With the DTS Common Interface (CI), cooperative processing is made much easier. Only 5 simple conversational verbs are necessary for implementing client/server applications. These verbs are implemented as external subroutine calls from most high level languages. They exist in self contained dynamically linked libraries.
CISTART - Sets up the environment for subsequent calls. It is called only once per process and can optionally start debug and trace sessions.
CIOPEN - Starts a "conversation" with a partner program.
CITALK - Sends a data string (up to 32000 bytes) with control information to a partner program.
CILISTEN - Receives data strings sent by a partner program's citalk.
CICLOSE - Ends a conversation or process.
CIFILEX - Is a function that is included with the CI verbs that handles the sending or receiving of an entire file. It does not require the user opening and closing conversations.
PROTYPER - To further simplify implementation of client/server applications, DTS includes an interactive application prototyper. This program, which runs on both the client and server computers, allows the developer to execute CI commands (subroutines) one at a time in order to observe first hand exactly what will happen in their programs. With it, designers can interactively design applications, verify concepts and facilitate unit testing of their applications during implementation. This dramatically reduces the application's time to production, thereby reducing overall costs.
With the CI components, application programmers can easily develop, maintain and modify critical production applications without knowledge of the underlying SNA/APPC or TCP/IP function calls. This greatly simplifies the development and design of cooperative client/server applications, as it insulates the user from the very complicated network communications and configuration issues.
Data Transfer Services is a software API utility for rogrammers desiring to create client/server applications over either IBM's SNA network or over the internet. Programmers can write client/server applications by simply calling a few subroutines from any platform supported high level language without knowing anything about the underlying communicaitons protocol. The API follows the 'conversatonal' model which is both simple and intuitive.For rick management claim tracking software, visit us at http://www.claimtrac.com