Possibilities to accept input for COBOL batch program

Question

I have a batch COBOL program which needs input in the form of a flat file. It is working when I FTP a single file to the batch using a software.

Problem is that , in the final solution , many concurrent users are needed to access the batch program together or individually. For example lets say 10 users need to run the batch.

• They can FTP all of the files to a shared directory from where the Mainframe can access the file.

Now the problem comes as to

• How the Mainframe Job can be triggered?
• since there will be 10 or more files , the JOB needs to run each one of them individually and generate a report.
• How should the file names be? for example if two files have same name they will get overridden when they are FTP into the shared directory in the first place. On the other hand if the file names are unique , Mainframe will not be able to differentiate between them .

The user will recieve the report through E-Mail its coded in the Batch program, the ID will be present in the input Flat file.

Previously the CICS functionality was done through excel macro(Screen scrapping). The whole point of this exercise is to eliminate the CICS usage to reduce MIPS

Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Riffing off what @SaggingRufus said, if you have Control-M for scheduling you can use CTMAPI to set an auto-edit variable to the name of your file and then order a batch job. You could do this via a web service in CICS using the SPOOLWRITE API to submit the job, or you could try FTPing to the JES spool.

@BillWoodger is absolutely correct, get your production scheduling folks and your security folks involved. Don't roll your own architecture, use what your shop has decided is right for it.