Further Reading: Advanced CICS Programming

IBM Official Documentation

  • CICS TS for z/OS Application Programming Guide (SC34-7381) — Chapters on temporary storage, transient data, START/RETRIEVE, channel/container programming, and error handling. The authoritative reference for all topics in this chapter.

  • CICS TS for z/OS Internet Guide (SC34-7380) — Comprehensive coverage of CICS web services, HTTP client/server support, and REST API creation. Essential for modernization projects.

  • CICS TS for z/OS Channel and Container Programming — Detailed guide to the channel/container data model with migration examples from COMMAREA-based designs.

  • CICS TS for z/OS Recovery and Restart Guide (SC34-7386) — In-depth coverage of HANDLE ABEND, task recovery, resource recovery, and restart mechanisms.

Books

  • Lowe, Doug. Murach's CICS for the COBOL Programmer (Parts 1 and 2). Mike Murach & Associates. — Part 2 covers advanced topics including TSQ/TDQ, multi-screen transactions, and BMS paging. Excellent worked examples.

  • Sayles, Jonathan. Advanced CICS Programming Techniques. — Covers complex transaction patterns, performance optimization, and CICS internals relevant to application developers.

  • Horswill, Matthew. CICS and Web Services. — Focused treatment of exposing CICS programs as web services and consuming external services from CICS.

IBM Redbooks

  • Developing RESTful Services with CICS — Step-by-step guide to creating REST APIs that call existing COBOL programs, including JSON transformation and error handling.

  • CICS and Liberty: What You Need to Know (SG24-8418) — Integration patterns for Java and COBOL coexistence in CICS, including the Liberty JVM server and JCICS API.

  • CICS Transaction Server: Modernization Patterns — Architecture patterns for incrementally modernizing CICS applications, from screen scraping to API-first designs.

  • Securing CICS Applications with RACF — Detailed coverage of CICS-RACF integration, resource-level security, and role-based access control patterns.

Online Resources

  • IBM Z Xplore (https://www.ibm.com/z/resources/zxplore) — Free cloud-based CICS environment for hands-on practice. Includes guided exercises for TSQ, TDQ, and multi-screen transactions.

  • CICS Developer Center — Code samples, tutorials, and community Q&A for CICS application development.

  • IBM CICS GitHub — Open-source tools and samples for CICS modernization, including REST API generators and testing frameworks.

  • Chapter 29: CICS Fundamentals — Prerequisite material covering BMS maps, pseudo-conversational design, COMMAREA, and basic CICS commands.

  • Chapter 28: Advanced DB2 Programming — DB2 techniques (dynamic SQL, stored procedures, performance tuning) used within CICS transactions.

  • Chapter 31: IMS DB Concepts — An alternative database technology used in some CICS environments.

  • Chapter 37: Testing Strategies — CICS-specific testing with CEDF (Execution Diagnostic Facility), stub programs, and automated transaction testing.

  • Chapter 40: CICS Modernization Patterns — Advanced modernization strategies building on the web services and channel/container concepts introduced in this chapter.