Troubleshooting
Problem
I want to create XML like this
Cause
XML GENERATE was designed to be a very simple and straightforward way of externalizing the content of a data structure in a "preferred" XML format.
We reckoned that customers who wanted the XML in some other format would have the full power of XML technology (XSLT and so on) to transform the XML GENERATE output as required.
However, it turns out that customers like the built-in XML GENERATE capability so much that they would like it to produce their various desired output formats directly. As a compromise, many transformations can be done by post-processing the XML GENERATE output in COBOL.
Diagnosing The Problem
Enterprise COBOL version 4.1 and 4.2 have a feature to create attributes, declarations, and namespaces. However, it is not possible to use XML GENERATE to produce output that has attributes and values together. With version 4.1 and beyond, it's possible to produce mixed attributes and elements by using a trick shown in example 1. Version 3.4 programs will have to use example 2 which post-processes the output file.
<item1 item2="hello">goodbye</item1>
You can use XML GENERATE WITH ATTRIBUTES to create
<item1 item2="hello" item3="goodbye"></item1>
Resolving The Problem
Using Enterprise COBOL for z/OS version 5, this is possible by using the TYPE clause. You can use something like
XML GENERATE ... TYPE OF THISX IS ELEMENT, THATX IS ATTRIBUTE, SOMEX IS CONTENT...
Specifics are in the Programming Guide chapter 29.
Example 1 for version 4.:
Expected output will be
<one THISX="1.000" SOMEX="100"><THATX>Data2</THATX></one>
If you want the following, you will have to use two XML GENERATE then piece them together -
<one THISX="1.000" SOMEX="100">Data2</one>
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. AABBCC.
ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
DATA DIVISION.
WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
01 TOTAL-CHAR PIC 9(05) VALUE 0.
01 XML-OUTPUT PIC X(1000) VALUE QUOTES.
01 one.
02 THISX PICTURE 9V999 VALUE 1.00.
02 THATX PICTURE X(5) occurs 1 times.
02 SOMEX PICTURE 9(5) VALUE 00100.
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
MOVE "Data2" TO THATX(1).
DISPLAY " one = " QUOTE one QUOTE.
XML GENERATE XML-OUTPUT
FROM one
COUNT IN TOTAL-CHAR
WITH ATTRIBUTES
ON EXCEPTION DISPLAY "Foulup XML-CODE = " XML-CODE
NOT EXCEPTION DISPLAY "No problem XML-CODE = " XML-CODE.
PERFORM A.
DISPLAY "STOP RUN. ".
STOP RUN.
A. DISPLAY "Here is the variable XML-OUTPUT".
DISPLAY XML-OUTPUT(1:TOTAL-CHAR). DISPLAY SPACE.
Example 2 for version 3.4 and beyond:
(c2a) changes most (but not all) instances of element content to attribute values. It post-processes XML output:
Identification division.
Program-id. 'XGFXA'.
Data division.
Working-storage section.
01 numItems pic 99 global.
01 purchaseOrder global.
03 po.
05 orderDate pic x(10).
05 shipTo.
10 country pic xx value 'US'.
10 name pic x(30).
10 street pic x(30).
10 city pic x(30).
10 state pic xx.
10 zip pic x(10).
05 billTo.
10 country pic xx value 'US'.
10 name pic x(30).
10 street pic x(30).
10 city pic x(30).
10 state pic xx.
10 zip pic x(10).
05 orderComment pic x(80).
05 items.
10 item occurs 0 to 20 times depending on numItems.
15 partNum pic x(6).
15 productName pic x(50).
15 quantity pic 99.
15 USPrice pic 999v99.
15 shipDate pic x(10).
15 itemComment pic x(40).
01 numChars comp pic 9999.
01 xmlPO pic x(9999).
01 xmlPOa pic x(9999).
01 prettyPrint.
05 pose pic 999.
05 posd pic 999.
05 depth pic 99.
05 element pic x(30).
05 indent pic x(20).
05 buffer pic x(100).
Procedure division.
m.
