Welcome to IBM WebSphere eXtended Transaction Runtime V1.0

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This document summarizes the features of IBM® WebSphere® eXtended Transaction Runtime Version 1.0.

Introduction to WebSphere eXtended Transaction Runtime

IBM® WebSphere® eXtended Transaction Runtime (WXTR) V1.0 delivers a tightly integrated environment for hosting modern COBOL applications using CICS® transactional services within IBM WebSphere Application Server(WAS). WXTR provides a path forward for customers with COBOL business applications on distributed platforms to extend their applications into a Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) environment and realize the benefits of a tightly integrated managed environment.

WXTR, along with IBM Rational Application Development tools, delivers the capability to create and host COBOL business applications using CICS transactional services and extend them into a Java EE environment. WXTR provides native runtime connectivity between Java EE and COBOL applications, hence significantly easing integration in an enterprise environment. The product's tight integration with the system management capability of WAS enables easy deployment, administration, and optimization of services, significantly increasing administration efficiency for managing mixed language transactional applications, unlike other competitor environments.

Key functions

Tightly integrated managed environment to host Java EE and modern COBOL applications
WXTR provides an execution environment to host modern COBOL business applications within the WAS supporting interoperability between Java EE and COBOL workloads. It enables developers to focus on business logic rather than on how to interoperate between Java EE and COBOL assets, failure detection, recovery, and access to data.

WXTR provides the standard interfaces to invoke COBOL applications from Java. Java applications can connect through standard connection interfaces Java EE Connector Architecture (JCA) or Service Component Architecture (SCA) and invoke COBOL applications. SCA bindings can be used by SCA component clients. By leveraging the CICS/IMS Data Binding feature in IBM Rational Application Developer, Java EE applications can exchange mixed type data with COBOL applications in WXTR. WXTR propagates COBOL Runtime System (RTS) and application errors as Java exceptions back to Java EE applications for further processing.

Data management services

WXTR provides support for CICS data management facilities such as files and queues stored in a DB2 database. WXTR runtime allows VSAM style access to the data stored in DB2.
Unified system administration with WAS
WXTR provides a common administration facility for managing both COBOL and Java EE assets within the WAS administration console, thus reducing the learning curve for administration personnel and allowing them to easily and efficiently deploy, administer, and optimize services. Administrators can view and modify the WXTR container properties through the WXTR container panel in the WAS administration console. WXTR runtime container can also be configured using WebSphere administration scripts. It also supports non-root users to perform preconfigured set of administrative tasks without necessitating root user privileges.
Modern application development support using IBM Rational Development tools
IBM Rational Developer for Power® Systems and Rational Application Developer for WebSphere software along with WXTR, provides a modern application development experience across Java EE and COBOL applications. It enables developers to perform operations such as develop, deploy, and debug applications within a single integrated development environment (IDE), improving productivity. Application developers can access a COBOL program from a Java EE application and inspect the COBOL program. Similarly, data exchange between COBOL and Java EE applications can be achieved using the CICS/IMS Java Data Binding feature provided by IBM Rational Application Developer.

The Documentation CD-ROM for WXTR

The documentation for WXTR includes the following information:
You can access the WXTR Information Center at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wxtformp/v1r0/index.jsp.

IBM Eclipse Help System plug-in

The IBM Eclipse Help System plug-in provides a structured representation of the information, with the ability to search across the library. You should copy the viewer onto your hard disk (on Windows and AIX ® operating systems, the application can also be run directly from the CD-ROM). For information about how to do this, see the "README file for the WebSphere eXtended Transaction Runtime V1.0 Information Center " in the README.html file or the README.txt file available on the Documentation CD-ROM.

Installation information

To install the product, complete the following steps:   
  1. Log onto the system with administrative privileges.
  2. Insert the product installation CD, or if installing from a network drive, connect to that drive.
  3. Install IBM WXTR V1.0 as instructed in the Installing WebSphere eXtended Transaction Runtime topic in WXTR Information Center.

License information

WXTR license information at /<WXTR_Install_Directory>/license/.