Patent ID: 8326963

Claim:
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for enabling a COBOL legacy system operable on a mainframe to consume web services, comprising: a COBOL legacy application operable on the mainframe and stored on the storage medium; a developer tool to parse a set of data associated with a request for a web service from a web message format into a legacy structure to enable the COBOL legacy application to request the web service, the set of data including web service access information describing a location of the web service; a web services consumption copybook installed into the COBOL legacy application, the web services consumption copybook comprising a set of variables for the web service and representing data structures of inbound and outbound operation messages that are integrated into the COBOL legacy application so that the COBOL legacy application is adapted to use the web service; and a set of application programming interfaces installed on the mainframe and stored on the storage medium, the set of application programming interfaces for requesting the web service through a web service proxy for transforming communications between the COBOL legacy application and the web service based at least in part on the location of the web service.