binary4xml

This program converts one or more MVS binary files to XML format based on its associated copybook by translating each record field as defined in the copybook into an XML element. The advantage of converting to XML format is that the document becomes industry standard and can be viewed over internet or intranet using a standard browser or ported into another system. This application provides an option to auto generate a report using a style sheet language, known as XSLT for transformation; when included in XML document, the document will be presented as an HTML report when open with a browser. If the report does not suit you, you can just change the generated XSLT to the format you want. In mainframe enviroment, the reports are generally despatched to the users or viewed on the spool system. The reports are in plain text and not easily ported to another platform. Any changes, as simple as heading change, will involve coding change which is costly and time-consuming. If the data file, from which the report is generated, is converted to XML document, it can be transformed easily to a text-rich report by the script language like XSLT which is free and supported by most browsers. This application can either run interatively or unattended (batch). With running in the batch mode, the transformation can be run in a regular basis, for example the mainframe transfers the binary file to the server by a scheduler and kicks off this application automatically