Batch processing in .NET using Gen

[STACY PICKETT]

We are needing to generate batch jobs targeting .NET using Gen.   I'm not finding anything in the Gen documentation about how to do that but maybe I'm just missing it.  In fact there is very little about using Gen for batch that I can find.  It's all geared towards distributed online client/server type processing.    Is it possible to generate C# code from Gen which runs in the .NET framework but not under Component Services (so not server code) ?    If so, how is that done?  If not, is there a way to mimic batch jobs / runs in .NET using code generated from Gen ?   If there are any documents or papers that can be shared which discuss how to do this, that would be appreciated.

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Thanks
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[Lynn Williams]

Hi Stacy,
This thread from 2020 might be useful for you: Mainframe Re-Platform

The options seem to be:
 - Use online/"no display" Gen C load module (Gen for .NET/C# does not have that option, as you probably know)
 - Use a hand-crafted C# program which uses Gen .NET proxy to call Gen .NET server, and run it in "batch".

Hope it helps

Regards,

Lynn

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Lynn Williams
Senior Principal Support Engineer
Broadcom Software
Australia
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[STACY PICKETT]

Thanks Lynn.  Also the link to the prior thread was very helpful.    Since I know I will be asked by people here where I work ..... Do you know why Gen only supports generating a batch packaged Procedure / Step for COBOL on the mainframe?   Is there a technical reason why it's not supported in other environments ...... specifically windows and .NET for the shop where I'm at ?

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Thanks
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[Lynn Williams]

Hi Stacy,

I think it mainly relates to the historical development of Gen/IEF and original IEF block mode applications for which COBOL and C were the languages.

BATCH was created purely for COBOL/Mainframe JES.

For distributed platforms using C the "online no display" property for a PStep effectively enabled the same type of background execution (can be used with Unix/Linux cron or Windows Task Scheduler etc)

When support for Java and C#/.NET was introduced, they were envisaged as client/server applications and the requirement for "batch" was probably never considered. Since then there has probably never been enough user demand/idea creation for a "batch" option and there are ways to workaround the limitation per above using a Gen proxy to call a Gen server. The latter can be done in an asynchronous mode (Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Processing) to provide an unattended execution mechanism i.e. batch. 

 

Hope that helps.

 

Regards,

 

Lynn

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Lynn Williams
Senior Principal Support Engineer
Broadcom Software
Australia
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