MANASYS
Jazz Build 15.5.229
improves REST support
Summary
Build #229 extends support for REST (=JSON) web services, which now follow the Swagger (Open UI) standards and conventions. Web Service discovery has been rewritten (this is continuing). Plus several miscellaneous changes and error corrections.
Changes
Improved REST support
· When a JSON web service program is generated, a Swagger (OpenUI) .json description of the service is created. As more programs (=operations) are added to this service their descriptions are added. This makes testing the service with SOAPUI very easy: just create a project from (e.g.) MyJSv.json and all its operations and their message formats are available to be tested.
Web Service Discovery.
· Mainframe programs are normally Web Service Providers, but they should also be able to be Web Service Requesters. Since INVOKE ?; support to discover a web service was originally developed it had become obsolete. Then Jazz supported only very simple SOAP services for z/OS, now it supports both REST and SOAP messages, and more complex programming options including the use of DB2 and updating. Now Jazz may be used with z/OS, Micro Focus, and will soon support other environments, so it can’t depend on the COBOL-environment software to analyse the .wsdl or .json service description. A complete rewrite was needed
The new web service discovery dialog is described here. We write
Invoke ?;
which triggers a dialog to search known web services. If a Jazz-format interface definition is not already available to our program, then Jazz will attempt to create one from the .wsdl or .json describing the service.
Work on this feature continues: there remain a number of situations that are not handled. REST (.json) services will be given priority over SOAP (.wsdl).
Miscellaneous Changes
· Support for SQL tables using COBOL reserved words as column names now includes Update and Insert as well as Select.
· MANASYS Jazz now supports COBOL dialects other than IBM Enterprise. We’d welcome feedback and user testing of this feature.
Getting the Latest
Build
This build will download automatically when Get Jazz is clicked. Existing users should update the JZL templates by clicking [Configure] and [Initialise Project], then following the dialog to download new versions of
@Swagger.jzt
@ZSwagger.jzt
When you first use MANASYS Jazz, check that you’re running build #216 by looking at the line 4 comment of the generated COBOL. If you have a saved shortcut to the previously-loaded version then this may continue to run the old version.
What Next? Planning for the Next Release
We’re never
short of ideas, but the important ideas are yours. What would you like us
to do next? Every release is an opportunity to rethink and reset,
so there’s never a better time to suggest enhancements.
Possible
developments: -
·
Client-side
interface generation. Based on the Jazz message definition, MANASYS could
generate an interface object (in Java, C#, or VB.NET) making it simple to
access its web services. By encapsulating validation rules inferred from
the Jazz message definition field validation would local (=instant), and
consistent with server-side validation. ViewState
fields would be handled automatically.
·
Web
service discovery: development could continue to handle more of the data types
that can be encountered in a Swagger definition.
·
Support
web service conversations. ViewState could be
generalised to work like Viewstate in ASP.NET.
Please
let us know your priorities and suggestions for further development.
Robert Barnes
CEO, Jazz Software Ltd
Skype: Robert.Barnes3
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/robert-barnes-5b833a
IBM PartnerWorld member