Standard Access to IMS Data Access from COBOL Using SQL

Haley Fung, IBM hfung@us.ibm.com

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Disclaimer

IMS 13 SQL support for COBOL• Target Market

– IMS TM and DB customers who would like to write or modify IMS COBOL applications to access IMS data using SQL

• Challenge Addressed – No SQL access to IMS data from IMS COBOL applications

– Lack of DL/I skills in AD community

• Solution Statement – Enable SQL calls from COBOL applications in addition to the current Java-

based solutions

• Business Value – Expands IMS database access for application and database developers

– Reduce application development cost by leveraging existing SQL skills

– Provide a consolidated native SQL engine as the foundation of existing and future client exploitation

Prerequisites

• Software requirements – IMS 13 + PTF UK98028

– Recent PTF: UI14549

– Upcoming APARs: PI10552, PI08209 – IMS Catalog function is required – COBOL compiler with IMS co-processor function

• Enterprise COBOL Developer Trial z/OS V5.1 or

• Enterprise COBOL for z/OS V5.1 + APAR PM92523

– Note: COBOL V5.1 requires z/OS 1.13 and above !

• Hardware requirements – Same as IMS 13 and COBOL V5.1

• SQL support for COBOL – Offer SQL as a query language for COBOL programs to access IMS

database in addition to DLI • SELECT/INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE

– EXEC SQLIMS as the interface to execute IMS SQL calls !

• SQL processor in IMS – Process SQL calls natively by the IMS subsystem – Still perform DLI database call processing underneath – Provide a consolidated way for SQL processing – Uses database metadata in IMS Catalog !

• Support IMS TM/DB (MPP, IFP, BMP) and DBCTL BMP

Solution Highlights

z/OS

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processor

Catalog

MetadataSQL

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Lang

uage

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SQL ODBA / DRADistributed

Intended support

Consolidated SQL processor

• Consolidated SQL processor for both host (COBOL) and distributed applications

• Data Provider for Microsoft .NET is now available with IMS Enterprise Suite 3.1

V13 support

IMS SQL concepts

What is SQL?

• SQL stands for Structured Query Language – SQL is a standard and is well defined – Most common database language for relational databases – Support for SQL can be found in programming languages

such as Java, .NET, C++, COBOL, PL/I, etc

• IMS and SQL – Introduced SQL support since IMS V7 for Java application – IMS V11 provided Open Database Solution allowing Java

applications to access IMS databases over TCP/IP networks and off platform

– Supports both data access and data manipulation with SQL. It maps hierarchical structures to relational concepts

• Relational databases versus IMS databases – Table (relational DB) ! Segment (IMS DB) – Column ! Field – Row ! Segment Instance – Schema !PCB – Table primary key ! Segment unique key

• Basic definitions – Statement - standardized set of commands used for data access,

manipulation. Similar to executing a series of DL/I calls against a DB PCB.

– Result Set – statements return a set of results based on the command executed. Similar to the IO Area returned on a DL/I call.

Other Terminologies

IMS 13 SQL support for COBOL

Statements – SQL to access data

• Data manipulation – SELECT… FROM… to retrieve data – INSERT INTO… VALUES… to insert data – UPDATE… SET… to update data – DELETE FROM… to delete data – WHERE… AND… OR… to perform conditional selection of

data

Statements – Declaration

• Pre-compiler directives – DECLARE CURSOR, STATEMENT… to declare cursor,

statement – INCLUDE SQLIMSCA, SQLIMSDA… to generate SQLIMSCA

and SQLIMSDA structures – WHENEVER… to handle errors and warnings

Statements – Execution

• SQL statement execution – For executing a SELECT statement

• PREPARE … to parse SQL statement • DESCRIBE (optional)… to get resultset metadata • OPEN … to open cursor • FETCH … to fetch data • CLOSE … to close cursor processing !

– For executing an INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE statement • PREPARE… to parse SQL statement • EXECUTE… to execute the non-SELECT statement

• Delimit SQL statement using EXEC SQLIMS ... END-EXEC • Dynamic SQL programming model

– Must call PREPARE to process SQL statement • Host variables

– Use for both to send and receive data processed by IMS • SQL communication area (SQLIMSCA)

– Structure used by IMS to provide status feedback – SQLIMSCODE (error code), SQLIMSSTATE (state), SQLIMSERRM (error

message) • SQL description area (SQLIMSDA)

– Structure populated by IMS to provide result set metadata for a SELECT statement

