COBOL copybook to XML converter / News: Recent posts

The cb2xml project will convert a Cobol-Copybook into either a Xml document or Group/Field java classes. The Xml-Document/Java -classes contain the Group/Field details, picture/usage/etc details and field position/length (calculated for Mainframe Cobol).
This Xml Copybook can then be used in java/python/ruby etc to access Cobol-File details.

Changes in version 1.00 include:

• Introduction of a Builder style program interface.
• Option of getting Cobol-Copybook details in the form of Java classes
  (Copybook, Item, Condition classes).
• Write Xml using StAX (instead of DOM)
• New Xml format. It is very similar to the old format. The old Xml format is available via the -XmlFormat Classic option
• Several problem fixes.... read more

The cb2xml project will convert a Cobol-Copybook into a Xml document. The Xml-Document contains the Group/Field details, picture/usage/etc details and field position/length (calculated for Mainframe Cobol).
This Xml Copybook can then be used in java/python/ruby etc to access Cobol-File details

Changes in versions 0.95.6 include

• Fix for 88 levels on comp/comp-3 fields
• Added toTextCopybook.py example program. This will write a "Text" version of a copybook + code to move fields from the "normal" copybook to the "Text" copybook... read more

The cb2xml project will convert a Cobol-Copybook into a Xml document. The Xml-Document contains the Group/Field details, picture/usage/etc details and field position/length (calculated for Mainframe Cobol).

Changes in versions 0.95.3/4 include

• Fix for position calculation after redefines.
• Fix to support Cobol group level usage definition
• Support for continuation of Cobol VALUE statments
• Fix for quotes in value statments
• Add basic Ruby, Groovy, Jython and JRuby examples
• Add a cb2xml_Jaxb.jar toall JAXB access to cb2xml in Java / JVM langauges... read more

The cb2xml project will convert a Cobol-Copybook into a Xml document. The Xml-Document contains the Group/Field details, picture/usage/etc details and field position/length (calculated for Mainframe Cobol).

This release contains a fix for the USE_SUPPLIED_COLUMNS option.

Download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/cb2xml/files/cb2xml/0.95.2/

The cb2xml project will convert a Cobol-Copybook into a Xml document. The Xml-Document contains the Group/Field details, picture/usage/etc details and field position/length (calculated for Mainframe Cobol).

This version of Cb2Xml adds

• Created a new class Cb2Xml2 which is like the Cb2Xml class except it does not trap errors !!!
• Created DTD and Xsd schemas for the Xml created by cb2xml. These can be used to generate classes for c#, java etc.
• Created java - Jaxb example programs for processing cb2xml Xml using java and jaxb.
• Created python program to print cb2xml Xml contents.... read more

After a long break, Version 0.95 of cb2xml has been released. This primarily a Problem fix release.

Cb2xml Project has 3 main functions:

• Convert a Cobol Copybook to an equivalent Xml file description
• Convert a Cobol Data file to Xml file (xml2dat program).
• Convert a Xml file to a Cobol Data (dat2xml program).

Main problems fixed include support "anonymous" REDEFINES, fields starting with numbers, sign-separate issue.... read more

- added contributions from Daniel Serodio, Thanks.
- fix to HashtableToMainframe (Storage-Length and tagname related)
- fix to MainframeToXml (Storage-Length and tagname related)
- fix to XmlToMainframe (tagname related)
- added two new commands Xml2Dat and Dat2Xml
- changed cb2xml
- so it produces the xml through standard output
- so error messages get logged to the standard error output

The distributed ZIP file contains the .dat files that the parser needs in case an ant build is performed. (the .dat files were already part of the jar file that is distributed).

Better support for binary types added, now computes proper lengths and offsets.

Now fully supports SIGN SEPARATE.

Some classes and constructors made public to better meet the Record-Editor project requirements.

Read the release note for more information.

Fix for copybooks with multiple record definitions - and different / inconsistent top level numbers.

XML schema support is being worked on. Feedback from users on the parsing accuracy and core copybook to XML conversion is extremely positive.

The parser / grammar and XML generation has been re-worked extensively based on the actual COBOL grammar and is considered production ready. CB2XML should be able to parse any valid COBOL copybook and generate XML. This is what CB2XML was originally created for and what it does best. If converting your inventory of COBOL copybooks to XML is all that you are looking for, CB2XML should be sufficient for you.

This release includes a major fix and the project status has been upgraded to 4 - Beta to represent the percieved maturity of the core XML converter routines.

This project will serve the needs of those who would like to translate Cobol copybooks into XML and thus open up new ways to process them.

Fixes made to the parser grammar and the COBOL pre-processor routine based on forum feedback.

Now the release includes the executable binaries and a "run.bat" file for the ease of the end-user. You don't need to download SableCC if you are not making changes to the parser.

This is the first release (v0.5) and this project can already fully handle COBOL copybook syntax used in typical deployments. Furthermore there are utilities to perform data translation from XML to (mainframe) COBOL copybook string buffers and vice-versa. This tool can eliminate your dependence on expensive legacy system integration solutions and give you a very flexible option to integrate your existing COBOL apps with Java or J2EE initiatives.