Walks you through the process of defining service interface details for the MakeCheckAppt Web service.
Each service interface is comprised of a set of operations that you define using the
Interface Mapper. In this section of the tutorial, you create one operation for each of the two functions provided by the application.
Tip: As you define these operations, save your work periodically by clicking
File > Save MakeCheckAppt.svi from the Visual Studio menu.
MakeAppt operation
The purpose of the MakeAppt operation is to create an appointment and store it in the system.
- Create the MakeAppt operation
-
- In the Interface Mapper, right-click
Operation on the top left, and select
New from the context menu.
- In the
Name field, type
MakeAppt.
This application contains only one program,
schedule.cbl, which appears on the
Select program/copybook list.
- From the
Select program/copybook list, select
schedule.
The name of each entry point contained in the program appears farther down on the dialog box.
- From the
Select entry point list, select
SCHEDULE. The entry point code appears to its right.
- Click
OK.
In the
Interface Mapper, you now see that the entry point fields have been placed into the
COBOL Entry Point pane.
- Define interface fields
- The Schedule program needs several input items to create an appointment, including variable information such as the customer's
name, the identification number of the consultant with whom the appointment is to be made, the date of the proposed appointment,
and the desired time slot. You define interface fields to hold this information so that the client can send it to the application.
- Drag the following fields from the
COBOL Entry Point pane to the
Interface Fields - Input pane:
- lnk-customer-name
- lnk-consultant-id
- lnk-date
- lnk-time-slot
These fields are to hold data that is sent to the application for processing. When you drop them into the
Interface Fields - Input pane, this creates interface field names similar to those of the entry point fields from which they were created. The difference
is that all dashes (-) are automatically replaced with underscores (_). In addition, a mapping is automatically created between
each new interface field and its corresponding entry point field. The Interface Mapper also shows arrows between the
Interface Fields - Input and the
COBOL Entry Point panes that connect the corresponding fields.
Once the Schedule program receives the input information from the client, it sends back a code to indicate whether or not
the requested appointment is available. The program field that receives this code is
lnk-op-ok. Therefore, you need to create a corresponding interface output field.
- Drag the
lnk-op-ok field from the
COBOL Entry Point pane to the
Interface Fields - Output pane.
- Define COBOL assignments
- Because the MakeAppt operation executes only one program function, the value required to initialize that function remains
constant. In this case, you create a COBOL Assignment field rather than an interface field, and assign it the value required
by the program to ensure the execution of the specific function.
From looking at the program source code, you know that when the value in the
lnk-operation field is
0, the program executes the
set-appt code. Therefore, you want to assign the
lnk-operation field a value of
0.
- Drag the
lnk-operation field from the
COBOL Entry Point pane to the
COBOL Assignments pane.
- In the
Value field, type
0; then click
OK.
For this particular service, you want to make appointments only for one specific store. When the Schedule program executes,
it reads the value in the
lnk-id field to identify the store where the appointment is to be made. Therefore, you can provide the same store identification
number each time the service runs by assigning a constant value.
- In the
COBOL Entry Point pane, expand the
lnk-store-info group.
- Drag the
lnk-id field from the
COBOL Entry Point pane to the
COBOL Assignments pane.
- In the
Value field, type
08780; then click
OK.
- Click
File > Save MakeCheckAppt.svi to save the service interface.
CheckAppt operation
The purpose of the CheckAppt operation is to look up an existing appointment and return its details.
- Create the CheckAppt operation
-
- In the
Interface Mapper, right-click the
Operation button at the top, and select
New from the context menu.
- In the
Name field, type
CheckAppt.
The
Select program/copybook list shows the
schedule program, which is already selected for you. This is because each service interface can use only one program, and you specified
the
schedule program in the MakeAppt operation you defined earlier for this same service interface.
- From the
Select entry point list, select
SCHEDULE. The entry point code appears to its right.
- Click
OK.
In the
Interface Mapper, the entry point fields once again appear in the
COBOL Entry Point pane.
- Define interface fields
- The CheckAppt operation uses most of the same interface fields as does the MakeAppt operation, and in addition includes an
output array in which the queried appointment appears, if found. Follow these steps:
- Drag the following fields from the
COBOL Entry Point pane to the
Interface Fields - Input pane:
- lnk-customer-name
- lnk-consultant-id
- lnk-date
- In the
COBOL Entry Point pane, drag the
lnk-op-ok and
lnk-cust-id fields to the
Interface Fields - Output pane.
- Define COBOL assignments
- The CheckAppt operation needs to execute the
read-appt application code. Therefore, you need to assign the
lnk-operation field a value of
1.
- Drag the
lnk-operation field from the
COBOL Entry Point pane to the
COBOL Assignments pane.
- In the
Value field, type
1; then click
OK.
Just as you did for the MakeAppt operation, you want to assign a constant value for the
lnk-id field so you are sure to query the same store each time.
- Drag the
lnk-id field from the
COBOL Entry Point pane to the
COBOL Assignments pane.
- In the
Value field, type
08780; then click
OK.
- Click
File > Save MakeCheckAppt.svi to save the service interface.
- Close the
Interface Mapper.