Virtel Web Integration

The mainframe at the heart of your business-critical information system

Create a dynamic dialog between mainframe data or transactions and web applications


Virtel Web Integration allows creating interactive bidirectional dialogs across the Internet between host (CICS, IMS, Ideal, Natural, etc) and server-based applications using XML/HTML web services or other communication procedures.

Try Virtel Virtel fact sheet Virtel case study

Virtel benefits

Incoming and outgoing web service calls

Incoming calls - To expose host applications to web clients though web services, Virtel can be configured to:

  • Receive and parse incoming web service calls
  • Execute the appropriate transactions
  • Receive data returned by the transactions in the form of screens, structured fields, COMMAREA, or database segments
  • Reformat and wrap that data with XML, JSON, HTML, SOAP, CSV, PDF, Word, JSON, etc.
  • Serve it back to the web callers

Outgoing calls - In the outgoing direction (host-initiated web services) the mechanism is the same, just reverse.

Process control - Custom-developed Virtel scenarios and scripts allow to:

  • Control the logon process including invocation of RACF, ACF2, or TSS for authentication
  • Invoke Virtel’s integrated XML parser and select appropriate data formatting templates to process incoming or outgoing data
  • Activate one or several host transaction(s) per web service
  • Call various exit routines, for example: Virtel’s integrated PDF document generator
  • Virtel’s direct file and database access service which allows bypassing the transaction server to reduce host footprint
  • Virtel’s zIIP-capable asynchronous task submission service (VIRSV) to run long-lasting CPU-intensive tasks
  • Custom-developed LE-compatible programs for data access and transformation

Data transformation tools include:

  • An integrated XML parser
  • Custom-developed (HTML/JavaScript) data formatting templates
  • Custom-developed data transformation programs

Virtel can be configured to handle many diverse web integration tasks among which:

  • Expose mainframe applications and data as web services to web clients
  • Invoke web services for the count of mainframe applications
  • Support interactive exchange procedures between mainframe and web applications for cooperative work
  • Function as a SOAP, MQ, PHP… server
  • Transfer data blocks larger than 32KB, or blocks of data with variable format
  • Convert data from DBCS (Double Byte Character Set) used by Japanese, Chinese, Russian… workstations or applications to EBCDIC, and vice/versa
  • Serve 3270 data as international icons to eliminate natural languages from user interfaces
  • Replace web connectors developed by IBM (CWS, CTG, HOD, IMS Connect, etc) and ISVs, or homegrown (CICS socket programming)

This kind of versatility is unequaled in the web integration solution market.

As illustrated below, custom-developed Virtel scenarios and scripts allow calling:

  • A generalized SQL data access routine provided by Syspertec, or
  • User-developed LE-compatible data access routines

Those data access routines can be activated:

  • As synchronous (direct call) or asynchronous (call through VIRSV) tasks
  • On a CPU (TCB) or zIIP (SRB) processor

Accessing host data directly, i.e. without activating a host (3270) transaction, can yield high performance improvements and MIPS savings. It is an attractive solution for self-service applications that let very large user populations access personal data without restriction.

Virtel product organization

Learn more about Virtel’s architecture