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BOS-help CICS

BOS-help CICS      BOS-help options

Online Help and Documentation Solution for CICS Applications 
under IBM Operating Systems MVS, VSE and OS/390 

 

 

BOS-help options
BOS-help/ACCESS
BMS-Scan-Utility
BOS-CONVERT
  

Highlights

BOS-help requires:
no program alterations
no source code access
no programming skills
   

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Features

 

support of all programming languages
direct access of existing data (e.g. DB2, VSAM)
import facility for existing documents
no help text limitation
user-friendly help display layout (pop-ups)
CUA-compliant help display
hierarchically structured help levels (field level, screen level, system wide valid help)
powerful data transfer facility
field content-sensitive help
multiple usage of text excerpts
no data redundancy
cross-reference analysis
comprehensive printing functions
user-friendly text editor (TSO/ISPF resp. CMS like editor, customizable)
user resp. terminal related help information
multi-language support
API to activate pop-up windows by an application program (see BOS-help/ACCESS)
easy help data exchange for a cross-platform usage in combination with BOS-EXPERT
public and private annotations and bookmarks
   

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The Technical Concept

For creating online help functions, no source code is required. BOS-help supports inhouse developed and third party application packages - independent of the programming language. 

 

Context-sensitive online help functions can be assigned by walking through the application, i.e. positioning the cursor on the desired field and pressing the CREATE key will activate the help create mode. 

 

The field will be automatically identified by BOS-help. Together with the field identification a reference to the help data (help text name and paragraph name) and the help window layout specifications are saved by BOS-help. 

 

Pressing a function key will activate the BOS-help text editor and allows to enter the help text for the field. Instead of help text (or in combination with it) a program may be activated to read external data (VSAM, DB2) for online help display. 

 

Immediately after returning to the application panel, the created online help is available and can be invoked by pressing the HELP function key. 
 

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The Benefits

BOS-help considerably reduces costs for creating, updating and distributing any information related to CICS applications. 

 

From an administrator’s view:
Having the chance to implement online help functions without programming skills
Releasing IS staff from application documentation tasks
Separating application documentation from development
Having available comprehensive adminstrative functions for the created online help functions
Avoiding data redundancy due to a multiple usage of object descriptions
Integrating existing data (direct access / import)
Giving CICS applications a new look and feel by implementing pop-up windows

 

From the end user’s view:
Fast immediate access to always up-to-date help information
Context-sensitive online help functions in the „users’ language"
The possibility to create online help functions without programmers’ assistance
Powerful automatic data transfer facility
Hypertext linking to efficiently access supplementary information

 

From a company’s view:
Cost reduction for:
Creating, distributing and maintaining application documentation
User education and training
User support
Quality assurance
Increased security in case of absence of users due to illness, vacation, ...
Minimization of damage repairing activities
Shorter processing times for all business transactions

 

 

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Technical Requirements

 

Operating systems supported:
z/OS, OS/390, MVS/ESA, MVS/XA, VSE-ESA, VSE-SP 
with CICS version 1.7 and higher or CICS/ESA version 3.1 and higher or CICS TS version 1.1 and higher
Installation:
-Loading the BOS-help source and load modules
-Defining a VSAM file, adding entries to CICS tables PPT, PCT and FCT resp. supplementing RDO-definitions (provided with the installation tape)
-Customizing BOS-help to the individual system environment by an Assembly 
 
  

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Contact us

Convince yourself how easy it is to create context-sensitive online help functions for a CICS application of your choice. Get your free trial.
 

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NEWSLETTER

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NEWS

tcVISION Version 4 available 

Julius Blum GmbH:
tcVISION moves data between DL/I, DB2 for z/OS and DB2 for LUW 

Vereinigte Informationssysteme Tierhaltung (vit): 
Bi-directional replication between ADABAS and ORACLE 

City of Leipzig: 
Bidirectional integration between IMS and Open Systems 

YAMPONG Corporation: 
the new B.O.S. Software partner in Taiwan 

CUSTOMERS

EVENTS

B.O.S. will present the tcVISION solution for the Real-time Synchronization / Replication of IBM-Mainframe data at the CICS/TS Working Group in Heidelberg from April 21 to 23, 2010 

B.O.S. Software will attend the Spring conference of GSE for z/VSE, z/VM and Linux on System z in Würzburg, Germany from April 19 to 21, 2010 

On December 10, 2009, B.O.S. presented a paper about their IDMS synchronization solution at the IDMS User Group Meeting in Bruxelles. The paper covers areas of bi-directional synchronization of IDMS-data, migration aspects and more