• Describe name, length, type of each column returned

– Structure populated by application to provide input data

Solution Details – Key application elements

• Enable SQL statement to be constructed at runtime – No need to hard code SQL statement in the application – Segment and field names associated with the SQL calls are

not known at compile time – SQL accepts as input in the form of a character string

• Use Prepare call to process SQL statement – Parse SQL statement for syntax and semantics validation at

runtime. No bind process. – Convert SQL artifacts to DLI – Statement can be prepared once and then execute many

times

Solution Details – Dynamic SQL

Coding - High-level application flow

● Declare host variable/structures for passing data between IMS and application

● Include SQLIMSCA for execution status ● Code SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE statements

to access IMS data ● Check SQLIMSCA for execution status ● Handle any SQL errors returned by IMS

Coding - SELECT

• SELECT statements are used to query one or more tables – SELECT column1, column2, … FROM table_name WHERE

some_column=some_value ORDER BY column1, column2

• Programming models – PREPARE… OPEN… FETCH (one or more)… CLOSE – Fixed-list SELECT

• Returns rows that contain a known number of values of unknown type and size. You can specify a list of host variables to contains the filled values.

– Varying-list SELECT • Returns rows that contain an unknown number of values of unknown type and size.

You do not know the exact number and types of host variables to store the result values.

1. Include SQLIMSCA 2. Specify SQL statement in a COBOL variable 3. Declare host variable or structure for result data row 4. Declare a cursor for the statement name 5. Prepare the SELECT statement 6. Open the cursor 7. Fetch a row of data into host variable or structure. 8. Repeat previous step until not more data

▪ When no more data, SQLIMSCODE=100

9. Handle any error 10.Close the cursor

Coding Fixed-list SELECT

Sample COBOL SQLWORKING-STORAGE SECTION. * Declare SQLIMSCA EXEC SQLIMS INCLUDE SQLIMSCA END-EXEC. !* Declare COBOL variable for SQL statement and result data 01 SQL-STATEMENT 49 SQL-STATEMENT-LEN PIC S9(4) COMP. 49 SQL-STATEMENT-TEXT PIC X(100). !01 HOSPITAL-RESULT-ROW 05 HOSPLL PIC S9(3) BINARY. 05 HOSPCODE PIC X(12). 05 HOSPNAME PIC X(17). !PROCEDURE DIVISION. * Declare Cursor for the Prepared Statement EXEC SQLIMS DECLARE CURSOR cursor-name for prepared-statement-name END-EXEC. !* Load SQL statement in the COBOL variable MOVE "SELECT * FROM PCB01.HOSPITAL” TO SELECT-STATEMENT-TXT.

* Prepared SQL statement string for processing EXEC SQLIMS PREPARE prepared-statement-name FROM :SQL-STATEMENT END-EXEC. !* Open Cursor EXEC SQLIMS OPEN cursor-name END-EXEC. !* Execute SQL statement * Fetch data from IMS into host variable until no more data is found PERFORM FETCH-PROC UNTIL SQLCODE EQUAL 100. : FETCH-PROC.

EXEC SQLIMS FETCH cursor-name INTO :HOSPITAL-RESULT-ROW END-EXEC.

: * Close Cursor EXEC SQLIMS CLOSE cursor-name END-EXEC.

Sample COBOL SQL (Cont’d)

Coding Varying-list SELECT1. Include SQLIMSCA 2. Include SQLIMSDA for result metadata 3. Specify SQL statement in a COBOL variable 4. Declare a cursor for the statement name 5. Prepare the SELECT statement 6. Call DESCRIBE to get result metadata 7. Declare and allocate storage for the result data variables 8. Open the cursor 9. Fetch a row of data into SQLIMSDA with result data variables 10. Repeat previous step until not more data

▪ When no more data, SQLIMSCODE=100

11. Handle any error 12. Close the cursor

SQL descriptor area (SQLIMSDA)

• SQLIMSDA stores information about prepared SQL statements or host variables.

• Can be read by IMS or the application – Read by application after a DESCRIBE statement for result

set metadata – Read by IMS for the input host variables

Coding – INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE

• INSERT – INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2, column3,...)

VALUES (value1, value2, value3,...)

• UPDATE – UPDATE table_name SET column1=value, column2=value2,...

