IBA Group developed plugins that enable those familiar with modern Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) to work comfortably with mainframes. The For Mainframe IntelliJ IDEA plugin leverages z/OSMF to interact with mainframe data sets and USS files. The Zowe Explorer for IntelliJ plugin provides support for browsing, editing, and creation of data on z/OS via z/OSMF REST API.

The goals of the mainframe plugins are:

• Connect mainframes to the modern tech stack and development tools
• Make mainframes more accessible and appealing to a wider developer audience
• Improve user experience when developing for mainframes
• Bring open source principles and tools to mainframes
• Provide flexibility to IT teams coding in Java or Python
• Encourage development teams to use IntelliJ IDE for mainframes

Background

After half a century, mainframes are a necessary reality for a variety of large businesses. Although viewed by many as an outdated technology, mainframes are still processing data for airlines, government agencies, financial institutions, and others. The mainframe platform remains unbeaten in terms of security and performance.

However, mainframes are also notorious for having unfriendly user interface, which is hard to learn and use, especially for young developers who prefer well-documented and intuitive technologies.  The mainframe tech stack looks fundamentally different from the modern tech stack and is outdated in many ways. Addressing the problem, IBA Group came up with the plugins built on the IntelliJ IDE (Integrated Development Environment) and Zowe, an open source software framework that bridges the divide between modern applications and the mainframe.

The development team set the following requirements for the plugins.

1. No complex configurations, just a connection to the mainframe and a working set
2. Follow the IntelliJ user flow to make the interface as modern as possible

After the winter SHARE 2021 conference, where IBA Group presented the first version of the For Mainframe plugin, developers from Broadcom joined the project and the two companies began cooperating to produce a Zowe client Kotlin SDK and a Zowe plugin for the Intellij platform.

Why IntelliJ and Zowe?

• IntelliJ with the For Mainframe plugin solves mainframe’s UI/UX problems
• IntelliJ provides a modern way to interact with the mainframe
• For Mainframe uses the z/OS management facility (z/OSMF) for many tasks:
  • Task-oriented, web browser-based UI with integrated user assistance
  • Includes Rest API to perform this functionality using http/https protocols
• The Zowe community created SDKs to send http requests to z/OSMF

These tools significantly improve the quality of code and increase productivity of developers.

Core Features

The solutions provide the following core features that make them powerful, easy to use, and above the existing options in the mainframe world.

• Low Requirements: only an IntelliJ-based editor and internet access
• Accessibility: installed directly from the JetBrains marketplace.
• Foolproof File Systems: low probability of breaking any files when using the solutions
• Ease of Use: drag and drop operations in both directions between OS and z/OS
• Strong Safety: enable developers to call z/OSMF functions correctly
• Easy Configuration: a single configuration file shared across the team
• Free and Open Source

Next Steps: Roadmap and Community

Working in close collaboration with Zowe development teams, IBA Group is planning to add many new features to the existing plugins, including:

• Closer integration with the Zowe platform
• Code highlighting for COBOL, PL/1, JCL, and REXX
• Dataset presets and edit/view modes
• Capability to copy between different remote systems
• Support for VSAM (Virtual Storage Access Method), DFSMS (Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem), and other cool features that are available only for mainframes

Currently, IBA Group is working to improve the For Mainframe and Zowe Explorer for IntelliJ plugins, as well as on development of an SDK in the Kotlin language. In addition, the IBA team is developing a Jenkins DevOps plugin with z/OSMF API support based on Zowe client Kotlin SDK.

The developer community can benefit from the IBA plugins in multiple ways, including using these for their everyday work, contributing to the plugins’ development and improvement, and bringing their own ideas to the community and exploring them.

Try out For Mainframe plugin

Try out Zowe Explorer for IntelliJ

From August 2 to August 13, IBA Group participated in the SHARE Virtual Experience conference. It was a hybrid event, where the delegates could attend either in person or online from wherever they are.

The conference consisted of two parts. From August 2 to August 6, registered users could access more than 120 on-demand technical sessions that they could watch anytime. The live part of the conference lasted from August 9 to August 13 and featured over 100 live presentations.

