DFHCOMMAREA Length Limitation for Attachmate CICS-based Products

When using Verastream Bridge Integrator, the DFHCOMMAREA used to exchange data is limited to 32,500 bytes when a program is invoked in a CICS region via a Distributed Program Link (DPL). This technical note explains the limitation.

One way to run applications that interact with application programs running within a given CICS region on the IBM mainframe is by calling a transaction via Distributed Program Link (DPL).

The DPL method involves passing 0-32,500 bytes of information in a structure called a COMMAREA. This COMMAREA is processed by the application program residing in the mainframe CICS region, and the output from that mainframe program is returned to the client program in a similar COMMAREA.

Although IBM enhanced CICS to provide the option of passing data via "Containers," which can far exceed the 32,500-byte limit, Verastream Bridge Integrator and Verastream Transaction Integrator do not support the use of CICS Containers.

When using the DPL method with Verastream Bridge Integrator or Verastream Transaction Integrator, data is exchanged via the DFHCOMMAREA, and the limit is 32,500 bytes.

Note: This limit honors IBM's long-standing restrictions for maximum COMMAREA length.

Legacy KB ID

This article was originally published as Attachmate Technical Note 2647.