WHERE some_column=some_value

• DELETE – DELETE FROM table_name WHERE

some_column=some_value

• Programming model – PREPARE… EXECUTE

1. Include SQLIMSCA 2. Specify SQL statement in a COBOL variable 3. Declare host variable or structure for result data row 4. Declare a cursor for the statement name 5. Prepare the INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE statement 6. Execute the statement 7. Handle any error

▪ Check if SQLIMSCODE = 0

Coding INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE

• A parameter marker is a question mark (?) that represents a position in a dynamic SQL statement where the application will provide a value

– SELECT HOSPNAME FROM PCB01.HOSPITAL WHERE HOSPCODE = ?

– INSERT INTO PCB01.HOSPITAL (HOSPCODE, HOSPNAME) VALUE (?, ?)

• Programming Model – For SELECT statement, use USING clause with OPEN cursor

• e.g. OPEN cursor USING :value1

– For non-SELECT statement, use USING clause with EXECUTE • e.g. EXECUTE stmt USING :value1, :value2

Coding – Parameter markers

Handling errors

• SQL communication area (SQLIMSCA) – Structure used by the database to provide status feedback – The SQL INCLUDE statement is used in the COBOL

application to provide the declaration of the SQLIMSCA

• The main elements in the SQLIMSCA are: – SQLIMSCODE – A return code represents a successful or

failed SQL operation – SQLIMSSTATE – Common codes for error conditions which

conform to the SQL standard – SQLIMSERRM – Error message text

Handling errors (cont’d)

• The SQLIMSCODE is a return code for a successful or failed SQL operation.

– If SQLIMSCODE = 0 and SQLWARN0 is blank, execution was successful.

– If SQLIMSCODE = 100, "no data" was found. – If SQLIMSCODE > 0 and not = 100, execution was successful

with a warning. – If SQLIMSCODE = 0 and SQLWARN0 = 'W', execution was

successful with a warning. – If SQLIMSCODE < 0, execution was not successful.

• IMS DL/I Status Codes will be shown in message text in some error cases

IMS COBOL application source files with SQL

statements

Libraries Object files

COBOL Link

Executable Program

COBOL Compiler with IMS coprocessor Translate

EXEC SQLIMS

INCLUDE DFSLI000

Compile and link

IMS coprocessor

• Compile IMS SQL COBOL application with IMS coprocessor • Pre-process EXEC SQLIMS statements in COBOL source • Integrated with Enterprise COBOL V5.1 • Specify ‘SQLIMS’ compiler option to compile COBOL

program with IMS SQL calls

//**********************************

//* COMPILING IMS COBOL SQL PROGRAM

//**********************************

//COBOL1 EXEC PGM=IGYCRCTL,

// PARM='LIST,XREF,CP(37),SQLIMS("APOSTSQL"),DUMP,LIB,DYNAM'

//STEPLIB DD DSN=IGYV5R10.TRIAL.SIGYCOMP,DISP=SHR

// DD DSN=IGYV5R10.TRIAL.SIGYMAC,DISP=SHR

// DD DSN=IMSBLD.IMSTS%%.CRESLIB,DISP=SHR

//SYSLIB DD DSN=IGYV5R10.TRIAL.CEEZ1D0.SCEERUN,DISP=SHR

// DD DSN=USER.PRIVATE.PROCLIB,DISP=SHR

//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=A

//SYSLIN DD DSN=&&LOADSET,DISP=(MOD,PASS),

// UNIT=SYSDA,SPACE=(80,(500,200))

Sample JCL for compile

Considerations

• The IMS catalog must be enabled and loaded with the database metadata needed by the COBOL SQL application.

• Batch and DB Batch, CICS and DB2 SP are not supported for IMS COBOL SQL access.

• Specify at least 12M for your IMS dependent region size for running a COBOL SQL application.

• SQL Keywords and API – Not all IMS JDBC SQL keywords are currently supported for COBOL

applications. For example, aggregate functions and XML are not supported

– COBOL SQL supports keywords used for database access calls only – SQL COMMIT and ROLLBACK keywords are not supported. Use IMS DB

system services call to commit or roll back your database changes – Only one cursor and SQL statement can be active at a time – Only EBCDIC CCSID 37 and 1140 codepages for the COBOL

CODEPAGE option are supported. – Always fully qualify all tables (segments) and columns (fields) in SQL

statements. Specify the schema (PCB) name – e.g. PCB01.HOSPITAL • For IMS database services, GSAM, IMS TM and Message processing

services, continue to use DL/I API

Considerations (cont’d)

Documentation

• Application Programming Guide – Programming for IMS -> Application programming ->

Application Programming for SQL !

• Application Programming Reference – Programming for IMS -> Application programming APIs ->

SQL programming reference !

• Messages and Codes – Troubleshooting for IMS -> IMS component codes -> SQL

codes

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