The event showed a strong focus on open source and Zowe. Practically every presenter spoke about mainframe modernization, and other topics included hybrid cloud and z/OS 2.5. IBA Group presented a Global Repository for Mainframe Developers, For mainframe plugin, and Db2 database development in Git solutions at the event.

DevOps guide for beginners

Two years ago, IBA speakers talked about DevOps unicorns that would make mainframes fly. This time, they took a more practical approach, explaining to mainframe beginners how to start “DevOpsing” on the mainframe from the very scratch.

Mainframe gurus know what it is like to talk about mainframe development in simple words. The reality is that mainframe is never simple unless you couple it with modern approaches like DevOps. Having summed up the experience of a number of successful projects of DevOps implementation on mainframe platforms, the IBA team concluded that the siloed nature of mainframe needs an integrative approach to tackle the problems at the very core.

GRMD: mainframe Klondike

A year ago, the IBA mainframe team launched GRMD, an open source Global Repository for Mainframe Developers, aimed at making the life of mainframe newcomers easier.  The repository contains tested, searchable, and standardized solutions to ad hoc mainframe problems. The DevOps for mainframe solution for beginners that IBA Group presented at the conference is also a part of the repository.

The session hit the record of 80 attendees and attracted 20 new visitors to the repository, and the repository received 11 clones, 425 views, five stars, and five forks on the day of the session.

For Mainframe plugin: fighting black and green screens

Another session by young IBAers answered the question of whether the concept of UX/UI design could be applicable to the mainframe. The speakers presented a newly developed open source For Mainframe plugin that showed how modern UX/UI improves mainframe development. It is a new visual, drag-and-drop plugin that modernizes the mainframe’s black and green screen (available for download at JetBrains).

Earlier, the young IBA mainframers took part in the SHARE Summit of March 2021 and had a session focused on making the mainframe platform more user friendly for the newcomers. In addition, they proved the importance of creating more open source applications for the z/OS platform to make the mainframe look more attractive.

Kirill Branavitski, mainframe software developer at IBA Group:

“At this August SHARE, we went into the details of UX/UI, how it can increase your product’s value and why it is more important to have a good UI  rather than a large number of features. We brought up some problems of existing solutions, such as Eclipse-based enterprise IDEs for the mainframe and traditional terminal emulators. The attendees showed a strong interest in the solution. ‘Looks very promising!’ and ‘Where can we get one?’ were the words that confirmed the interest. There were many questions about the solution’s architecture. Changes are often met with resistance by people used to traditional solutions. This time we could convince them that our For Mainframe plugin can change the way people interact with the mainframe. I think we did a great job this time and hope to share more success stories in the future!”

Db2 database development in Git

IBA Group delivered its third session Managing Db2 Database Development in Git during the on-demand days of the conference, presenting their approach to the design of a DevOps pipeline for Db2 development and showcasing their Git-based solution.

Mainframe leaders and problem makers

The three sessions at the SHARE conference are not just siloed solutions that sprang up accidentally but rather a part of the company’s strategy of mainframe modernization. With 30 years of mainframe development behind, IBA Group went through the years of mainframe decay and was one of those companies who did not let the mainframe die when the shortage of mainframe developers was critical for the industry.

At present, IBA Group offers free courses on mainframe to university students, many of whom choose mainframe development for their first job. However, the vintage look of the legacy systems make many newcomers give up the job after the first few weeks.

A solution to a problem often comes from problem makers themselves. For example, young IBA developers came to IBA after the university course and instead of dropping “green and black” screens they started looking for a solution to modernize the mainframe interface and eventually came up with For Mainframe plugin.

Similarly, members of the IBA Group’s DevOps team came to IBA as students and managed to establish a kind of synergy between young developers, modern open source technologies, and legacy mainframe applications, which resulted in the creation of the Global Repository for Mainframe Developers.

IBA Group believes that the company is on the right track, offering employees from different backgrounds, age groups, and nationalities to work jointly on projects. They might have divergent views and different approaches, but they have a common goal of paving the way for a SMART future. If you feel like joining us on this road, please get in touch.