Remote Stored Procedures

Remote Stored Procedures (RSPs) are customer-written CICS programs that are initiated from PC-based, front-end tools and client applications. They are used to provide access to z/OS and VSE data sources for which ViaSQL has no direct SQL support, or to provide special processing capabilities to distributed applications. See some sample Remote Stored Procedures.

RSPs can be written in COBOL, C, Assembler, and PL/I, and in the NATURAL and CA-IDEAL 4GLs. Existing CICS programs can be modified to serve as RSPs if desired, thus extending their usefulness and increasing the ROI.

The easy-to-use API allows data to be returned to a client application, and from the application's point of view, the data appears as though it came from a relational DBMS. Optionally, parameters can be passed to the RSP to specify selection criteria or to specify special processing options. If desired, RSPs can also update mainframe data upon request of client applications. RSPs can serve a variety of functions, including:

	Preprocessing of data before returning it to the client
	Merging data from multiple sources before returning it to the client
	Providing static SQL access to DB2 tables
	Centralizing programming for easier maintenance

Remote Stored Procedures can participate in ViaSQL TRANSFER operations, or they can serve as the target of SQL Server RPC calls. There's even a special interface that allows Natural programs to participate in all the functionality that RSPs provide.