Cobol - Read a XML document in COBOL

Author

Read a XML document in COBOL

olivierdeman@gmail.com

2006-11-24, 7:55 am

Hey,

I'm trying to read an XML document (see at the end of the page) in
COBOL (I'm using PerCobol). First I tried to read it doing this:

perform until einde = 1
display "|||"lijn"|||"
UNSTRING lijn DELIMITED BY '>' INTO
root

END-UNSTRING
MOVE root(2:2) TO rootTemp
UNSTRING root DELIMITED BY '<' INTO
vuller,element

END-UNSTRING

But thats a lot of work and its hard, now I heard that you can do it a
lot easier??? But how? I didn't find any informatie. So if you can help
me reading this document I thank you!!!

Gtz

Olivier

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<studentenlijst>
<student>

<studentnummer>20060001</studentnummer>
<naam>Janssens</naam>
<voornaam>Pieter</voornaam>
<email>Pieter.Janssens@hogent.be</email>
<studiejaar>1</studiejaar>
<paswoord>abcdefg</paswoord>

<projecten>

<project id="1"/>
<project id="10"/>
</projecten>
</student>
<student>
<studentnummer>20060002</studentnummer>
<naam>Janssens</naam>
<voornaam>An</voornaam>
<email>An.Janssens@hogent.be</email>
<studiejaar>1</studiejaar>
<paswoord>xyzuvw</paswoord>
</student>
</studentenlijst>

LX-i

2006-11-24, 6:55 pm

olivierdeman@gmail.com wrote:
> Hey,
>
> I'm trying to read an XML document (see at the end of the page) in
> COBOL (I'm using PerCobol).

I'm not familiar with PerCobol - someone else may be able to chime in
with specifics. If you're running in a Windows environment, you may be
able to use the available Microsoft XML parser to create an XML document
object. I've never done that, but I know I've seen some examples of
similar code here. You might try searching the archives for code
examples. :)

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Richard

2006-11-24, 6:55 pm

olivierdeman@gmail.com wrote:

> I'm trying to read an XML document (see at the end of the page) in
> COBOL (I'm using PerCobol). First I tried to read it doing this:
>
> perform until einde = 1
> display "|||"lijn"|||"
> UNSTRING lijn DELIMITED BY '>' INTO
> root
>
> END-UNSTRING
> MOVE root(2:2) TO rootTemp
> UNSTRING root DELIMITED BY '<' INTO
> vuller,element
>
> END-UNSTRING

It's no where near as easy as that. You need to use a proper parser.
Given it is PerCobol you should be able to use a Java parser. However
if you want to do it in Cobol you may like to start with one that I
pulled off the net and tidied up a bit:

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. xmlparse.

* xmlparse.LST
* \xml\xml.cbl

*AUTHOR. Miami-Dade Community College.
*DATE-WRITTEN. July, 2000.
*DATE-COMPILED.
*REMARKS.
*
* LAST CHANGE: 09/12/00 12:02:24 SAHWC
*
* This program will parse any valid XML document into its
* component parts.
*

ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
CONFIGURATION SECTION.
INPUT-OUTPUT SECTION.
FILE-CONTROL.

DATA DIVISION.
FILE SECTION.

WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.

01 FILLER.
05 FILLER PIC X(32) VALUE
'WORKING-STORAGE FOR XMLPARSE>>>:'.
05 Wk-Index PIC S9(9) COMP SYNC.
05 Wk-Index-1 PIC S9(9) COMP SYNC.
05 Wk-Index-2 PIC S9(9) COMP SYNC.
05 Wk-Start-Index PIC S9(9) COMP SYNC.
05 Wk-Seq-Nbr PIC S9(9) COMP SYNC.
05 Ending-Ptr PIC S9(9) COMP SYNC.
05 Base-Ptr PIC S9(9) COMP SYNC.
05 Wk-Length PIC S9(4) COMP SYNC.
05 Entity-Length PIC S9(4) COMP SYNC.
05 Result PIC 9.
05 Wk-Find-Char PIC X.
05 Skip-White-Space-Check PIC X.
05 Wk-Entity PIC X(6).
05 FILLER REDEFINES Wk-Entity.
10 Wk-Entity-X PIC X OCCURS 6 TIMES.
05 Wk-Markup-Character PIC X.
05 Attr-Name PIC X(50).
05 Elem-Name PIC X(50).
05 Data-Value PIC X(1010).
05 FILLER REDEFINES Data-Value.
10 Data-Value-X PIC X OCCURS 1010 TIMES.
05 Name-Value PIC X(1000).
05 FILLER REDEFINES Name-Value.
10 Name-Value-X PIC X OCCURS 1000 TIMES.
05 FILLER REDEFINES Name-Value.
10 FILLER PIC X(5).
88 Name-Value-Start-With-CData
VALUE 'CDATA'.
05 Wk-End-of-Msg-Switch PIC X.
88 Wk-End-of-Msg VALUE '1'.
05 Wk-Found-Switch PIC X.
88 Wk-Found VALUE '1'.
05 Wk-Parsing-Error-Switch PIC X.
88 Wk-Parsing-Error VALUE '1'.

