Help: Connecting Tomcat to CA-IDMS using JDBC Type 4 Drivers (JNDI / IDMSDataSource)

[jpmad4it]

Hi there,

I have a rather interesting / complex problem......creating a connection to
CA-IDMS from Tomcat using JDBC type 4 drivers (CA provide the type 4
driver).

We have a zSeries 9 IBM mainframe running CA-IDMS r16.1, and I need to
connect to the IDMS from Tomcat (running on Linux) using the JDBC Type 4
drivers provided by CA.

At this stage I am struggling with the actual setup and configuration of
Tomcat’s server.xml and web.xml files. These are the files where the JDBC
configuration is set (I think). I have to setup the CA-IDMS part of the
configuration, but that is a different problem. Basically there is a TCP/IP
listener on the IDMS, waiting for incoming connections from the JDBC type 4
driver.

I set up a Tomcat to MySQL connection using MySQL Connector / J, which is a
similar kind of process to what I am trying to achieve with IDMS. MySQL
connector / J came with a jar file which is placed in Tomcat’s lib folder,
and then the JDBC setup for the web application is created in Tomcat's
server.xml and web.xml files. You can then connect to the MySQL database
using JSP and the configured JDBC driver / connection. The CA-IDMS Server
comes with an idmsjdbc.jar file, which I think is the JDBC typr 4 driver. I
think it needs to be placed in the Tomcat /lib folder, but I don’t know how
to set up the configuration.

There is a JDBC DriverManager which allows JDBC drivers to connect to
CA-IDMS. The DriverManager recognises the following syntax:

jdbc:idms://hostname:port/database

This allows the JDBC driver running within Tomcat to connect to the IDMS
which is running on the IDM mainframe. CA IDMS r16 supports direct
connections from the Type 4 JDBC driver to the Central Version on IDMS.
"hostname" is the DNS name or IP address of the machine where the CV is
running, and "port" is the IP port that was specified for the listener PTERM
(setup on the IDMS side).

There is a caidms.properties file for the JDBC driver, which is used to
specify user ID, password, and optional accounting information. It can also
be used to specify physical connection information, allowing an application
to connect to a CA-IDMS database without requiring the definition of an ODBC
style data source. However, I don’t know where to place this file within the
Tomcat setup.

There is also an IdmsDataSource class. I don’t know where to configure this
or how to set it up; the CA-IDMS Server manual states the following:

This class implements the JDBC DataSource interface. It is used with an
application server (Tomcat) providing Java Naming and Directory Interface
(JNDI) naming service to establish a connection to a CA IDMS database.
IdmsDataSource properties conform to the Java Beans naming conventions and
are implicitly defined by public “setter” and “getter” methods. For example,
the “description” property, which is required for all DataSource
implementations, is set using the setDescription(String) method. The
application server may use the java.lang.reflection methods to discover
DataSource properties and provide an interface to set them, or may simply
require that they are defined in some configuration file. IdmsDataSource
properties are used to specify the connection parameters. These properties
are the equivalent of the DriverPropertyInfo attributes described in the
previous section and can be used to completely define the parameters needed
to connect to a database. Like a URL, an IdmsDataSource object can also
reference an “ODBC” style data source name, where the connection parameters
are defined in the configuration file on Linux.

Is there anyone that can try to point me in the right direction to setting
up the JDBC connection? I am totally new to Java and so the instructions are
not making much sense at the moment. Any help, hints, tips…..anything will
be greatly appreciated as I have just hit a brick wall here. I can't find
much to do with setting up the CA-IDMS Server JDBC type 4 driver online
either....if anyone can point me to some resources that would also be
extremely useful.

Kind regards
Jp

[Filip Hanik - Dev Lists]

If your JDBC driver has a DataSource, then check to see if it has a

javax.naming.spi.ObjectFactory implementation, this is the one you would
specify in the factory="some.impl.DataSourceFactory" attribute, for example.
Some drivers don't have factories, and then you simply use Tomcat's own
factory by omitting the factory attribute.
In this case, Tomcat will provide the DataSource that is a wrapper
around your driver.

