I am looking to find if there are special drivers I have to use in order to connect a .NET application to IMS.
On the Internet, I found articles saying that something called Open Database, provides JDBC and that it is one way to go. However, it is for java environment and I want to use .NET.
My question is:
How do I connect to IMS using Open Database from a .NET application (ASP.NET)? A sample would be great.
I believe the question is referring to the IMS Open Database, which is an IBM technology that allows access to IMS from distributed systems using the DRDA protocol. It does indeed allow JDBC-type access to IMS (with some smarts to convert the SQL calls to the appropriate DLI calls, and with some limitations, because, indeed, IMS is an hierarchical database). I don't know if there is a driver for .NET (and you need the driver if you intend to use SQL), but you can certainly experiment with it easily enough using the free IMS Explorer.
However, your IMS environment needs to be running IMS V11+, with CSL, ODBM, and IMS Connect configured for Open Database before any of this can work (and you need your IMS administrator to set that up for you). The Redbook I linked to in the beginning of my reply provides more details.