SUMMARY:   This course teaches the student about maintaining IMS Databases with COBOL programs. Database maintenance, for logical and physical databases, to create, retrieve, update, and delete is included along with search arguments and debugging. AUDIENCE:   Programmers/Analysts who will be responsible for writing and maintaining programs which will be accessing IMS databases. PREREQUISITES:   COBOL Programmers with file maintenance experience. DURATION:   4 Days OBJECTIVES:   During this course, the student will: SECTION I - IMS CONCEPTS & FACILITIES • Learn about IMS history. • Understand the contrasts of flat files with the hierarchical concept. • Describe how hierarchical structures are connected. • Appreciate the facilities available in IBM's DB/DC system. • Determine what capabilities and shortcomings are inherent to IMS. • Understand COBOL program structure to work with IMS. SECTION II - IMS PROGRAMMING • Learn about the post database design cycle. • Learn coding conventions on how to read, insert, replace or delete records in an IMS database. • Learn how to use TSO and JCL to create and test programs. • Learn segment search arguments (SSA’s) and command code. COURSE CONTENT:   IMS CONCEPTS & FACILITIES - INTRODUCTION TO IMS/VS DATABASE vs. NON-DATABASE SYSTEMS ORIGIN/HISTORY FACILITIES IMS CONCEPTS & FACILITIES - DATABASE FACILITY HIERARCHIC STRUCTURES ACCESS METHODS BATCH PROCESSING IMS CONCEPTS & FACILITIES - DATA COMMUNICATION FACILITY REGION TYPES CONTROL/MESSAGE REGION PROCESSING BATCH MESSAGE REGION PROCESSING IMS PROGRAMMING - DL/I DATABASE FACILITY DEFINITIONS THE DATABASE DEFINITION IMS PROGRAMMING - APPLICATION PROGRAM INTERFACE THE PROGRAM SPECIFICATION BLOCK DBD-PSB RELATIONSHIP JCL IMS PROGRAMMING - APPLICATION PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS DL/I INTERACTION PROGRAM ENTRY PROGRAM COMMUNICATION BLOCKS CALLS TO DL/I PROGRAM EXIT IMS PROGRAMMING - DL/I CALL STRUCTURE FUNCTION CODES PROGRAM COMMUNICATION BLOCK INPUT-OUTPUT AREA SEGMENT SEARCH ARGUMENTS IMS PROGRAMMING - PROGRAMMING EXAMPLES GET UNIQUE CALLS GET NEXT CALLS GET NEXT WITHIN PARENT CALLS SAMPLE PROGRAM IMS PROGRAMMING - THE UPDATE FUNCTIONS INSERT REPLACE DELETE IMS PROGRAMMING - TESTING AIDS BTS DFSDDLTO IMS PROGRAMMING - LOGICAL RELATIONSHIP UNIDIRECTIONAL BI-DIRECTIONAL THE LOGICAL DBD IMS PROGRAMMING - SECONDARY INDEXING TERMINOLOGY PROGRAM USAGE RESTRUCTURED HIERARCHY IMS PROGRAMMING - SEGMENT SEARCH ARGUMENTS BOOLEAN OPERATORS COMMAND CODES IMS PROGRAMMING - MULTIPLE POSITIONING TRADITIONAL APPROACH USAGE IMS PROGRAMMING - CICS-DL/I REQUIREMENTS USER INTERFACE BLOCK SETTING ADDRESSES USING DL/I IN CICS VS COBOL II CONSIDERATIONS KW/08