Provide
1. the configuration (only relevant parts)
2. the error you get


Filip

Post by jpmad4it
Hi there,
I have a rather interesting / complex problem......creating a connection to
CA-IDMS from Tomcat using JDBC type 4 drivers (CA provide the type 4
driver).
We have a zSeries 9 IBM mainframe running CA-IDMS r16.1, and I need to
connect to the IDMS from Tomcat (running on Linux) using the JDBC Type 4
drivers provided by CA.
At this stage I am struggling with the actual setup and configuration of
Tomcat’s server.xml and web.xml files. These are the files where the JDBC
configuration is set (I think). I have to setup the CA-IDMS part of the
configuration, but that is a different problem. Basically there is a TCP/IP
listener on the IDMS, waiting for incoming connections from the JDBC type 4
driver.
I set up a Tomcat to MySQL connection using MySQL Connector / J, which is a
similar kind of process to what I am trying to achieve with IDMS. MySQL
connector / J came with a jar file which is placed in Tomcat’s lib folder,
and then the JDBC setup for the web application is created in Tomcat's
server.xml and web.xml files. You can then connect to the MySQL database
using JSP and the configured JDBC driver / connection. The CA-IDMS Server
comes with an idmsjdbc.jar file, which I think is the JDBC typr 4 driver. I
think it needs to be placed in the Tomcat /lib folder, but I don’t know how
to set up the configuration.
There is a JDBC DriverManager which allows JDBC drivers to connect to
jdbc:idms://hostname:port/database
This allows the JDBC driver running within Tomcat to connect to the IDMS
which is running on the IDM mainframe. CA IDMS r16 supports direct
connections from the Type 4 JDBC driver to the Central Version on IDMS.
"hostname" is the DNS name or IP address of the machine where the CV is
running, and "port" is the IP port that was specified for the listener PTERM
(setup on the IDMS side).
There is a caidms.properties file for the JDBC driver, which is used to
specify user ID, password, and optional accounting information. It can also
be used to specify physical connection information, allowing an application
to connect to a CA-IDMS database without requiring the definition of an ODBC
style data source. However, I don’t know where to place this file within the
Tomcat setup.
There is also an IdmsDataSource class. I don’t know where to configure this
This class implements the JDBC DataSource interface. It is used with an
application server (Tomcat) providing Java Naming and Directory Interface
(JNDI) naming service to establish a connection to a CA IDMS database.
IdmsDataSource properties conform to the Java Beans naming conventions and
are implicitly defined by public “setter” and “getter” methods. For example,
the “description” property, which is required for all DataSource
implementations, is set using the setDescription(String) method. The
application server may use the java.lang.reflection methods to discover
DataSource properties and provide an interface to set them, or may simply
require that they are defined in some configuration file. IdmsDataSource
properties are used to specify the connection parameters. These properties
are the equivalent of the DriverPropertyInfo attributes described in the
previous section and can be used to completely define the parameters needed
to connect to a database. Like a URL, an IdmsDataSource object can also
reference an “ODBC” style data source name, where the connection parameters
are defined in the configuration file on Linux.
Is there anyone that can try to point me in the right direction to setting
up the JDBC connection? I am totally new to Java and so the instructions are
not making much sense at the moment. Any help, hints, tips…..anything will
be greatly appreciated as I have just hit a brick wall here. I can't find
much to do with setting up the CA-IDMS Server JDBC type 4 driver online
either....if anyone can point me to some resources that would also be
extremely useful.
Kind regards
Jp

[jpmad4it]

Filip, here is my configuration so far:

I have created a test application under the tomcat webapps folder with the
following structure:

IDMSTest/
IDMSTest/WEB-INF/
IDMSTest/WEB-INF/classes/
IDMSTest/WEB-INF/lib/
IDMSTest/WEB-INF/web.xml
IDMSTest/WEB-INF/test.jsp