01 ToUpper.
03 Char-Comp PIC 9(4) COMP SYNC.
03 FILLER REDEFINES Char-Comp.
05 FILLER PIC X.
05 Char-X PIC X.

01 FILLER.
* ASCII values
05 LEFT-BRACKET PIC X VALUE "<".
05 RITE-BRACKET PIC X VALUE ">".
05 VALUE-TAB PIC X VALUE x"09".
05 VALUE-LF PIC X VALUE x"0A".
05 VALUE-CR PIC X VALUE x"0D".
05 VALUE-QUOTE PIC X VALUE QUOTE.

05 FILLER PIC S9(4) VALUE ZERO COMP SYNC.

05 TTL-Acceptable-Chars PIC S9(4) VALUE 66 COMP SYNC.
05 TTL-Acceptable-First-Chars
PIC S9(4) VALUE 53 COMP SYNC.

05 Acceptable-Chars PIC X(66) VALUE

'_ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkl
mnopqrstuvwxyz012
- '3456789-.:'.
05 FILLER REDEFINES Acceptable-Chars.
10 Acceptable-Chars-X PIC X OCCURS 66 TIMES.

05 TTL-Entity-Reference PIC S9(4) VALUE 5 COMP SYNC.
05 Entity-Reference.
10 FILLER PIC X(7) VALUE '> >'.
10 FILLER PIC X(7) VALUE '< <'.
10 FILLER PIC X(7) VALUE '& &'.
10 FILLER.
15 FILLER PIC X(6) VALUE '''.
15 FILLER PIC X VALUE QUOTE.
10 FILLER PIC X(7) VALUE '""'.
05 FILLER REDEFINES Entity-Reference.
10 FILLER OCCURS 5 TIMES.
15 Entity-Reference-X PIC X(6).
15 Markup-Character PIC X.

05 Result-Table.
10 FILLER PIC X(3) VALUE '1 '.
10 FILLER PIC X(3) VALUE '1 '.
10 FILLER PIC X(3) VALUE '111'.
10 FILLER PIC X(3) VALUE '1 1'.
10 FILLER PIC X(3) VALUE ' '.
10 FILLER PIC X(3) VALUE ' '.
10 FILLER PIC X(3) VALUE '111'.
10 FILLER PIC X(3) VALUE '111'.
10 FILLER PIC X(3) VALUE '111'.
05 FILLER REDEFINES Result-Table.
10 FILLER OCCURS 9 TIMES.
15 FILLER PIC X.
88 Elem-Name-Required VALUE '1'.
15 FILLER PIC X.
88 Attr-Name-Required VALUE '1'.
15 FILLER PIC X.
88 Data-Value-Required VALUE '1'.

LINKAGE SECTION.

COPY "xmlparse.ws". *> \az\include\xmlparse.ws

PROCEDURE DIVISION USING XML-Interface
XML-Document

Richard

2006-11-24, 9:55 pm

Richard wrote:

> LINKAGE SECTION.
>
> COPY "xmlparse.ws". *> \az\include\xmlparse.ws
>
> PROCEDURE DIVISION USING XML-Interface
> XML-Document
> .

01 XML-Interface.
* 05 XML-Occurs PIC 9(9) VALUE 20000.
05 XML-Occurs PIC 9(9).
05 XML-Length PIC 9(9).
05 XML-Reserved.
10 Save-Index PIC 9(9).
10 Char-Ptr PIC 9(9).
10 State PIC 99.
10 Save-Elem-Name PIC X(50).
10 FILLER PIC X(30).
05 XML-Parsed-Area.
10 XML-Return-Code PIC 9.
10 XML-Element-Name PIC X(50).
10 XML-Attribute-Name PIC X(50).
10 XML-Data-Value PIC X(1000).

