CICS Timer Management

Timers let you schedule deferred or periodic work. Combine timers with events and BTS to orchestrate background processing reliably.

Timer Types

• INTERVAL: Runs after a specified number of seconds; can be used for recurring patterns by rescheduling.
• ABSOLUTE: Schedule work for a specific absolute time (use FORMATTIME to compute values; implementation varies by site standards).
• EVENT-DRIVEN: Combine timers with SIGNAL EVENT to fan-out processing.

Scheduling Work

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* Start an interval timer
EXEC CICS START INTERVAL('ORDTMR')
    TIME(300)            * seconds
    TRANSID('ORD1')
    RESP(WS-RESP)
END-EXEC.

Inquiry and Control

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EXEC CICS INQUIRE TIMER('ORDTMR') RESP(WS-RESP) END-EXEC.
EXEC CICS CHECK TIMER('ORDTMR') RESP(WS-RESP) END-EXEC.
EXEC CICS FORCE TIMER('ORDTMR') RESP(WS-RESP) END-EXEC.

Patterns

Recurring Task

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* Inside ORD1 transaction
PERFORM DO-WORK
* Reschedule self for next run
EXEC CICS START INTERVAL('ORDTMR')
    TIME(300)
    TRANSID('ORD1')
    RESP(WS-RESP)
END-EXEC.

Deferred Processing via Event

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* Timer fires and signals an event picked up by a worker
EXEC CICS SIGNAL EVENT('REPRICE-JOB')
    CHANNEL('RPCH')
    RESP(WS-RESP)
END-EXEC.

Error Handling

Check RESP/RESP2 after each operation. Handle INVREQ, NOTFND, and LENGERR appropriately.

Common RESP Values