Here is my IDMSTest/WEB-INF/web.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee
http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd"
version="2.4">
<description>IDMS Test App</description>
<resource-ref>
<description>DB Connection</description>
<res-ref-name>jdbc/TestIDMS</res-ref-name>
<res-type>javax.sql.DataSource</res-type>
<res-auth>Container</res-auth>
</resource-ref>
</web-app>

I also added the following to tomcat/conf/server.xml:

<!-- Tomcat JDBC to IDMS Test Context -->
<Context path="/IDMSTest" docBase="IDMSTest" reloadable="true"
crossContext="true">

<Resource name="jdbc/TestIDMS" auth="Container"
type="javax.sql.DataSource"
maxActive="100" maxIdle="30" maxWait="10000"
username="MY_USER" password="MY_PASS"
driverClassName="ca.idms.jdbc.IdmsJdbcDriver"
url="jdbc:idms://MY.IP.ADDRESS:MY.PORT/MY_DATABASE" />
</Context>

Then I have a test.jsp in the IDMSTest/ folder with the following code:

<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/sql" prefix="sql" %>
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>

<sql:query var="rs" dataSource="jdbc/testIDMS">
select text_message from messages
</sql:query>

<html>
<head>
<title>IDMS DB Test</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Results</h2>
<c:forEach var="i" items="${rs.rows}">
Text Message: <c:out value="${i.text_message}"/><br>
</c:forEach>
</body>
</html>

However, I can't actually test anything yet, as the IDMS is not setup to
listen to JDBC requests. I just wanted to be clear that my configuration and
syntax on the Linux / Tomcat side are correct for when I do come to test a
connection. The SQL query and query handling code in the JSP file would
differ depending upon the database structure, obviously.....but does
everything look like its setup OK? Where would the
javax.naming.spi.ObjectFactory implementation come into it?

There are some remaining issues I have about how to setup and use the
caidms.properties file and the caidms.cfg file. I've uploaded the 2 files as
they contain quite a lot of code:

http://www.nabble.com/file/p21451684/caidms.cfg caidms.cfg
http://www.nabble.com/file/p21451684/caidms.properties caidms.properties

regards
Jp

Post by Filip Hanik - Dev Lists
If your JDBC driver has a DataSource, then check to see if it has a
javax.naming.spi.ObjectFactory implementation, this is the one you would
specify in the factory="some.impl.DataSourceFactory" attribute, for example.
Some drivers don't have factories, and then you simply use Tomcat's own
factory by omitting the factory attribute.
In this case, Tomcat will provide the DataSource that is a wrapper
around your driver.
Provide
1. the configuration (only relevant parts)
2. the error you get
Filip

