bindings.
- In the Project Explorer view, right-click in the window
and click to open the New Project wizard.
- Expand the folder, click and click Next.
- In the Project Name field, enter
a name for the project. The Application properties section of the wizard is automatically populated, but you can edit
the name, description, and version if required.
- Click Next.
- Select the CICS bundle
projects that you want to include in the application. Ensure that
you include the CICS bundle
projects containing the statements of application entry points, the
resource definitions for the application resources, and the statements
of dependencies on other resources required by the application. Also include any CICS bundle projects containing policies that you want to deploy at the
application level. You can
use the application editor to add further CICS bundles after you create the application
project.
- Click Finish to create the project.
Results
The application project is created. The project contains a
META-INF folder that has three XML files:
- application.xml is the descriptor that contains
the metadata for the application, including its description and version.
- bundles.xml contains the list of CICS bundles that comprise the
application, including the bundle ID and version.
- manifest.xml is the manifest file for the
project and identifies it as a CICS management bundle.
To edit the application project,
expand the META-INF folder for the application and double-click on
the application.xml or bundles.xml file. Use the application editor to change the application properties
and add or remove CICS bundles
from the application project. For a guide to using the application
editor, see The application editor.
Note: When you have created and deployed your application project using
the CICS Explorer,
you must ensure proper management of the project source. The application
project cannot be reconstructed from the exported data in zFS, and
a failure of your workstation might cause the data to be lost. Ensure
that your project is checked into a source code management system.
When you use a source code management system that integrates with
Eclipse, you can check projects in and out while you are working in
the CICS Explorer.
What to do next
Create an Application Binding project to define how the application
bundle is deployed in the platform.