Transaction Integrator Architecture

Transaction Integrator (TI) integrates the IBM Customer Information Control System (CICS), Information Management System (IMS) transaction programs (TP), and IBM i applications with the .NET Framework by doing the following:

  • Creating interfaces to the CICS, IMS, and IBM i transaction programs.

  • Invoking those transactions on the mainframe or midrange computer (also called the host computer) from a Microsoft Windows–based .NET application.

    The primary function of TI is to manage the process and data conversions necessary to allow input data to be provided to the host TPs from a .NET Framework application and to send any output data generated from the TP to the Windows-based application. TI provides data type conversion, tabular data definition, and code page translation. The following figure shows an overview of the role that TI plays in the communications between the application and the host.

    Image that shows how TI provides the data conversions between a Windows-based application and a host.
    TI provides the data conversions between a Windows-based application and a host

    An example of this type of distributed application is reading a DB2 database on the mainframe to update data in a SQL Server database on Microsoft Windows Server.

    Because all TI processing is done on the Windows Server platform, no TI-related executable code (or footprint) is required on the mainframe or midrange computer. TI uses SNA (APPC/LU 6.2) and TCP/IP standard communication protocols for all communications between Windows and the host computer. You use TI Designer from within Visual Studio to build TI components. The configuration for connectivity to the host computer is done within the config file for the TI application. There is a TI Configuration Tool that aids in creating the config file entries.

In This Section

Online Transaction Processing

Transaction Integrator Basic Functions

Transaction Integrator Components

Programming Models

Host-Initiated Processing

Windows-Initiated Processing

See Also

Application Integration (Planning)