Post by jpmad4it
Hi there,
I have a rather interesting / complex problem......creating a connection to
CA-IDMS from Tomcat using JDBC type 4 drivers (CA provide the type 4
driver).
We have a zSeries 9 IBM mainframe running CA-IDMS r16.1, and I need to
connect to the IDMS from Tomcat (running on Linux) using the JDBC Type 4
drivers provided by CA.
At this stage I am struggling with the actual setup and configuration of
Tomcat’s server.xml and web.xml files. These are the files where the JDBC
configuration is set (I think). I have to setup the CA-IDMS part of the
configuration, but that is a different problem. Basically there is a TCP/IP
listener on the IDMS, waiting for incoming connections from the JDBC type 4
driver.
I set up a Tomcat to MySQL connection using MySQL Connector / J, which is a
similar kind of process to what I am trying to achieve with IDMS. MySQL
connector / J came with a jar file which is placed in Tomcat’s lib folder,
and then the JDBC setup for the web application is created in Tomcat's
server.xml and web.xml files. You can then connect to the MySQL database
using JSP and the configured JDBC driver / connection. The CA-IDMS Server
comes with an idmsjdbc.jar file, which I think is the JDBC typr 4 driver. I
think it needs to be placed in the Tomcat /lib folder, but I don’t know how
to set up the configuration.
There is a JDBC DriverManager which allows JDBC drivers to connect to
jdbc:idms://hostname:port/database
This allows the JDBC driver running within Tomcat to connect to the IDMS
which is running on the IDM mainframe. CA IDMS r16 supports direct
connections from the Type 4 JDBC driver to the Central Version on IDMS.
"hostname" is the DNS name or IP address of the machine where the CV is
running, and "port" is the IP port that was specified for the listener PTERM
(setup on the IDMS side).
There is a caidms.properties file for the JDBC driver, which is used to
specify user ID, password, and optional accounting information. It can also
be used to specify physical connection information, allowing an application
to connect to a CA-IDMS database without requiring the definition of an ODBC
style data source. However, I don’t know where to place this file within the
Tomcat setup.
There is also an IdmsDataSource class. I don’t know where to configure this
This class implements the JDBC DataSource interface. It is used with an
application server (Tomcat) providing Java Naming and Directory Interface
(JNDI) naming service to establish a connection to a CA IDMS database.
IdmsDataSource properties conform to the Java Beans naming conventions and
are implicitly defined by public “setter” and “getter” methods. For example,
the “description” property, which is required for all DataSource
implementations, is set using the setDescription(String) method. The
application server may use the java.lang.reflection methods to discover
DataSource properties and provide an interface to set them, or may simply
require that they are defined in some configuration file. IdmsDataSource
properties are used to specify the connection parameters. These properties
are the equivalent of the DriverPropertyInfo attributes described in the
previous section and can be used to completely define the parameters needed
to connect to a database. Like a URL, an IdmsDataSource object can also
reference an “ODBC” style data source name, where the connection parameters
are defined in the configuration file on Linux.
Is there anyone that can try to point me in the right direction to setting
up the JDBC connection? I am totally new to Java and so the instructions are
not making much sense at the moment. Any help, hints, tips…..anything will
be greatly appreciated as I have just hit a brick wall here. I can't find
much to do with setting up the CA-IDMS Server JDBC type 4 driver online
either....if anyone can point me to some resources that would also be
extremely useful.
Kind regards
Jp

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[David Smith]

Case matters. Make sure you match case in all places where you refer to
the jndi name of your datasource. Off the top, I see you configured
jdbc/TestIDMS, but then try to use jdbc/testIDMS in the test jsp.

--David

Post by jpmad4it
I have created a test application under the tomcat webapps folder with the
IDMSTest/
IDMSTest/WEB-INF/
IDMSTest/WEB-INF/classes/
IDMSTest/WEB-INF/lib/
IDMSTest/WEB-INF/web.xml
IDMSTest/WEB-INF/test.jsp
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee
http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd"
version="2.4">
<description>IDMS Test App</description>
<resource-ref>
<description>DB Connection</description>
<res-ref-name>jdbc/TestIDMS</res-ref-name>
<res-type>javax.sql.DataSource</res-type>
<res-auth>Container</res-auth>
</resource-ref>
</web-app>
<!-- Tomcat JDBC to IDMS Test Context -->
<Context path="/IDMSTest" docBase="IDMSTest" reloadable="true"
crossContext="true">
<Resource name="jdbc/TestIDMS" auth="Container"
type="javax.sql.DataSource"
maxActive="100" maxIdle="30" maxWait="10000"
username="MY_USER" password="MY_PASS"
driverClassName="ca.idms.jdbc.IdmsJdbcDriver"
url="jdbc:idms://MY.IP.ADDRESS:MY.PORT/MY_DATABASE" />
</Context>
<sql:query var="rs" dataSource="jdbc/testIDMS">
select text_message from messages
</sql:query>
<html>
<head>
<title>IDMS DB Test</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Results</h2>
<c:forEach var="i" items="${rs.rows}">
Text Message: <c:out value="${i.text_message}"/><br>
</c:forEach>
</body>
</html>
However, I can't actually test anything yet, as the IDMS is not setup to
listen to JDBC requests. I just wanted to be clear that my configuration and
syntax on the Linux / Tomcat side are correct for when I do come to test a
connection. The SQL query and query handling code in the JSP file would
differ depending upon the database structure, obviously.....but does
everything look like its setup OK? Where would the
javax.naming.spi.ObjectFactory implementation come into it?
There are some remaining issues I have about how to setup and use the
caidms.properties file and the caidms.cfg file. I've uploaded the 2 files as
http://www.nabble.com/file/p21451684/caidms.cfg caidms.cfg
http://www.nabble.com/file/p21451684/caidms.properties caidms.properties
regards
Jp

