IMS Mobile Feature Pack for z/OS Connect is no longer enhanced. Instead, use the IMS service provider that is included in IBM z/OS Connect Enterprise Edition V2.0.5 (APAR PI70432) or later, which not only supports later releases of the Liberty server but additionally provides support for REST API creation and deployment. For the latest IMS mobile solution information, see Using the IMS service provider in z/OS Connect EE documentation.

IMS mobile solution with z/OS Connect

The IMS™ mobile solution that is enabled by IMS Mobile Feature Pack (z/OS® Connect) provides a RESTful endpoint, to access IMS transactions, servicing RESTful requests and responses in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) data format.

The solution comprises the following major parts:

IBM® WebSphere® Liberty z/OS Connect (z/OS Connect), which serves as the IMS gateway server for IMS services.
The z/OS Connect feature in WebSphere Application Server for z/OS Liberty Profile is a fast, secure, scalable, and reliable connector that can reach any z/OS asset, including IMS, and delivers common services and management for consistent operations.
The IMS Mobile feature (immobile-1.0), which is a service provider for z/OS Connect. The IMS Mobile feature includes the following functions:
- A data transformation module that converts request messages from the JSON format to the native representation of the input message and then converts the response messages to JSON.
- An IMS Connect adapter module that interacts with IMS Connect for IMS Transaction Manager (TM) access.
- A service management and administration interface that is used by IMS Explorer for Development to provide the user interface for service creation, testing, and management.
- A sample ping service to use as an installation verification program (IVP).

The connection and interaction information and the metadata about the service are stored in the service registry. An in-memory service cache provides shorter response time for services.

The following diagram shows the request and response processing and the components that are involved at run time. When a request comes in, z/OS Connect handles the user access control and then forwards the request to the IMS mobile service provider. The IMS mobile service provider is invoked, and the service cache is looked up or updated, depending on the type of the request. The request message is converted from JSON to the native representation of the input message (for example, bytes array or arrays for segments in COBOL and PL/I applications) by the data transformation module. The request then goes through the IMS Connect adapter module to interact with IMS Connect to access IMS transactions. These transactions might be accessing IMS DB, DB2®, or other external subsystems such as WebSphere MQ or WebSphere Optimized Local Adapters (WOLA). These modules and the management interface store and update the service definition, request and response metadata, interaction profile, and connection profile in the service registry.

Figure 1. The IMS mobile solution process flow and components involved This diagram shows three parts, the service registry, and the in-memory cache in the IMS Mobile Feature Pack as described in the preceding paragraphs.

This diagram shows three parts, the service registry, and the in-memory cache in the IMS Mobile Feature Pack as described in the preceding paragraphs.