Data exchange between different platforms, e.g. HP Nonstop and other mainframes, is complex requiring significant knowledge and investment.

As vendors have tried to further protect their intellectual property with proprietary data formats the challenge of exchanging data in a heterogeneous computing environment involving a variety of platforms has been growing over the years.

This issue has been substantially heightened with the B2B use of Internet technologies, where a large number of different platforms need to share data. This is especially true when considering the increased requirement for national language support.

One major difference is that XML is a self-describing data representation language, including both data and

The benefits of having one self-describing data format administered by a central organization, and that can be used by any information system, has caused many organizations to change their own policies towards proprietary data formats. Even large standards organizations, such as SWIFT and ANSI ASC X12 have moved their respective standards toward XML.

An example of XML’s strength and its effect on business can be seen in the public sector in Denmark. Mandated by law effective February 2006, all public sector organizations can only send/receive invoices in XML format (through the UBL Invoice standard). The estimated savings from the use of one standardized document type is approximately 100 million euros per year.

While XML is a mature and well-established standard, the reading and writing of XML messages using standard procedural languages like COBOL and C, is a complex task that traditionally requires intricate understanding of both the programming language and XML itself.

To help developers overcome the complexities of XML and its complex programming requirements, Canam Software has developed a solution that bridges the two worlds of XML and procedural languages. This also empowers software professionals to take advantage of the benefits of XML without going through the usual steep learning curve.

This solution, XML Thunder, creates a level of abstraction between the COBOL/C program code and the rules of an XML document, allowing a highly productive, agile, low-maintenance, and repeatable programming model.

While XML-integration on various platforms has been a costly and time consuming task with alternatives that have included changing development languages, production platforms or both, XML Thunder is a quick and ‘painless’ solution that allows organizations to retain their existing production environment and development language.

XML Thunder shields COBOL and C developers from all the rules and restrictions of the XML technology. It enables them to create XML-processing programs quickly and efficiently in their familiar computing environment without having to learn a complex new technology.

The objective is to enable organizations to fully use XML within their existing applications and platforms while minimizing the risk and cost associated with application enhancements, re-writes, or platform moves.

Existing production systems are the workhorses of organizations. They are mission critical and represent a significant investment in development and maintenance resources.

Using XML Thunder, mature and mission critical production systems can be modernized with minimal risk and cost utilizing existing resources.

This results in the best of both worlds: the opportunities presented by XML and the proven reliability of your existing systems. From a business perspective, the life span of the existing system can be extended thus increasing its overall ROI to the business area using the application.

XML Thunder visually enables all data mapping, conversion and error handling required for reliable XML-processing, freeing up developers to focus on business issues. This is a major time-saving advantage when compared to compiler-dependant solutions.

XML Thunder generates COBOL and/or C sub-programs that can be invoked from a main business program. These sub-programs are referred to as XML Handlers. XML Handlers do the actual XML processing on data received from the main program. The mainline interfaces with the XML processing sub-programs through a special data area called the Interface Data Structure or IDS.

There are two types of XML Handlers, XML Readers and XML Writers.

We could think of XML Thunder’s flow as consisting of three major steps:

2 – Bind

3 – Generate

XML Thunder allows developers to import existing files to assist with the creation of the XML Handler definition.

These files can be either from the COBOL/C or from the XML “world”.

Or still:

Once the XML Handler definition is created, based on the files imported we need to MAP the COBOL/C variables with the XML nodes.

This is easily done using the graphical interface, through drag-and-drop.

When both the COBOL/C data structures and the XSD/DTD are provided, then developers can perform manual mapping.

During code generation the actual COBOL or C sub-program, implementing the design time mapping rules, is generated. The generated XML Reader or XML Writer subprograms can then be integrated with the main business program to parse or create the appropriate XML documents. An Integration Wizard makes the task of integrating these handlers quick and easy.

With a few exceptions, the same XML Handler definition can be used to generate COBOL or C language code and as either an XML Reader or an XML Writer.

For more information about XML Thunder and to download a free trial, please visit our web-site:

Online Flash demonstrations can be viewed at:

An online walkthrough can be found at:

Canam Software Labs, Inc. is a global Information Technology solutions company based in Canada providing innovative application development products and services to organizations around the world.

The company was established in 1994 to create automated software development solutions for enterprise application development. With its focus is on application modernization using XML, the company has designed and developed innovative products that are currently used in more than 40 countries by over 250 clients including many of the Fortune 1000. We continue to strive to provide innovative, high ROI product solutions for the professional developer community. Canam Software also offers professional consulting services and outsourced development and maintenance of new or existing systems.