Post by Filip Hanik - Dev Lists
If your JDBC driver has a DataSource, then check to see if it has a
javax.naming.spi.ObjectFactory implementation, this is the one you would
specify in the factory="some.impl.DataSourceFactory" attribute, for example.
Some drivers don't have factories, and then you simply use Tomcat's own
factory by omitting the factory attribute.
In this case, Tomcat will provide the DataSource that is a wrapper
around your driver.
Provide
1. the configuration (only relevant parts)
2. the error you get
Filip

Post by jpmad4it
Hi there,
I have a rather interesting / complex problem......creating a connection to
CA-IDMS from Tomcat using JDBC type 4 drivers (CA provide the type 4
driver).
We have a zSeries 9 IBM mainframe running CA-IDMS r16.1, and I need to
connect to the IDMS from Tomcat (running on Linux) using the JDBC Type 4
drivers provided by CA.
At this stage I am struggling with the actual setup and configuration of
Tomcat’s server.xml and web.xml files. These are the files where the JDBC
configuration is set (I think). I have to setup the CA-IDMS part of the
configuration, but that is a different problem. Basically there is a TCP/IP
listener on the IDMS, waiting for incoming connections from the JDBC type 4
driver.
I set up a Tomcat to MySQL connection using MySQL Connector / J, which is a
similar kind of process to what I am trying to achieve with IDMS. MySQL
connector / J came with a jar file which is placed in Tomcat’s lib folder,
and then the JDBC setup for the web application is created in Tomcat's
server.xml and web.xml files. You can then connect to the MySQL database
using JSP and the configured JDBC driver / connection. The CA-IDMS Server
comes with an idmsjdbc.jar file, which I think is the JDBC typr 4 driver. I
think it needs to be placed in the Tomcat /lib folder, but I don’t know how
to set up the configuration.
There is a JDBC DriverManager which allows JDBC drivers to connect to
jdbc:idms://hostname:port/database
This allows the JDBC driver running within Tomcat to connect to the IDMS
which is running on the IDM mainframe. CA IDMS r16 supports direct
connections from the Type 4 JDBC driver to the Central Version on IDMS.
"hostname" is the DNS name or IP address of the machine where the CV is
running, and "port" is the IP port that was specified for the listener PTERM
(setup on the IDMS side).
There is a caidms.properties file for the JDBC driver, which is used to
specify user ID, password, and optional accounting information. It can also
be used to specify physical connection information, allowing an application
to connect to a CA-IDMS database without requiring the definition of an ODBC
style data source. However, I don’t know where to place this file within the
Tomcat setup.
There is also an IdmsDataSource class. I don’t know where to configure this
This class implements the JDBC DataSource interface. It is used with an
application server (Tomcat) providing Java Naming and Directory Interface
(JNDI) naming service to establish a connection to a CA IDMS database.
IdmsDataSource properties conform to the Java Beans naming conventions and
are implicitly defined by public “setter” and “getter” methods. For example,
the “description” property, which is required for all DataSource
implementations, is set using the setDescription(String) method. The
application server may use the java.lang.reflection methods to discover
DataSource properties and provide an interface to set them, or may simply
require that they are defined in some configuration file. IdmsDataSource
properties are used to specify the connection parameters. These properties
are the equivalent of the DriverPropertyInfo attributes described in the
previous section and can be used to completely define the parameters needed
to connect to a database. Like a URL, an IdmsDataSource object can also
reference an “ODBC” style data source name, where the connection parameters
are defined in the configuration file on Linux.
Is there anyone that can try to point me in the right direction to setting
up the JDBC connection? I am totally new to Java and so the instructions are
not making much sense at the moment. Any help, hints, tips…..anything will
be greatly appreciated as I have just hit a brick wall here. I can't find
much to do with setting up the CA-IDMS Server JDBC type 4 driver online
either....if anyone can point me to some resources that would also be
extremely useful.
Kind regards
Jp

