CICS event binding editor tabs

The event binding file is an XML file that defines a set of event specifications to CICS®. Each event binding file can be separately deployed. The event binding consists of several parts, each edited in a separate tab in the editor.

Event Binding tab

Use this tab to work with information that applies to the whole event binding.

An image of the event binding tab.

You can specify general information, consisting of a name, description, and a version. You can validate and deploy the complete event binding. The rest of the panel consists of a list of the event specifications that you have defined in this event binding and a set of buttons to work with event specifications in the following ways:

Specification tab

Use this tab to work with event specifications and capture specifications.

An image of the specification tab.

You can specify general information for this event specification, consisting of a name and a description. You can add and remove event information to be captured for this event specification, and you can order the items of event information.

You can add capture specifications to the event specification. A capture specification defines the EXEC CICS command, filtering, and data values for the event. You can create more than one capture specification for an event specification. For each capture specification, the editor opens a notebook with the following three tabs:

Capture Point tab
Use this tab to choose the EXEC CICS command that you want to associate with this capture point and provide a name and description for the capture point.
Filtering tab
In this tab, you provide predicates to restrict the situations in which an event is emitted. If you provide no predicates, events are emitted every time the EXEC CICS command chosen in the capture point tab runs in the target CICS system. Each predicate consists of information identifying the predicate, an operator, and a value. You can specify as many predicates as required to identify the situation in which you want this capture point to emit an event. You can specify three types of predicates:
Application Context
Every capture point has context items for which you can specify predicates. An example is the Transaction ID. All the available application context predicates are shown in the Filtering tab. Application context predicates are optional; however, you typically specify the transaction ID or current program to emit events from a particular application.
Application Command Options
Each EXEC CICS command that you can specify for a capture point can have application command options for which you can specify predicates. Some commands have no application command options. Application command options correspond with the options for a particular EXEC CICS command. An example for the SEND MAP command is the MAP name. All the available fixed data values for the EXEC CICS command for that capture point are shown in the Filtering tab.

The format of application command options is known to CICS.

Application Data
Each EXEC CICS command that you can specify for a capture point can have variable length data values for which you can specify predicates. The application data corresponds with the options for a particular EXEC CICS command. An example for the SEND MAP command is the FROM field. All the available variable data values for the EXEC CICS command for that capture point are shown in the Filtering tab.

Application data predicates are processed by CICS in the order specified. For example, the first predicate is processed, then the second, and so on.

Application data is used for storage areas like a COMMAREA or container passed as options on CICS commands. The format of these areas is unknown to CICS, but known by your application program. You probably have a source language description that you can import to describe the format.

Information Sources tab
Use this tab to map the business information items associated with the event specification to available data items for this capture point. The tab consists of a table of the business information items that you defined. To map the item, double-click the item, and the Edit Information Source window appears.

Adapter tab

Use this tab to select an EP adapter that will emit events for this event binding.

An image of the adapter tab.

You can also provide advanced information that tells CICS how to run the EP adapter. The tab consists of two sections.

Adapter
In this section, you choose the type of EP adapter and supply information required by your chosen EP adapter.
TS Queue
Emits events to a named CICS TS queue. Use this EP adapter to validate that the correct events are being captured with the correct data and to emit events to any consumer that reads from a TS queue.
Transaction Start
Emits events to a named CICS transaction. The transaction is passed data in a container-based event format. You can specify the CICS system to run the transaction. You can use an existing transaction, if the event data is not required.
Custom (User Written)
Emits events in any format that you require. A custom EP adapter is a CICS program that you write to provide a combination of formatting and routing of an event that is not supported by the CICS-supplied EP adapters. The custom EP adapter must not carry out any other processing, such as consumption of the event.
WMQ Queue
Emits events to a WebSphere® message queue either in an XML format for consumption by WebSphere Business Events, the Common Base Event (CBE) format for WebSphere Business Monitor, or in a non-XML format.
HTTP
Emits events to an HTTP 1.1 compliant server using HTTP POST in XML format for consumption by products such as WebSphere Business Events and WebSphere Business Monitor.
Advanced
Supplying information in this section is not required to complete the event binding. If you need to influence the way in which CICS runs the EP adapter, you can change the priority, transactionality, user ID, transaction ID, and CICS system ID. Not all these options are available for all EP adapter types. The section displays the correct set of options for your chosen EP adapter and message format.
For more information about the advanced settings you can choose, see Specifying EP adapter and dispatcher information.