Move 20 to numItems
Move spaces to purchaseOrder
Move '1999/10/20' to orderDate
Move 'US' to country of shipTo
Move 'Alice Smith' to name of shipTo
Move '123 Maple Street' to street of shipTo
Move 'Mill Valley' to city of shipTo
Move 'CA' to state of shipTo
Move '90952' to zip of shipTo
Move 'US' to country of billTo
Move 'Robert "O''Reilly"' to name of billTo
Move '8 Oak Avenue' to street of billTo
Move 'Old Town' to city of billTo
Move 'PA' to state of billTo
Move '95819' to zip of billTo
Move 'Hurry, my lawn is going wild!' to orderComment
Move 0 to numItems
Call 'addFirstItem'
Call 'addSecondItem'
move space to xmlPO
Xml generate xmlPO from purchaseOrder count in numChars
on exception
display 'XML generation error ' xml-code
End-xml
display 'Original XML document:'
display ' '
display '|' xmlPO(1:numChars) '|'
display ' '
display 'Pretty-printed:'
display ' '
Call 'pretty' using xmlPO value numChars
Call 'c2a' using xmlPO xmlPOa numChars
display ' '
display 'Transformed document:'
display ' '
display '|' xmlPOa(1:numChars) '|'
display ' '
display 'Pretty-printed:'
display ' '
Call 'pretty' using xmlPOa value numChars
Goback
.
*****************************************************************
Program C2A: Transform XML content to attributes *
Parameters (all by reference): *
XMLOrg pic x(=nc) - input: *
original XML document, using element content *
XMLAsAtt pic x(9999) - output: *
transformed XML document, using attributes *
nc comp pic 9999 - input/output *
input - size of original XML document in characters *
output - size of transformed document in characters *
*****************************************************************
Identification division.
Program-id. 'c2a'.
Data division.
Working-storage section.
1 nca comp pic 99999.
1 prename pic x(30).
1 tagname pic x(30).
1 pos comp pic 999.
1 buffer pic x(99).
1 ix comp pic 999.
1 tagstate comp pic 9.
88 closed value 0.
88 opened value 1.
88 attributes value 2.
Linkage section.
1 xmlOrg.
2 pic x occurs 1 to 9999 depending on nc.
1 xmlAsAtt pic x(9999).
1 nc comp pic 9999.
Procedure division using xmlOrg xmlAsAtt nc.
Initialize tagstate prename tagname
Move 1 to nca pos
Xml parse xmlOrg processing procedure p
Move nca to nc
Goback
.
p.
Evaluate xml-event
When 'START-OF-ELEMENT'
If opened
Move '>' to xmlAsAtt(nca:1)
Add 1 to nca
End-if
If tagname not = space
If attributes
Move '>' to xmlAsAtt(nca:1)
Add 1 to nca
End-if
String '<' delimited by size tagname delimited by space
into xmlAsAtt with pointer nca
Move tagname to prename
Set opened to true
End-if
Move xml-text to tagname
When 'CONTENT-CHARACTERS'
String xml-text delimited by size into buffer
with pointer pos
When 'CONTENT-CHARACTER'
Evaluate xml-text
When '<'
String '<' delimited by size into buffer
with pointer pos
When '&'
String '&' delimited by size into buffer
with pointer pos
When other
String xml-text delimited by size into buffer
with pointer pos
End-evaluate
When 'END-OF-ELEMENT'
If pos > 1
Subtract 1 from pos
If prename not = space
String space xml-text '="' delimited by size
into xmlAsAtt with pointer nca
Move 0 to tally
Inspect buffer(1:pos) tallying tally for all '"'
If tally = 0
Move buffer(1:pos) to xmlAsAtt(nca:pos)
Add pos to nca
Else
Perform varying ix from 1 by 1 until ix > pos
If buffer(ix:1) = '"'
Move '"' to xmlAsAtt(nca:6)
Add 6 to nca
Else
Move buffer(ix:1) to xmlAsAtt(nca:1)
Add 1 to nca
End-if
End-perform
End-if
Move '"' to xmlAsAtt(nca:1)
Add 1 to nca
Set attributes to true
Else
String
'<' xml-text '>' buffer(1:pos) '</' xml-text '>'
delimited by size into xmlAsAtt
with pointer nca
Set closed to true
End-if
Move 1 to pos
Else
If xml-text = prename
Move '/>' to xmlAsAtt(nca:2)
Add 2 to nca
Move space to prename
Else
String '</' xml-text '>' delimited by size
into xmlAsAtt with pointer nca
End-if
Set closed to true
End-if
Move space to tagname
When other
Continue
End-evaluate
.