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[jpmad4it]

Post by David Smith
Case matters. Make sure you match case in all places where you refer to
the jndi name of your datasource. Off the top, I see you configured
jdbc/TestIDMS, but then try to use jdbc/testIDMS in the test jsp.
--David

Ah thanks for spotting that.

I am now getting the error:

Error: java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: Not supported by
BasicDataSource Not supported by BasicDataSource

Is this to do with the JNDI not recognising the IDMS driver??

[Filip Hanik - Dev Lists]

you are calling this method

public Connection getConnection(String username, String password)
throws SQLException {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported by
BasicDataSource");
}

try calling

DataSource.getConnection() without a username and password

Filip

Post by jpmad4it

Post by David Smith
Case matters. Make sure you match case in all places where you refer to
the jndi name of your datasource. Off the top, I see you configured
jdbc/TestIDMS, but then try to use jdbc/testIDMS in the test jsp.
--David

Ah thanks for spotting that.
Error: java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: Not supported by
BasicDataSource Not supported by BasicDataSource
Is this to do with the JNDI not recognising the IDMS driver??

[jpmad4it]

Post by Filip Hanik - Dev Lists
you are calling this method
public Connection getConnection(String username, String password)
throws SQLException {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported by
BasicDataSource");
}
try calling
DataSource.getConnection() without a username and password
Filip

Yeah thanks Filip, I read online about that being the problem.

I think I am now ready to setup the IDMS so that it will listen to JDBC
calls. Once I have this all setup I will come back to let you know how I got
on.

Thanks for all the help everyone.
rgs Jp

[jpmad4it]

I have some more questions:

For my datasource connection paramaters I have the IdmsDataSource class, and
the IdmsConnectionPoolDataSource class.

The IdmsDataSource class is used with an application server provided Java
Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) naming service to establish a
connection to a CA IDMS database. IdmsDataSource properties are used to
specify the connection parameters. These properties are the equivalent of
the DriverPropertyInfo attributes described in the previous section and can
be used to completely define the parameters needed to connect to a database.
Here are some IdmsDataSource properties:

accountInfo, connectSuspend, databaseName, dataSourceName, externalWait,
networkProtocol, password, portNumber, programName, resourceInterval,
roleName, serverLength, serverName, serverTrace, user etc etc.

Can these simply be placed in the server.xml config under my <resource> as
follows:

<Resource name="jdbc/TestIDMS" auth="Container" type="javax.sql.DataSource"
maxActive="100" maxIdle="30" maxWait="1000"
connectSuspend="true" dataSourceName="something" externalWait="20"
networkProtocol="TCP"
username="test" password="test"
driverClassName="ca.idms.jdbc.IdmsJdbcDriver"
url="jdbc:idms://IP:3709/DICT"
removeAbandoned="true" removeAbandonedTimeout="300"
logAbandoned="true" />

I went ahead and set these, and upon shutdown and restart Tomcat does not
give any error. However, the instructions say to use the caidms.properties
file (where these properties should be set) and include the location to the
file in the $CLASSPATH. I'm wondering if I can use either of these methods?

The IdmsConnectionPoolDataSource class implements the JDBC
ConnectionPoolDataSource interface. It is used with an application server
that provides container managed connection pooling to establish a pooled
connection to a CA IDMS database. IdmsConnectionPoolProperties are used by
the application server connection pool manager to administer the pool of
connections for a particular data source. Does Tomcat support this method?
Some properties for this class are:

connectSuspend, initialPoolSize, maxIdleTime, maxPoolSize, propertyCycle
etc.

Can these properties also be added to the <resource> in the server.xml
config (if Tomcat supports this method)?

Any help would be great.
rgds J