BUNDLE resources

A BUNDLE resource defines a CICS bundle, a unit of deployment for an application. A bundle is a collection of CICS resources, artifacts, references, and a manifest that you can deploy into a CICS region to represent a whole application or a component of an application.

The manifest is a file that describes the contents of the bundle, including what resources to create in the CICS region and the location of the supporting artifacts, what prerequisites are required for the application to run successfully, and any services that the application can offer to other applications.

A bundle is deployed to z/OS UNIX and comprises a directory structure of artifacts. The BUNDLE resource defines where the bundle is deployed on z/OS UNIX and its status. When you enable a BUNDLE resource, CICS reads the manifest and dynamically creates the application resources that are defined in the manifest for you. Other resources that are defined as prerequisites for the application must be present in the CICS region to successfully enable the BUNDLE resource.

When you use CICS bundles, the lifecycle of the installed resources follows the lifecycle of the bundle; if you make available or unavailable, enable or disable, or discard a CICS bundle, the same action is applied to all resources that were dynamically created by the CICS bundle. For information about the implications of packaging resources in CICS bundles, see Characteristics of resources in CICS bundles.

Note: When you have created and deployed your bundle using the CICS Explorer, you should ensure proper management of the bundle source code. The bundle cannot be reconstructed from the exported data in zFS, and a failure of your workstation would cause the data to be lost. You can use the Export function of CICS Explorer to export the bundle and check it in to a source code management system.

For information about installing BUNDLE resource definitions, see Defining CICS bundles. For information about working with BAS, see Working with BAS BUNDLE resource definitions.

Syntax

Attributes

BASESCOPE(value)

Specifies the 1 - 255 character string that defines the scope for a bundle. Use a uniform resource identifier (URI) where possible. Use the BASESCOPE attribute when you want to group similar bundles together or when you want to associate a CICS bundle with a particular application that is running in a platform. The URI for an application has the following format:

cicsapplication://Platform/ApplicationID/MajorVersion/MinorVersion/MicroVersion

Platform is the name of the platform in which the application is running, ApplicationID is the ID of the application bundle, followed by the major, minor, and micro version of the application.

The default value is empty so that all BUNDLE resources install in the same scope. See Scoping of bundles for more information.

Acceptable characters:

A-Z a-z 0-9 $ @ # . / - _ % & ? ! : | " = ¬ , ; < >

Valid characters are listed as they render when the code page is IBM-037. If a different EBCDIC code page is used, be aware of variant characters, as documented in Variant characters.

BUNDLE(name)

Specifies the 1 - 8 character name of the BUNDLE.

Acceptable characters:

A-Z a-z 0-9 $ @ # . / - _ % & ? ! : | " = ¬ , ; < >

Valid characters are listed as they render when the code page is IBM-037. If a different EBCDIC code page is used, be aware of variant characters, as documented in Variant characters.

It is preferable not to use names that start with DFH because these characters are reserved for use by CICS.

CICS can delete or discard them and replace them with CICS resources when you upgrade or provide new function or fixes.

BUNDLEDIR(zfsdirectory)

Specifies the 1 - 255 character fully qualified name of the root directory for the bundle on z/OS UNIX. The first character must be / and the end character /.

The value specified must be a valid name for a :

It must not contain embedded space characters.
It must not contain consecutive instances of the / character.
It is case-sensitive.

Acceptable characters:

A-Z a-z 0-9 . / _ # @ -

Valid characters are listed as they render when the code page is IBM-037. If a different EBCDIC code page is used, be aware of variant characters, as documented in Variant characters.

Acceptable characters:

A-Z a-z 0-9 ¢ @ # . - _ % & ? ! : | ' = ¬ + * , ; < > ( )

Valid characters are listed as they render when the code page is IBM-037. If a different EBCDIC code page is used, be aware of variant characters, as documented in Variant characters.

Space characters are also permitted. If parentheses are used, you must use them as pairs of opening and closing parentheses.

Acceptable characters:

A-Z a-z 0-9 . / _ %

DESCRIPTION(text)

In this field, you can provide a description of the resource that you are defining. The description text can be up to 58 characters in length. No restrictions apply to the characters that you can use. However, if you use parentheses, ensure that each left parenthesis has a matching right one. If you use the CREATE command, for each single apostrophe in the text code, use two apostrophes.

STATUS(ENABLED|DISABLED)

Specifies the initial status of the BUNDLE resource when it is installed.

ENABLED: The BUNDLE is available for use. CICS checks that all prerequisites for the bundle are present in the region and attempts to install and enable all of the required resources that are defined in the bundle.
DISABLED: The BUNDLE is not available for use. CICS does not check for prerequisites and installs, but does not enable, the resources that are defined in the bundle.