How does HostBridge fit into a web services architecture?
HostBridge allows other applications to invoke mainframe CICS transactions as web services. HostBridge accomplishes this with a two-step process. First, HostBridge changes the way CICS applications “speak.” There are two basic typed of CICS applications: those that are terminal-oriented and those that are not. The terminal-oriented applications can be broken down further based upon how they manage the presentation interface: they either use CICS’ Basic Mapping Support (BMS) or they do not. Thus, there are three common categories of CICS applications and none of them communicate in a manner that is compatible with Web Services standards such as XML. This is where HostBridge comes into play. HostBridge XML-enables existing CICS applications without requiring modification to the existing application and without using techniques like “screen scraping”. Second, HostBridge must change the way application can invoke CICS transactions. HostBridge accomplishes this through it’s support for Simp
