Side Information

The information required for two CPI-C programs to communicate is stored as a table, called the side information table, in memory. The table is derived from the symbolic destination name (configured in SNA Server Manager) and from the Set_CPIC_Side_Information, Extract_CPIC_Side_Information, and Delete_CPIC_Side_Information calls.

The side information is maintained by the system administrator. For additional information about configuration, see the Microsoft SNA Server Administration Guide.

If you are developing commercial programs or programs that will be installed on multiple computers within your organization, it is recommended that you include logic that allows a user or system administrator to specify configuration information for each copy of the program.

Each side information entry contains the following fields:

Symbolic destination name

This is the sym_dest_name parameter specified by Initialize_Conversation. It is the identifier for the side information entry. The name can be up to eight ASCII characters. See Set_CPIC_Side_Information for the allowed characters.

Partner LU name

This is the name by which the partner LU is known to the local program. It can be an alias of up to eight ASCII characters or a fully qualified network name of up to 17 characters. See Set_Partner_LU_Name for the allowed characters.

Partner program type and name

These fields indicate whether the partner program is an application transaction program (TP) or an SNA service TP, and provide the partner program name. An application TP name can contain up to 64 ASCII characters. A service TP name can contain up to four characters. See Set_TP_Name for the allowed characters.

Mode name

This name represents a set of characteristics to be used in an LU-to-LU session. The mode name can contain up to eight ASCII characters. See Set_Mode_Name for the allowed characters.

Conversation security type

This field indicates whether security will be used and if so, what type.

You can use conversation security to require that the invoking program provide a user identifier and password before CPI-C will allocate a conversation with the invoked program.

For an invoked program that in turn invokes another program, the security type can inform the second invoked program that security has already been verified.

See Set_Conversation_Security_Type for further information about conversation security.

Security user identifier and password

If you intend to use conversation security, a valid combination of user identifier and password is required to access the invoked program. The user identifier and password can be up to 10 ASCII characters. See Set_Conversation_Security_User_ID and Set_Conversation_Security_Password for the allowed characters.