Abstract: Various embodiments of a method, system and computer program product enable an application to be accessed as a web service. In response to a command, a web service is deployed to a gateway server, and a connection bundle and a correlator file are provided such that they are accessible to the gateway server. The web service was generated based on a web service description language file that is based on an input-output message description of the application, and is accessible to a client using a SOAP message. The gateway server sends a request message to the application based on the SOAP message in accordance with the web service, and receives a reply message from the application. The connection bundle comprises connection information to interface with the application. The correlator file comprises a name of an interface module associated with the application and the name of the connection bundle.

Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for implementing an Information Management System (IMS) simple object access protocol (SOAP) gateway. The gateway extracts an identifier from a SOAP-based web service request received from a web service client and selects a correlation mapping based on the extracted identifier. The gateway builds a modified web service request, updated with parameters from the correlation mapping. The added parameters allow the gateway to direct the web service request to a specific IMS Connect software product instance, a specific IMS software product instance, a specific IMS application instance, and a specific datastore. The gateway also returns a web service response containing response values related to the original request to the SOAP enabled web service client.

Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for implementing an Information Management System (IMS) simple object access protocol (SOAP) gateway. The gateway extracts an identifier from a web service request received from an IMS application and selects a correlation mapping based on the extracted identifier. The gateway builds a modified web service request, updated with parameters from the correlation mapping. The added parameters allow the gateway to direct the web service request to a specific web service provider. Upon receiving a response from the web service provider, the gateway uses the correlation mapping including an IMS application identifier to properly route the web service response to a selected IMS application.

Abstract: Various embodiments of a computer-implemented method, system and article of manufacture enable an application to be accessed as a web service. In response to a command, a web service is deployed to a gateway server, and a connection bundle and a correlator file are provided such that they are accessible to the gateway server. The web service was generated based on a web service description language file that is based on an input-output message description of the application, and is accessible to a client using a SOAP message. The gateway server sends a request message to the application based on the SOAP message in accordance with the web service, and receives a reply message from the application. The connection bundle comprises connection information to interface with the application. The correlator file comprises a name of an interface module associated with the application and the name of the connection bundle.

Abstract: A system and method for representing MFS control blocks in XML for MFS-based IMS applications utilizes an MFS XML adapter and an MFS XML repository to translate between XML and MFS. The repository contains XML files for DOF/MOD and XML files for DIF/MID. When an XML request is received, the XML request is transformed to a byte stream by retrieving the relevant information from the MFS XML repository. The byte stream can then be placed in an IMS message queue to await processing by an MFS-based IMS application program. A byte stream response is generated by the MFS-based IMS application and is transformed into an XML response, again, by retrieving the relevant information from the MFS XML repository.

Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for facilitating conversational and non-conversational transactions between thin-clients and MFS-based IMS applications. The method includes storing conversation attributes associated with a conversational transaction between a thin-client and an MFS-based IMS application, the conversation attributes comprising connection information and conversation-specific information. Next, one or more transaction messages from the thin-client are preprocessed based on a transaction message type. The stored conversation attributes are updated in response changes in the conversation attributes caused by the one or more transaction messages. Then, a conversation output message is formatted for the thin-client.

Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are provided for automatically generating a web interface for an MFS-based IMS application. The apparatus, system, and method include an import module that imports MFS-based IMS source files corresponding to an MFS-based IMS application. A metadata generator stores a standardized metadata description of the Message Input Description (MID) and Message Output Description (MOD) for the MFS-based IMS application. The standardized metadata description may comprise one or more XMI files. A code generator generates a middleware application corresponding to the MFS-based IMS application from the standardized metadata descriptions. The middleware application comprises an interface between a client application and the corresponding MFS-based IMS application. The present invention may include a command-line interface that allows one or more parameter sets to be provided by a user as a single input.

Abstract: A system for facilitating XML enable IMS transactions includes a generic XML processor inside an IMS connect program to facilitate any TCP/IP clients, including WebSphere and non-WebSphere, to send and receive XML documents to and from existing IMS transaction business logic. Translations between XML documents and IMS transaction message data structures occur within the IMS connect program under an XML task to parse and transform XML requests and responses. Further, the generic XML processor within the IMS connect program can provide data translation for both non-formatted and formatted IMS transactional messages in XML.

Abstract: A method for communicating with an Information Management System (IMS) using eXtensible Markup Language (XML) documents includes the steps of receiving a document comprising an IMS transaction definition encoded in XML; obtaining a Document Type Definition (DTD) specifying rules for decoding the IMS transaction definition; parsing the XML document using the DTD to decode the IMS transaction definition; and providing the decoded IMS transaction definition to the IMS. A system and apparatus for implementing the method are also provided.

Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are provided for defining a web services interface for an MFS-based IMS application. The apparatus, system, and method include a parser that parses an MFS-based IMS source file into one or more Message Input Descriptions (MIDs) and one or more Message Output Descriptions (MODs). A prompt module prompts a user for a device type and device feature combination supported by the MIDs and MODs. A display module displays a MID list and a MOD list and automatically selects one or more MODs associated with a user-selected MID. An assembly module assembles the user-selected MID, the associated MODs, and the user-selected device type and device feature combination into a web services interface.

Abstract: The invention is an optimistic locking mechanism which allows Internet access to a database while maintaining data integrity in a stateless web environment. One embodiment of the invention incorporates a conventional IMS residing on a host computer and includes a generic transaction module which retrieves original data segments from the an IMS database in response to a search request from a web user. This embodiment of the invention further includes a server-side interface module for duplicating the original data segment into identical lines of data segments. One data segment may be updated by a web user whereas the other data segment remains constant and serves as a reference of the original state of the data segment. Both data segments are transmitted to a web user who may make changes to one data segment but not the other.