How can your COBOL systems utilize XML technology easily?
The answer is XML Thunder™! This innovative development tool lets you generate COBOL
code that can create and parse XML documents.
When a COBOL application needs to get the content of an XML document for processing,
the XML document needs to be parsed so the values of the XML nodes can be accessed
using regular COBOL variables. And conversely, when an application has to create an XML
document, the COBOL program needs to use the values of COBOL variables to create a
well-formed XML document.
XML Thunder™ solves the complexities involved with the development of COBOL logic to
create and parse XML documents.
Leap into XML without risk to your business
As more and more customer, supplier and standards organizations move to XML as the
standard format for data exchange, the need to XML-enable existing production applications
has been growing. Until recently, this was a costly and time consuming proposition.
Known alternatives included changing development languages, production platforms or both.
These alternatives have large price tags and time requirements as well as increased risk to
your business.
Have your cake and eat it too
Your existing production systems are the workhorses of your organization.
They are mission critical and represent a significant investment in development and
maintenance resources. Do you really have to write off all that investment just to use XML,
in essence a different data format, for inter– and intra-system communications?
What about the investment in people
Are you ready to retrain in new operating environments and new languages like Java
that require OO development?
When your organization uses XML Thunder™, you can have the best of both
worlds - the opportunities of XML and the proven reliability of your existing systems.
You can continue to rely on your robust business applications in your current operating
environment thus growing your ROI and take advantage of XML data in a technically efficient,
cost effective manner. In other words, you can have your cake and eat it too.
WHAT IS XML THUNDER™?
XML Thunder™ is a visual XML designer and code generator specifically
designed for creating XML data handling program code.
Using XML Thunder™, developers can easily create XML processing
program code, called XML handlers, in a highly productive visual
environment.
XML Thunder™ can be used to design and generate two distinct
types of XML handling program code, XML Writers and XML Readers.
An XML Writer is a subprogram that uses data passed to it to create an
XML document and writes it to a data buffer.
Conversely, an XML Reader is a subprogram that parses XML
data passed to it in a buffer and populates the corresponding program
data structures. XML Thunder™ is a highly productive and high ROI
development tool that is must have for all professional developers
working with XML documents.
XML and COBOL for the real world
You are a highly skilled COBOL developer and your business and
technical knowledge enables the successful operation of your
organization’s existing mission critical systems.
There may already be plans to receive all input data in XML format
and to provide all output in XML format. The solution alternatives
presented to you require aggressive programming language changes,
moving to OO, perhaps changing your whole development and runtime
platform.
All this, only because the input or output format is going to change!
Enter XML Thunder™, the developer friendly, cost effective alternative
to XML-enable your COBOL applications.
XML Thunder™ will allow the visual mapping between
COBOL data structures and XML nodes and will automatically
generate COBOL code that will parse or create XML documents based
on your design.
No OO languages, no platform changes, it is simple and easy and
fits nicely with your proven COBOL skills. And it lets you focus on
what you do best, to provide business solutions to your users and frees
you from the worry of having to develop and maintain low level utility
XML translation code.
RUNTIME ARCHITECTURE EXAMPLE
Original System (no XML)
XML-enabled system using XML Thunder™
HOW DOES XML Thunder™ WORK?
XML Thunder's visual designer allows the mapping of
XML elements and attributes to program specific data
structures. The XML document structure can be
manipulated easily in a visual design environment,
allowing developers to design XML document handling
subprograms without the need to perform tedious,
low level programming or learn to use XML parsers
and writing parsing logic.
The appropriate source code is generated to implement
the mapping between the desired XML elements and
program specific data structures.
Shelters developers from tedious XML programming so they can focus on the business logic! Easy to use with intuitive user interface greatly improves developer productivity! 100% source code generation enables much faster development! High return on investment - use it on 1 program and the cost of the product is already saved! Generates XML processing subprograms for flexible architecture. Easy understanding and manipulation of XML document and data structures via the
user-friendly visual designer. Fully automate COBOL and C source code generation for reading and writing XML documents. Create your COBOL or C data structure from XML schema or a sample XML document, or
easily map your COBOL or C data structure elements to your XML document nodes.
