MVSFORUMS.com

DaveyC · Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 7:42 am Post subject: XML for REXX

Is anybody interested in an XML parser for z/OS REXX? I have recently started using the xml4c package and it seems trivial to front-end a REXX layer on top. If there is interest I will knock it up and ask Sam to put it on the CBT tape. One caveat is that there is a pre-req for the XML toolkit, which is big and is best installed into the LPA.

I intend xml4rexx to be open source, so anybody who has knowledge of XML and C++ can contribute.
_________________
Dave Crayford

kolusu · Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 9:09 am Post subject:

DaveyC,

Here is link to rexx tools page on IBM

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/rexx/library/tools.html

It seems Patrick McPhee, has some basic parsers out there

http://pages.interlog.com/~ptjm/

Kolusu
_________________
Kolusu
www.linkedin.com/in/kolusu

DaveyC · Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 7:54 am Post subject:

Thanks kolusu,

None of those "very good" packages work on z/OS, which has a very different REXX programming interface then OORexx, NetRexx, Regina etc. For starters an assembler front end using the CEEPIPI LE service is required to create a persistent LE environment. On z/OS REXX functions are limited to 8 characters, so you would need a function like:

Cogito-Ergo-Sum · Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 11:53 pm Post subject:

Dave,
Is it open source already ?

Can I have a peek into it ? Might indulge in it for -as you put it- intellectual excercies.
_________________
ALL opinions are welcome.

Debugging tip:
When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
-- Sherlock Holmes.

DaveyC · Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 6:09 am Post subject:

Coggo,

I haven't started yet. But once I do I will stick it on my website and let you know. Is there anything you are particularly interested in?
_________________
Dave Crayford

Cogito-Ergo-Sum · Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 6:24 pm Post subject:

Nothing in particular, mate. I did C++ long ago and was thinking if I could relearn.
_________________
ALL opinions are welcome.

Debugging tip:
When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
-- Sherlock Holmes.

DaveyC · Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 9:37 pm Post subject:

First off you will need to download this http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/software/xml/download/. It's a big bugger and needs to reside in an HFS, so you may need to mount a new file system. All the instructions for downloading and installing are on the website. I downloaded the non-SMPE package because I'm lazy. BTW, your site might already have the XML Toolkit installed if they are using the XML Extender for DB2, so check this out first. If you just want to check out the parser C++ samples you can download the xerces-c package from Apache http://xml.apache.org/xerces-c/. The XML Toolkit is a port of xerces-c with ICU integration for handling EBCDIC code pages.

The toolkit is fully featured. It supports DOM/SAX/SAX2 DTD/Schema validation. It performs well, I got it upto 5000 parses a minute. It will not be as efficient as the integrated COBOL/PL1 parsers as they are buffer in, buffer out non-validating SAX parsers. Fast but pretty dumb.

If you need any help, give me a shout.
_________________
Dave Crayford

Cogito-Ergo-Sum · Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 4:06 am Post subject:

Dave,
XML Toolkit is installed on our z/OS. Next ?
_________________
ALL opinions are welcome.

Debugging tip:
When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
-- Sherlock Holmes.

DaveyC · Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 5:49 am Post subject:

Next, run the samples to make sure it's working. To run in TSO/MVS you need to link to a PDS data set. You can find the JCL in $XMLROOT/xml4c-5_6/lib/IBM/JCLIN/
_________________
Dave Crayford