End program 'c2a'.
Identification division.
Program-id. 'addFirstItem'.
Procedure division.
Add 1 to numItems
Move '872-AA' to partNum(numItems)
Move 'Lawnmower' to productName(numItems)
Move 1 to quantity(numItems)
Move 148.95 to USPrice(numItems)
Move 'Confirm this is electric' to itemComment(numItems)
Goback.
End program 'addFirstItem'.
Identification division.
Program-id. 'addSecondItem'.
Procedure division.
Add 1 to numItems
Move '926-AA' to partNum(numItems)
Move 'Baby Monitor' to productName(numItems)
Move 1 to quantity(numItems)
Move 39.98 to USPrice(numItems)
Move '1999-05-21' to shipDate(numItems)
Goback.
End program 'addSecondItem'.
End program 'XGFXA'.
Identification division.
Program-id. Pretty.
Data division.
Working-storage section.
01 prettyPrint.
05 pose pic 999.
05 posd pic 999.
05 depth pic 99.
05 inx pic 999.
05 elementName pic x(30).
05 indent pic x(40).
05 buffer pic x(998).
05 lastitem pic 9.
88 unknown value 0.
88 element value 1.
88 attribute value 2.
88 charcontent value 3.
Linkage section.
1 doc.
2 pic x occurs 16384 times depending on len.
1 len comp-5 pic 9(9).
Procedure division using doc value len.
m.
Move space to prettyPrint
Move 0 to depth posd
Move 1 to pose
Xml parse doc processing procedure p
Goback
.
p.
Evaluate xml-event
When 'START-OF-ELEMENT'
Evaluate true
When element
String '>' delimited by size into buffer
with pointer posd
When attribute
String '''>' delimited by size into buffer
with pointer posd
End-evaluate
If elementName not = space
Perform printline
End-if
Move xml-text to elementName
Add 1 to depth
Move 1 to pose
Set element to true
String '<' xml-text delimited by size into buffer
with pointer pose
Move pose to posd
When 'ATTRIBUTE-NAME'
If element
String ' ' delimited by size into buffer
with pointer posd
Else
String ''' ' delimited by size into buffer
with pointer posd
End-if
String xml-text '=''' delimited by size into buffer
with pointer posd
Set attribute to true
When 'ATTRIBUTE-CHARACTERS'
String xml-text delimited by size into buffer
with pointer posd
When 'ATTRIBUTE-CHARACTER'
String xml-text delimited by size into buffer
with pointer posd
When 'CONTENT-CHARACTERS'
Evaluate true
When element
String '>' delimited by size into buffer
with pointer posd
When attribute
String '''>' delimited by size into buffer
with pointer posd
End-evaluate
String xml-text delimited by size into buffer
with pointer posd
Set charcontent to true
When 'CONTENT-CHARACTER'
Evaluate true
When element
String '>' delimited by size into buffer
with pointer posd
When attribute
String '''>' delimited by size into buffer
with pointer posd
End-evaluate
String xml-text delimited by size into buffer
with pointer posd
Set charcontent to true
When 'END-OF-ELEMENT'
Move space to elementName
Evaluate true
When element
String '/>' delimited by size into buffer
with pointer posd
When attribute
String '''/>' delimited by size into buffer
with pointer posd
When other
String '</' xml-text '>' delimited by size
into buffer with pointer posd
End-evaluate
Set unknown to true
Perform printline
Subtract 1 from depth
Move 1 to posd
When other
Continue
End-evaluate
.
printline.
