What are applications?

The tasks that you want to control, such as running a job, issuing a WTO, or preparing JCL for a job, are called operations. An application is a group of related operations. The operations in each application are always run together: when an operation in the application is run, all other operations must also be run.

An application contains some or all of these parts:

General data

Application name, description, and owner representative

Run schedules

Period references, run time, and deadlines

Operation data

Job names, workstations, and resources

Dependencies

Between operations within the application and other applications

All applications contain general data. The requirement for other parts depends on your processing schedules and also on the type of application created. You can create one of three application types:

• Standard application descriptions
• Job descriptions
• Group definitions

Standard application descriptions

Use the APPLICATION DESCRIPTION panel to create and modify standard applications. Standard applications can contain more than one job.

Job descriptions

If you want only one main processor operation (job) in an application, you can create it with the Job Description dialog box, which compresses most of the function of the APPLICATION DESCRIPTION panel into one panel by making some assumptions about the application that you are creating. An application that is created using the JOB DESCRIPTION dialog box, or that has the restrictions enforced by that panel, is called a job description.

You can browse or modify job descriptions using both the JOB DESCRIPTION and the APPLICATION DESCRIPTION panels, but if you change a job description using the APPLICATION DESCRIPTION panel so that it no longer obeys the rules for job descriptions, it becomes a standard application description.

Standard applications and group definitions can be viewed or modified only with the APPLICATION DESCRIPTION panel.

To be a job description, an application description must satisfy the following conditions:

• It consists of no more than three operations.
  • One of the operations is a computer workstation operation, or a general workstation WTO operation. This operation is called the main operation of the description.
  • The other two operations, if present, are immediate predecessors of the main operation, and run on general workstations, either as manual operations or as JCL preparation operations.
• The job name of the main operation is the same as the job description ID and the same as its two general workstation predecessors, if present.
• The operation is ready to be included in the schedule: you cannot specify pending status for job descriptions.
• The application ID and owner ID should not be specified in double-byte character set (DBCS) bracketed format.

If you create an application that meets these rules, Tivoli Workload Scheduler for z/OS classes it as a job description, whether you create it with the APPLICATION DESCRIPTION panel, the JOB DESCRIPTION dialog box, the batch loader, or a program interface (PIF) application.

Like standard applications, you can specify a run cycle for the job description, or make it part of a group, in which case Tivoli Workload Scheduler for z/OS uses the calendar and run cycles associated with the group definition.

Group definitions

You can group applications and job descriptions that are always scheduled together by creating them as members of an application group. With an application group, the description of the application is recorded in a group definition, and not in individual applications. By doing this, you avoid having to specify the same calendar and run policy information for each application.

The use of application groups can save you time, in the initial specification of your work to Tivoli Workload Scheduler for z/OS and in ongoing maintenance to the applications. You can also use groups in the MODIFY CURRENT PLAN panel, to add, delete, and complete all or part of an application group in the current plan.

Having applications in a group also gives some protection against unintentional deletion or modification of individual group members in the plans. For example, to delete an application occurrence that is part of a group in the current plan, you must first remove it from the group.