01 XML-Document.
05 XML-Document-X PIC X OCCURS 20000.

*
========================================
========================
* end of source code
* ========================================
========================

Richard

2006-11-24, 9:55 pm

Richard wrote:

Test program

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. xmltest.

* xmltest.lst
* xmlparse.cbl
* \az\xmltest.dta
*

ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
CONFIGURATION SECTION.
SPECIAL-NAMES.

INPUT-OUTPUT SECTION.
FILE-CONTROL.

SELECT XML-File
ASSIGN XML-Name
ORGANIZATION LINE SEQUENTIAL
FILE STATUS File-Status

Pete Dashwood

2006-11-25, 3:55 am

<olivierdeman@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1164365982.752040.128040@f16g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Hey,
>
> I'm trying to read an XML document (see at the end of the page) in
> COBOL (I'm using PerCobol). First I tried to read it doing this:
>
> perform until einde = 1
> display "|||"lijn"|||"
> UNSTRING lijn DELIMITED BY '>' INTO
> root
>
> END-UNSTRING
> MOVE root(2:2) TO rootTemp
> UNSTRING root DELIMITED BY '<' INTO
> vuller,element
>
> END-UNSTRING
>
> But thats a lot of work and its hard, now I heard that you can do it a
> lot easier??? But how? I didn't find any informatie. So if you can help
> me reading this document I thank you!!!

If you are running on a Microsoft platform and think that re-inventing the
wheel or re-discovering fire is a waste of your time, take a look at this...
http://www.chilkatsoft.com/ChilkatXml.asp

It's free, and is marginally better (in my opinion) than the Microsoft
component that is already on your machine.

Pete.

<snipped interesting Dutch XML file>

Pete Dashwood

2006-11-25, 3:55 am

"Richard" <riplin@Azonic.co.nz> wrote in message
news:1164394338.648474.306120@l39g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
>
> olivierdeman@gmail.com wrote:
>
>
> It's no where near as easy as that. You need to use a proper parser.
> Given it is PerCobol you should be able to use a Java parser. However
> if you want to do it in Cobol you may like to start with one that I
> pulled off the net and tidied up a bit:
>
<snipped very lengthy code>

I hope you use this as a component, Richard... :-)

Pete.

Richard

2006-11-25, 3:55 am

Pete Dashwood wrote:

> I hope you use this as a component, Richard... :-)

I did play with the code some years ago when learning how to deal with
XML but I do my XML processing in C with libxml2 or Python as
appropriate.

William M. Klein

2006-12-11, 6:56 pm

Read the "proposed Technical Report" for native COBOL XML support in ANSI/ISO
COBOL at:
http://www.cobolstandard.info/j4/files/06-0200.doc

This is similar (not identical) to what Micro Focus already supports.

IBM has a very different model - but also XML-specific. Check out:
http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-...KS/IGY3PG31/5.0

I don't know what (if anything) PerCOBOL offers. You might want to contact them
and ask them if they have looked at either of the "models" listed above.

--
Bill Klein
wmklein <at> ix.netcom.com
<olivierdeman@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1164365982.752040.128040@f16g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Hey,
>
> I'm trying to read an XML document (see at the end of the page) in
> COBOL (I'm using PerCobol). First I tried to read it doing this:
>
> perform until einde = 1
> display "|||"lijn"|||"
> UNSTRING lijn DELIMITED BY '>' INTO
> root
>
> END-UNSTRING
> MOVE root(2:2) TO rootTemp
> UNSTRING root DELIMITED BY '<' INTO
> vuller,element
>
> END-UNSTRING
>
> But thats a lot of work and its hard, now I heard that you can do it a
> lot easier??? But how? I didn't find any informatie. So if you can help
> me reading this document I thank you!!!
>
> Gtz
>
> Olivier
>
>
>
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
> <studentenlijst>
> <student>
> 
> <studentnummer>20060001</studentnummer>
> <naam>Janssens</naam>
> <voornaam>Pieter</voornaam>
> <email>Pieter.Janssens@hogent.be</email>
> <studiejaar>1</studiejaar>
> <paswoord>abcdefg</paswoord>
> 
> <projecten>
> 
> <project id="1"/>
> <project id="10"/>
> </projecten>
> </student>
> <student>
> <studentnummer>20060002</studentnummer>
> <naam>Janssens</naam>
> <voornaam>An</voornaam>
> <email>An.Janssens@hogent.be</email>
> <studiejaar>1</studiejaar>
> <paswoord>xyzuvw</paswoord>
> </student>
> </studentenlijst>
>

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