Dynamic Configurations
UNI has been enhanced to support dynamic configurations. This change will greatly ease the sometimes-difficult task of installing new releases and revisions. User configurations will now be supported and maintained via an external master configuration file. For CICS sites this file is loaded into computer storage at CICS start up time. For all other environments the file will be loaded into memory at the initiation of each process. All changes to the UNI configurations will be implemented without the necessity of program recompilation.
For all sites a full configuration subsystem of utility screens has been developed to support dynamic changes to the UNI configurations. These screens will replace the old "VLTB/DSTB" COBOL copybooks used in prior UNI releases. Security has been enhanced to prevent all updates to configurations, except by the UNI Administrator, or designated personnel.
For our CICS sites two additional "UNT" modules have been added to support this feature. UNT190 will load the configuration values into shared storage and create temporary storage queues to hold the storage addresses of the data. UNT195 has been developed to release unused-shared storage whenever the configurations have been updated. Note: All existing "UNT" modules have been modified to obtain the storage addresses of these configurations.
To ease migration from release 3.0 to release 3.1, two new batch utilities (UTB51B and UTB53M), have been developed. These modules will use the existing release 3.0 copybook values and build the new configuration file formats based on the previously defined values.
For new UNI R3.1 sites, a new batch utility has been developed (UTB52L) to support minimum installation configuration requirements.
Performance Enhancements
For our CICS sites the site application may now optionally initiate the UNI Outbound Handler (UNT010) via a CICS START or CICS WRITEQ procedure. In addition a new environmental configuration has been defined to allow the UNI Inbound Handler (UNT040) to support these two options. The goal of this new feature is to produce a Multi-Thread process within CICS and prevent the "stacking" of messages that these two "critical" modules must process.
Additional parameters added to UNI file definitions. (Supplied IDCAMS improved).
Improved Abnormal Error Handling
Better error support for abnormal error processing. These system level errors will be written to the Operating Systems Error Log in addition to the UNI System Error file. When abnormal error conditions occur, program control will continue to be maintained by the UNI modules.
TCP/IP Connections to NCSII
Socket Connections to the NCSII with improved socket corruption handling.
Online Utility Enhancements
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A new navigation procedure has been implemented to ease transferring among the numerous Online Utility screens.
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File scroll back capabilities have been added to the UNI Utility screens that contain a repetitive listing of the data.
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A new message log screen has been added to the Release 3.1 Online Utility System. UTT246 has been created to support the display of UNI message log information based on the message locator or based on the alternate index associated with the UNI message control file.
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A total of ten new configuration sub-system utility screens are now available including the new Configuration Sub-Menu.
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An additional ABEND screen has been added to the Utility system to provide diagnostic information in the event that a system ABEND has occurred.
Additional User Copybook
At the request of several users, copybook STATCB has been created to provide an application-programming interface between a site application and the UNI status table. This will facilitate an application programming a "hard manual" down condition on the UNI status table.
Documentation Enhancements
All documentation is now available in PDF format. These documents are provided on the Release 3.1 distribution CD. For release 3.1, the full suite of UNI documentation has been updated.