Subprograms › Guidelines for Batch and Online Non-Ideal Subprograms › Online Non-Ideal Subprograms

Online Non-Ideal Subprograms

COBOL, PL/I, and Assembler subprograms called by an online CA Ideal application must follow certain guidelines.

The program must be assembled or compiled in accordance with the requirements of CICS.

• Define the program name in CICS.
• In z/OS, the load library where the subprogram is located must appear in one of the DFHRPL statements.
• In VSE, the name of the core image library where the subprogram is located must appear in one of the LIBDEF PHASE,SEARCH= statements.

The following are prohibited:

• Terminal I/O.

  Note: CA Ideal loses the last message on the message line at the top of the CA Ideal screen when control returns from the non-Ideal subprogram.

• Freeing, releasing, or modifying any resource, including temporary storage that CA Ideal allocated.
• If the subprogram is called in the scope of an updated CA Ideal FOR construct, the non-Ideal subprogram cannot access the same set of CA Datacom/DB CBS, DB2, or VSAM records with update intent.
• Any scheduled abend.
• In z/OS: Any SPIE or (E)STAE macro.
• In VSE: Any STXIT macro.
• Enqueuing or dequeuing on a CA Ideal internal (system) name. See the CA Ideal Problem Determination Guide for information on CA Ideal internal names.
• In CICS, accessing a temporary storage area that has a name starting with X'5B'.
• In CICS, any return other than a normal EXEC CICS RETURN. COBOL programs cannot use STOP RUN, EXIT PROGRAM, or GOBACK.
• When passing return codes back to the main CA Ideal program, use the data area. If a non-Ideal subprogram returns to CA Ideal with Register 15 set to 1, 2, or 3, a runtime error with a misleading message occurs.

Note: Non-Ideal programs developed for CICS do not work in batch. Non-Ideal programs developed for batch do not work in CICS.

In addition, see the sections on restrictions for COBOL and Assembler programs in the IBM CICS Application Programmers Reference Manual for the appropriate environment.