Introduction › CA Gen Applications—C and COBOL Generation

CA Gen Applications—C and COBOL Generation

Over the years, CA Gen has evolved from an application development tool that generates block mode and batch applications to one that generates client/server applications. In the latter case, the application is divided into the following elements:

• GUI—The application's graphical user interface.
• Client Procedure Steps—Responsible for handling the GUI events and performing some of the application logic. They are usually related to the flow of the application and may access the application's database. Utilizing middleware, Client Procedure Steps invoke Server Procedure Steps to perform the balance of the application functionality.
• Server Procedure Steps—Responsible for performing the bulk of the application's business logic and database accesses. Server Procedure Steps do not have a user interface. If allowed by the TP monitor, a Server Procedure Step can invoke other Server Procedure Steps.

For Windows-based GUI Client/Server applications, the GUI and Client Procedure Steps are generated in the C language for execution on a Microsoft Windows platform. The Server Procedure Steps are generated in either COBOL for execution on the IBM mainframe or in the C language for execution on Microsoft Windows or selected Linux or UNIX platforms.

The GUI Clients can communicate with the Servers using one of many communications runtimes, including:

• The CA Gen Client Manager
• TCP/IP
• Oracle Tuxedo (Tuxedo)
• WebSphere MQ
• ECI

Note: Not all servers support all the above communications methods. For more information on cooperative flows, see the Distributed Processing – Overview guide.