You signed in with another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.You signed out in another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.You switched accounts on another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.Dismiss alert
- Optional: A more advance approach is to reformat it into a Report Form like this:
95
95
96
-
96
+
97
97
98
98
- Compile and Test your work
99
99
100
100
- Optional: Automate. Using NPM and Zowe CLI, Run all these steps and create a “one click” COBOL build similar to this.
101
101
102
-
102
+
103
103
104
104
I hope this could be a good COBOL challenge to anybody who is willing to try.
105
105
If you want to check the solution, read all about it [here](https://medium.com/@jessielaine.punongbayan/solution-covid-19-reports-cobol-challenge-6c509579e3fe?source=friends_link&sk=5a662034a03c91d639b77267ed6abfc9).
106
106
107
107
Happy Coding! 😉
108
108
109
109
_Disclaimer: This challenge is also posted in [Medium.com](https://medium.com/@jessielaine.punongbayan/cobol-challenge-covid-19-reports-ee03a946bd23)._
110
+
111
+
# COBOL Challenge - The Unemployment Claims
112
+
113
+
Let us go to a more advanced challlenge! Your task is to create an end-to-end solution. That means that our end goal is to build an application that will fire Zowe APIs to Mainframe and display the result in the application. This is how the flow would look like:
114
+
115
+
116
+
117
+
_Of course, you do not have to complete the whole challenge if you do not want to. But it would be great if you do_ 😉
118
+
119
+
### Our Data
120
+
121
+
The data that we are going to use will come from https://www.data.gov/. According to their website, this is a repository of data that is available for public use. For more information, please visit their website.
122
+
123
+
To be more specific, we are going to get “The Monthly Unemployment Claims of the State of Missouri”.
124
+
I chose this because it is separated according to different categories:
You can consume the data in different formats such as CSV, RDF, JSON or XML. You can choose whatever format you like.
133
+
134
+
### Use Case
135
+
136
+
You are given a new set of data for The Unemployment Claims. Your tasks are as follows:
137
+
138
+
- To create a new database for the new set of data and combine them based on Record ID.
139
+
- To provide a way for other COBOL programs and other applications to access this newly created database
140
+
- To create a report specifying all the information available in the newly created database. The report will contain, but not limited to, the following information: Record ID, Age, Ethnicity, Industry, Race and Gender.
141
+
142
+
### Instructions
143
+
144
+
- Let’s create a database. This can be done in various ways but the easiest one the I could think of is a VSAM file. Create a COBOL program that will consume your data. Using the RECORD-ID as the key (which is more visible when reading the CSV file), create a KSDS VSAM file and store all the information there.
145
+
146
+
_What this means is that, one record will have the RECORD-ID as the key and added to it are all the information from The Monthly Unemployment Claims (Fields from Age, Ethnicity, Industry, Race and Gender) will be added or connected to the RECORD-ID._
147
+
148
+
The flow would look like this:
149
+
150
+
151
+
152
+
- Create a COBOL sub-routine. This program will allow other programs to read the data from the VSAM file. This sub-routine should be able to do the following scenario:
153
+
154
+
- accepts requests to get information of a specific record ID.
155
+
- _(Optional)_ accepts requests to get information of all the records inside the database. What does this mean? It means that instead of providing a record ID, I could provide an indicator the I want to create a report of all the records inside the database.
156
+
157
+
158
+
159
+
_The purpose of the COBOL sub-routine is to allow other COBOL programs or other application to access the information inside the VSAM file._
160
+
161
+
- Create a Main COBOL Program. This program will create a report based on the records inside the newly created database. The process is as follows:
162
+
163
+
- It should call the COBOL sub-routine passing the Record ID or (Optional) an indicator that you want to print all records in the database.
164
+
- It should receive the response from the sub-routine.
165
+
- It should process the response and generate a report. This report can be a formal report or just a display in the SYSOUT. It’s up to you.
166
+
167
+
The flow should look like this:
168
+
169
+
170
+
171
+
- Create your JCLs.
172
+
173
+
_By this point, if you choose to do the exercise using COBOL programs only, you should be able to read the data from your VSAM file, process it and generate a report. The generated report could be an information of a specific record or multiple records._
174
+
175
+
- _(Optional)_ Create an application. It can be different applications like a Mobile App, a Web App or an Electron App. It is up to you. In this application you should be able to view a record by providing a RECORD-ID. The flow would be similar to Step #3.
176
+
177
+
This is an example of a possible design of the application:
178
+
179
+
180
+
181
+
```
182
+
Hint: How can I accomplish this? By using the Zowe CLI NPM package, you can fire Zowe APIs that will submit your JCLs and get the results. From there, you can view the output and display it in your application. This article can provide a good example.
183
+
184
+
What APIs am I going to use? You will use the Jobs Submit API and View Jobs Spool or View Dataset API. For more information, please visit [this site](https://docs.zowe.org/stable/web_help/index.html).
185
+
```
186
+
187
+
- _(Optional)_ Create a CI/CD process that will create a nightly build of your application. [This article](https://medium.com/modern-mainframe/beginners-guide-cobol-made-easy-leveraging-open-source-tools-eb4f8dcd7a98?source=friends_link&sk=443517b1feaba8e392f5807246c25ca4) can help explain that process.
188
+
189
+
Sample CI/CD Build using CircleCI:
190
+
191
+
192
+
193
+
### Craving for more programming challenge?
194
+
195
+
Add more functionality to your COBOL Sub-routine like:
196
+
197
+
- Insert a new record
198
+
- Update an existing record
199
+
- Delete an existing record
200
+
201
+
I hope that by taking this challenge, you will be able to learn something new!
202
+
203
+
Happy Coding! 😉
204
+
205
+
_Disclaimer: This challenge is also posted in [Medium.com](https://medium.com/@jessielaine.punongbayan/zowe-cobol-challenge-the-unemployment-claims-2e35a42eabaa)._
0 commit comments