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Today, we are excited to announce new automated unit testing capabilities for CICS COBOL programs using Db2 with IBM Developer for z/OS (IDz) V14.2.1. With this release, you will be able to stub out CICS Db2 calls for COBOL programs through our enhanced record and playback functionality, as well as export results in new formats. We are proud to provide this support as part of our ongoing quarterly Continuous Delivery release cycle.


To learn more about our new functionality, read on below.

Record and playback capabilities to stub out CICS Db2 calls for COBOL programs
As mentioned, we’re delivering streamlined record and playback functionality in this latest release. This newly enhanced functionality enables interception of EXEC CICS and EXEC SQL application calls under CICS to allow data capture during a live run. This recorded data can then be used as the basis for creating more unit tests, including negative tests. More significantly, this capability lets users run their automated unit tests as a batch job, without a need to deploy to CICS.

Support for new formats when exporting test results
In addition to existing support for exporting test results in JUnit and SonarQube formats, you can now export your results as a PDF or in XML. This allows you to work with your test results and form detailed reports outside of IDz.

Improved user experience
We prioritize listening and implementing customer feedback, and are excited to announce improvements to our overall user experience based on these discussions. This includes new ways to filter recorded data for modification, as well as general performance improvements.

All the above features are delivered in addition to our existing features:

• Automated Assertions and pass/fail checks.
• Ability to store tests in a modern SCM along with the programs they test.
• Ability to invoke the tests from IBM Developer for z/OS or as part of a CI/CD pipeline.
• Stubbing and verification of VSAM and Sequential files in Batch testing – including creating • of file stubs by importing from Notepad, spreadsheets, or an existing sequential file.
• Capability to export test results in JUnit or SonarQube format.
• Capability to include code coverage with the test execution and export the results to IBM Application Discovery and Delivery Intelligence.
• Support for negative testing.
• Support for debugging the tests.


For more information about this release, please see our announce. Source: Dawid Zawiła from unsplash.com