[log in to unmask] wrote
>      Greetings,
>
>      I am hoping that there are IBM-type people on this list who can
>      translate something for me to the MPE world.  A coworker of mine who
>      is familiar with IBM but not very familiar with MPE wants to do the
>      following (which is in IBM) speak:
>
>      Have CICS waiting for a message and when a transaction is received
>      then a certain series of actions is taken.  Since CICS is aware of
>      where these transactions is coming from it can then send a message
>      back to the transmitter of the message.
>
>      Specifically, he would like a person to dial into our system and
>      submit a transaction (most likely a request for data) and have the
>      system automagically do the following:
>      1. Accept the transaction which contains a transaction code and the
>         selection criteria for the search.
>      2. Recognize the transaction code and the selection criteria.
>      3. Search the image database for the data and retrieve it.
>      4. Return the data back to the submitter.
>      5. Ofcourse all of this should only take a matter of seconds.

You have described the basics of how a server handles a request from a
client in a client server environment.   Seems to me the hard parts (ie not
something a HP application programmer does everyday) are:
1.   Data communications between the systems
2.   Creating the "listener" program that initially accepts the transaction
3.   Translating the protocols
      ie.   translating the "selection criteria" into MPE commands

Duane Percox sells the logic he developed for his company to do this for
almost nothing.    Otherwise any of the HP 3000 client servers vendors
would be glad to help.