Accessing z/OS PDSEs and Sequential Data Sets Simply and Easily Using MVSDS, an IBM-supplied Component of z/OS Web Browser

With the advent of mainframe web server software, such as IBM's 'z/OS HTTP Server', it is possible to view z/OS PDS/E's and flat files via your web browser. IBM distributes a GWAPI program called 'MVSDS' that makes this possible. z/OS comes with this facility installed. It makes z/OS systems into large web servers – any text z/OS data set can be accessed via your browser, as long as the RACF criteria are satisfied.  However, many sites still seem to be unaware of this and it is not as widely used as it should be. 'MVSDS' comes installed 'out of the box' - all you need to do is to enter your z/OS system DNS name, followed by /MVSDS/'dsname' where 'dsname' is a data set name that you have RACF read access to. If your site has HTML and graphical software available on z/OS (such as SAS) then you can take advantage of this to create, store and view these reports entirely on z/OS. It is often more useful to use ‘MVSDS’ rather than HFS files. Using MVSDS, one does not have to set a Websphere directive to allow access to the file, as one needs to do with an HFS file. Instead any text based z/OS file that the user has RACF read access to can be viewed via the web. Also, of course, there are many advantages to using PDS/E’s and flat files over HFS files on a z/OS system. Even if one does not have access to graphical and HTML/PDF generating software, this facility is still very useful for viewing text reports, downloading from the mainframe, printing, etc. One can send a link to a mainframe data set in an email instead of having to copy and paste it, etc. This session will show how easy it is to take advantage of this facility.  The few HTTP web server options that you can use to change how it works will be addressed, and also some of the applications that one can use it for. The speaker will also briefly cover the types of things one can do if one has access to html and pdf generating and graphical software on their z/OS system. We at Bank of America have many automated graphical reports, etc. that never touch a midrange or a pc.

Tracks: User Experience, z/OS Systems Programming and zNextGen