Compute inx = function max(0 2 * depth - 2) + posd - 1
If inx > 120
compute inx = 117 - function max(0 2 * depth - 2)
If depth > 1
Display indent(1:2 * depth - 2) buffer(1:inx) '...'
Else
Display buffer(1:inx) '...'
End-if
Else
If depth > 1
Display indent(1:2 * depth - 2) buffer(1:posd - 1)
Else
Display buffer(1:posd - 1)
End-if
End-if
.
End program Pretty.
And here's the output from the example:
Original XML document:
|<purchaseOrder><po><orderDate>1999/10/20</orderDate><shipTo><country>US</country><name>Alice Smith</name><street>123 Ma
ple Street</street><city>Mill Valley</city><state>CA</state><zip>90952</zip></shipTo><billTo><country>US</country><name>
Robert "O'Reilly"</name><street>8 Oak Avenue</street><city>Old Town</city><state>PA</state><zip>95819</zi
p></billTo><orderComment>Hurry, my lawn is going wild!</orderComment><items><item><partNum>872-AA</partNum><productName>
Lawnmower</productName><quantity>1</quantity><USPrice>148.95</USPrice><shipDate> </shipDate><itemComment>Confirm this is
electric</itemComment></item><item><partNum>926-AA</partNum><productName>Baby Monitor</productName><quantity>1</quantit
y><USPrice>39.98</USPrice><shipDate>1999-05-21</shipDate><itemComment> </itemComment></item></items></po></purchaseOrder
>|
Pretty-printed:
<purchaseOrder>
<po>
<orderDate>1999/10/20</orderDate>
<shipTo>
<country>US</country>
<name>Alice Smith</name>
<street>123 Maple Street</street>
<city>Mill Valley</city>
<state>CA</state>
<zip>90952</zip>
</shipTo>
<billTo>
<country>US</country>
<name>Robert "O'Reilly"</name>
<street>8 Oak Avenue</street>
<city>Old Town</city>
<state>PA</state>
<zip>95819</zip>
</billTo>
<orderComment>Hurry, my lawn is going wild!</orderComment>
<items>
<item>
<partNum>872-AA</partNum>
<productName>Lawnmower</productName>
<quantity>1</quantity>
<USPrice>148.95</USPrice>
<shipDate> </shipDate>
<itemComment>Confirm this is electric</itemComment>
</item>
<item>
<partNum>926-AA</partNum>
<productName>Baby Monitor</productName>
<quantity>1</quantity>
<USPrice>39.98</USPrice>
<shipDate>1999-05-21</shipDate>
<itemComment> </itemComment>
</item>
</items>
</po>
</purchaseOrder>
Transformed document:
|<purchaseOrder><po orderDate="1999/10/20"><shipTo country="US" name="Alice Smith" street="123 Maple Street" city="Mill
Valley" state="CA" zip="90952"/><billTo country="US" name="Robert "O'Reilly"" street="8 Oak Avenue" city="Old
Town" state="PA" zip="95819"/><orderComment>Hurry, my lawn is going wild!</orderComment><items><item partNum="872-AA" pr
oductName="Lawnmower" quantity="1" USPrice="148.95" shipDate=" " itemComment="Confirm this is electric"/><item partNum="
926-AA" productName="Baby Monitor" quantity="1" USPrice="39.98" shipDate="1999-05-21" itemComment=" "/></items></po></pu
rchaseOrder> |
Pretty-printed:
<purchaseOrder>
<po orderDate='1999/10/20'>
<shipTo country='US' name='Alice Smith' street='123 Maple Street' city='Mill Valley' state='CA' zip='90952'/>
<billTo country='US' name='Robert "O'Reilly"' street='8 Oak Avenue' city='Old Town' state='PA' zip='95819'/>
<orderComment>Hurry, my lawn is going wild!</orderComment>
<items>
<item partNum='872-AA' productName='Lawnmower' quantity='1' USPrice='148.95' shipDate=' ' itemComment='Confirm ...
