vb.netmainframeispf

Connecting to IBM / ISPF from vb.net


I want to connect to IBM mainframe thru VB.net and run jobs present in mainframe directly through VB.net and view the output back.... Can any one please help how to connect to IBM mainframe and run jobs directly through vb.net....


Solution

  • I presume you are not looking to duplicate the functionality of ISPF GUI mode.

    One method would be to use FTP directly to the JES internal reader as discussed in this thread. It is possible that the mainframe security folks will disallow this, I know mine did.

    Another method would be to screen scrape ISPF.

    Instead of screen scraping ISPF, you could use the submit command in TSO and run SDSF in TSO to retrieve your output. You could also write Rexx or Java to run on the mainframe to give you your output in a form you desire instead of having your VB code conscious of the ISPF and/or SDSF panels.

    You could use a CICS web service that submits batch jobs via the SPOOL API, retrieving the results might be more of a challenge. You might have to store the output in a z/OS Unix file and retrieve it from there.