CICS Reviewer Part 1

Customer Information Control System (CICS)

How can you start a CICS transaction other than by keying the Transaction ID at the terminal?
By coding an EXEC CICS START in the application program
   1. By coding the Trans ID and a trigger level on the Destination Control Table (DCT)
   2. By coding the Trans ID in the EXEC CICS RETURN command
   3. By associating an attention key with the Program Control Table (PCT)
   4. By embedding the TRANSID in the first four position of a screen sent to the terminal
   5. By using the Program List Table (PLT)

What is the purpose of the PLT?
The Program List Table records the set of application programs that will be executed automatically at CICS start-up time.

What are the differences between EXEC CICS XCTL and EXEC CICS START command?
The XCTL command transfer control to another application (having the same Transation ID), while the START command initiates a new transaction ID (therefore a new task number). The XCTL continues task on the same terminal. START can initiate a task on another terminal.

What are the differences between an EXEC CICS XCTL and EXEC CICS LINK command?
The XCTL command transfer control to an application at the same logical level (do not expect to control back), while the LINK command passes control to an application program at the next logical level and expects control back.

What happens to resources supplied to a transaction when an XCTL command is executed?
With an XCTL, the working storage and the procedure division of the program issuing the XCTL are released. The I/O areas, the GETMAIN areas and the chained Linkage Section areas (Commarea from a higher level) remain. All existing locks and queues also remain in effect. With a LINK, however, program storage is also saved, since the ttransaction expects to return and use it again.

What CICS command do you need to obtain the used logon-id?
You must code EXEC CICS ASSIGN with the OPERID option.

What is a resident program?
A program or map loaded into the CICS nuclues so that it is kept permanently in main storage and not deleted when CICS goes on "Short On Storage".

What is EIB. How it can be used?
CICS automatically provides some system-related information to each task in a form of EXEC Interface Block (EIB), which is unique to the CICS command level. We can use all the fields of EIB in our application programs right away.

What are some of the information available in the EIB area?
1. The cursor position in the map
2. Transaction ID
3. Terminal ID
4. Task Number
5. Length of communication area
6. Current date and time
7. Attention identifier

What information can be obtained from the EIBRCODE?
The EIBRCODE tells the application program if the last CICS command was executed successfully and, if not, why not.

What is the effect of including the TRANSID in the EXEC CICS RETURN command?
The next time the end user presses an attention key, CICS will start the transaction specified in the TRANSID option.

CICS reviewer Part 2 is continued here.