Prepare and deliver the source code

Discovery is a process that is actioned during the delivery process. CAST will attempt to automatically identify “projects” within your application using a set of predefined rules. Discoverers are currently embedded in CAST AIP Core:

You should read the relevant documentation for each discoverer (provided in the link above) to understand how the source code will be handled.

Source code delivery

AIP Console expects either a ZIP/archive file or source code located in a folder configured in AIP Console. You should include in the ZIP/source code folder all Mainframe source code:

  • Cobol: *.cob, *.cbl, *.pco, *.sqb, *.cpy, *.cop, *.cpb
  • JCL: *.jcl, *.prc, *.mbr, *.inc
  • IMS: *.dbd, *.psb, *.tra (≥ 8.3.19), .mfs (≥ 8.3.25)
  • CICS: *.csd, *.cics, *.bms

CAST highly recommends placing the files in a folder dedicated to Mainframe. If you are using a ZIP/archive file, zip the folders in the “temp” folder - but do not zip the “temp” folder itself, nor create any intermediary folders:

D:\temp
    |-----Mainframe
    |-----OtherTechno1
    |-----OtherTechno2

Handling PDS dump files

A PDS is a type of “library” containing elements known as “members” exported from a z/OS system (eg. Cobol programs, copybooks, JCL etc.) Each member in the PDS is preceded by a banner containing the member’s name (among other information) and is concatenated with other elements in text format. Since AIP Console 1.19, it is possible to deliver source code via a PDS dump. As with the legacy CAST Delivery Manager, AIP Console only supports one type of member and one banner prefix per PDS dump file. If there are several types of members they must be delivered through multiple dump files and if several banner prefixes are used for the same type of members, then the source code delivery must also be done through multiple dump files.

If you want to deliver PDS dump files (containing the Mainframe source code) in the ZIP or the source code folder location, you will need to configure AIP Console to recognise them. This can be done using the Administration Center - Settings - PDS Dump option available in Administration Center - Global Configurations:

Out of the box, Console will have several PDS library extensions predefined. This will ensure that Console is able to recognise PDS dump files provided in the source code configured as follows - you can leave these predefined PDS types as is, or you can delete/edit as necessary:

All entries will be configured with a banner prefix “VMEMBER NAME”, left margin =1 and Line maxLength = 80:

  • COBX
    • .cob
  • CPYX
    • .cpy
  • JCLX
    • .jcl
  • PSBX
    • .psb
  • DBDX
    • .dbd
  • BMSX
    • .bms

Each PDS dump file that is recognised by AIP Console will be extracted: one file (that the CAST Mainframe Analyzer can analyze) will be created per element in the PDS dump file and these files are then analyzed when an analysis is run.