<item partNum='926-AA' productName='Baby Monitor' quantity='1' USPrice='39.98' shipDate='1999-05-21' itemCommen...
</items>
</po>
</purchaseOrder>
And here's the output from the example:
Original XML document:
|<purchaseOrder><po><orderDate>1999/10/20</orderDate><shipTo><country>US</country><name>Alice Smith</name><street>123 Ma
ple Street</street><city>Mill Valley</city><state>CA</state><zip>90952</zip></shipTo><billTo><country>US</country><name>
Robert "O'Reilly"</name><street>8 Oak Avenue</street><city>Old Town</city><state>PA</state><zip>95819</zi
p></billTo><orderComment>Hurry, my lawn is going wild!</orderComment><items><item><partNum>872-AA</partNum><productName>
Lawnmower</productName><quantity>1</quantity><USPrice>148.95</USPrice><shipDate> </shipDate><itemComment>Confirm this is
electric</itemComment></item><item><partNum>926-AA</partNum><productName>Baby Monitor</productName><quantity>1</quantit
y><USPrice>39.98</USPrice><shipDate>1999-05-21</shipDate><itemComment> </itemComment></item></items></po></purchaseOrder
>|
Pretty-printed:
<purchaseOrder>
<po>
<orderDate>1999/10/20</orderDate>
<shipTo>
<country>US</country>
<name>Alice Smith</name>
<street>123 Maple Street</street>
<city>Mill Valley</city>
<state>CA</state>
<zip>90952</zip>
</shipTo>
<billTo>
<country>US</country>
<name>Robert "O'Reilly"</name>
<street>8 Oak Avenue</street>
<city>Old Town</city>
<state>PA</state>
<zip>95819</zip>
</billTo>
<orderComment>Hurry, my lawn is going wild!</orderComment>
<items>
<item>
<partNum>872-AA</partNum>
<productName>Lawnmower</productName>
<quantity>1</quantity>
<USPrice>148.95</USPrice>
<shipDate> </shipDate>
<itemComment>Confirm this is electric</itemComment>
</item>
<item>
<partNum>926-AA</partNum>
<productName>Baby Monitor</productName>
<quantity>1</quantity>
<USPrice>39.98</USPrice>
<shipDate>1999-05-21</shipDate>
<itemComment> </itemComment>
</item>
</items>
</po>
</purchaseOrder>
Transformed document:
|<purchaseOrder><po orderDate="1999/10/20"><shipTo country="US" name="Alice Smith" street="123 Maple Street" city="Mill
Valley" state="CA" zip="90952"/><billTo country="US" name="Robert "O'Reilly"" street="8 Oak Avenue" city="Old
Town" state="PA" zip="95819"/><orderComment>Hurry, my lawn is going wild!</orderComment><items><item partNum="872-AA" pr
oductName="Lawnmower" quantity="1" USPrice="148.95" shipDate=" " itemComment="Confirm this is electric"/><item partNum="
926-AA" productName="Baby Monitor" quantity="1" USPrice="39.98" shipDate="1999-05-21" itemComment=" "/></items></po></pu
rchaseOrder> |
Pretty-printed:
<purchaseOrder>
<po orderDate='1999/10/20'>
<shipTo country='US' name='Alice Smith' street='123 Maple Street' city='Mill Valley' state='CA' zip='90952'/>
<billTo country='US' name='Robert "O'Reilly"' street='8 Oak Avenue' city='Old Town' state='PA' zip='95819'/>
<orderComment>Hurry, my lawn is going wild!</orderComment>
<items>
<item partNum='872-AA' productName='Lawnmower' quantity='1' USPrice='148.95' shipDate=' ' itemComment='Confirm ...
<item partNum='926-AA' productName='Baby Monitor' quantity='1' USPrice='39.98' shipDate='1999-05-21' itemCommen...
</items>
</po>
</purchaseOrder>
Historical Number
FITS_MR0526047450
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Document Information
Modified date:
08 August 2018
UID
swg21218516