What is BMS BASIC MAPING SUPPORT

BASIC MAPING SUPPORT

Contents of the CICS screen defined thru BMS is called a MAP which is written in assembly language.

Primary functions of BMS

1. Removal of device dependent codes from Application Program
2. Removal of constant information from Application program (Headers, Titles...)
3. Construct NMDS - Native Mode Data Stream
4. Text handling
5. Terminal Paging & Message routing
6. Contents of the screen defined thru’ BMS is called Map.
7. Map is a program written in assembly language.
8. BMS macros are available for Map coding.
9. Maps are of two types. Physical Map & Symbolic Map

In order to display formatted screen, a terminal ( eg. 3278) must receive a series of data stream called Native Mode Data Stream(NMDS) which is a mixture of Buffer Control Characters(BCCs) and text data, based on the hardware protocol. Since NMDS is designed for a particular terminal, it is both device dependent and format dependent. So if NMDS is used, re-coding is required whenever there is change in the terminal device or screen format. To remove this device and format dependency from application program, CICS provides a facility called BMS Remove device dependent codes - by placing them (3270 BCCs) in maps
eg. screen size
Remove constant information - by placing the default constants in maps Terminal Paging : Allows combination of several small mapped data areas into one or more pages of output.
Message Routing : Allows sending of messages to one or more terminals.