Search390.com
Expert Question of the Week
July 2, 2001
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CALLING ALL DINOS!
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July's Tip of the Month Contest is here! The user-submitted tip that
receives the highest rating at the end of the month will receive a
King T-Rex radio control dinotronic! To submit your tip, or to learn
more about the prize and rules, go to
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What better way to pay homage to all you dinos!
Stay tuned...tomorrow, we will announce our tips contest winner for
May/June. Who will take home the Palm Vx? The winner will be
announced in tomorrow's search390 newsletter.
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This week's Expert Question of the Week was answered by Jim Keohane,
search390's Web Integration Expert.
Q) We are looking at implementing the usage of XML in our systems
and since most of our legacy data and applications (written mostly in
COBOL) are on an OS/390 platform, we need to move data from it to an
NT box (and eventually to partners).
On the NT side we plan to use MSXML 3.0 from Microsoft since it's the
most advanced in terms of stability and conformance with the W3C
standards (XML, DTD, XSL). But on the OS/390 side the solutions seems
not so trivial. We plan to use the XMLife vocabulary (developed by
ACORD) and we have these solutions in mind and I would like to know
your comments about them and your recommendations:
1. Create XML files directly from a COBOL application (it is simple
and easy, but it is difficult to ensure the validity of the XML
generated according to a DTD).
2. Use the XML4COBOL parser/generator product (from MAAS) (we don't
know if it complies with the W3C DOM specifications and if it is easy
to use).
3. Install JAVA on the OS/390 to have access to the myriad of XML
tools available on this platform (we don't have any JAVA expertise,
but it could allow us to concentrate more on business logic than on
the creation of XML files).
4. Convert the data from the OS/390 to XML on the NT platform (we are
limiting the benefits of using XML, since we cannot send an XML file
directly from the OS/390 to our partners, we must convert them on NT
box before).
What do you think of these solutions? Am I missing something? Which
is our best choice considering we have a considerable amount of data
and applications on OS/390?
A) Take a quick peek at http://admin.facts.org/adap/xml/ for COBOL
source to an XML Parser. I saw no disclaimer at the site about use of
the source code. Nevertheless, you probably should contact them first
before doing more than a cursory review of the posted code.
Visit http://www.libxml.org or http://www.xmlsoft.org for information
on libxml (a.k.a. Gnome-XML) which I know has been ported to MVS and
OS/390. It's in C but may be amenable to being called from COBOL
through some intermediate "glue" code. See IBM write-up at
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/gnome3/.
If your COBOL application already exists under CICS then consider the
HostBridge approach that can convert 3270 interaction into XML
documents. Visit http://www.hostbridge.com. It might sound rather
RubeGoldbergian but you could write NEW COBOL CICS apps that use
SEND/RECEIVE MAP not to do actual 3270 screen interaction but solely
to talk HTML and XML with the outside world. HostBridge uses CICS TS
1.3 3270 Bridge feature. If you go the Java-on-OS/390 route you can
shorten development time by using PERCobol to generate Java source.
Visit http://www.legacyj.com/press/percobol26_avail.html.
Java-on-OS/390 might also go quicker if you have Rexx developers.
NetRexx generates Java source. Visit
http://www.ibm.com/technology/NetRexx/.
A favorite of mine was Fujitsu's NETCobol which generated completely
portable Java Byte Code from COBOL source. I visited
http://www.adtools.com and http://www.fujitsu.com but NETCOBOL was
nowhere to be found. (sigh). You can also take the NT code you would
have written to convert OS/390 data into XML and compile/run that
code on OS/390. Bristol Technologies' Wind/U products facilitates
porting NT apps to OS/390. This is probably severe overkill. If you
have C code on NT to do data conversion and to generate/parse XML
documents you can probably port it to OS/390 without Wind/U by just
removing any Windows dependencies.
Go to search390.com's web page (under books and training) at
http://www.search390.com. You'll see mention of the "Java for COBOL
Programmers" book by John C. Byrne. The book's claim of similarities
between COBOL and Java might be a tad much. Nevertheless, I must
admit I found COBOL to be more OO than first apparent when writing
articles in 1990 for Computer Associates titled "CODASYL's Proposed
OO Extensions to COBOL." Click on "Java for COBOL Programmers" for
more info.
Bottom line is that moving OS/390 data to NT to have it converted to
XML document is the last resort as you already stated. I hope the
above gives you enough alternatives to do the XMLization closer to
the data and business logic. If you do end up having to move data
from OS/390 to NT then there are some steps to make life a little
easier. You could have COBOL generate tab-delimited output to be sent
to NT. See tab-delimited conversion to XML at
http://www.ibiblio.org/xml/slides/nypc/jdom/.
http://www.ibiblio.org/xml/slides/nypc/jdom/. A nice write-up on
similar comma-delimited conversion to XML can be found at
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/xmlexperts-csv/index.html.
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Jim Keohane is this week's featured expert. If you have a Web
Integration question for Jim, submit it here
http://search390.techtarget.com/ateQuestion/0,289624,sid10_cid365817_tax285032,00.html
Speaking of Jim Keohane, he has a question for all of you for a
change! Jim recently posted this in our Sound Off Discussion Forum:
"I've seen references in recent NewsBytes and publish.com of the META
Group's report on IT understaffing. You hear about major IT firms
planning to scale back 1000's of IT employees but it appears to not
be the whole story.
Can anyone respond with facts confirming or disputing these findings?
I'm especially interested in stats over a few decades showing trends
or abrupt changes rather than just focusing on a short time period.
See excerpt below or visit
http://www.publish.com/ic_627865_4861_1-2755_138_08.html.
Also http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/166877.html.
"According to the 2001 IT Staffing and Compensation Guide released
today by META Group, a worldwide IT research and consulting firm, the
IT worker shortfall reflects the labor market's inability to fill a
demand for employees with specialized IT skills in such areas as
networking, database management, supply chain collaboration,
business-to-business integration, and commerce chain management."
Does anyone want to turn the tables and give Jim some advice? Share
your your thoughts with Jim today! Go to:
http://search390.discussions.techtarget.com/WebX?[EMAIL PROTECTED]^[email protected]
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WEBSPHERE and RACF
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Know anything about these products? User "Gillian" needs your help.
She posted the following in our E-Business Discussion Forum: "I was
pondering the following: Since RACF is the mainframe's main security
product, is Websphere able to allow someone access beyond read to the
system files?" Have an answer for Gillian? If you do, post it here:
http://search390.discussions.techtarget.com/WebX?[EMAIL PROTECTED]^[email protected]/33!viewtype=convdate&skip=&expand=
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