XCONV Data Conversion Toolkit

During the migration process from mainframe platform to the UNIX/Linux or Windows one, data conversion is an obliged step. Data conversion means to translate correctly data, from EBCDIC to ASCII character-set, taking care about different data formats contained in the file.

The XCONV Data Conversion Toolkit provides a quick and smart system to convert data from EBCDIC to ASCII and vice-versa. It manages data coming from:

•	VSAM files

•	Sequential files

•	IBM DB2 databases

This section describes the tools included in the toolkit. For further information on the data migration process, please refer to the Data migration section in the Migration Process guide.

The toolkit is composed by the following tools:

cpy2xml

cpy2xml is a record structure parser. It parse a record definition, described in COBOL language (normally a copybook) and creates its XML descriptor, which describes the record structure using XML, and that is the input for any following conversion steps

xmlconverter

It is a multi purpose conversion program generator. It reads an XML record descriptor, and produces different kind of programs to manage the data:

•	massive conversion COBOL programs

•	single record conversion C routines

•	COBOL programs and SQL scripts for H2R processing

libxconv

It is a function library for data conversion, including functions to correctly convert all kinds of data supported by XCONV. Normally used by conversion programs, it may be easily integratedinto user programs, for conversion purposes.

xddlconv

It is a DB2 DDL translator. It reads IBM DB2 DDL scripts (CREATE TABLE, ALTER TABLE, etc.) and generates:

•	new DDL scripts for the target database (Oracle, UDB or Microsoft SQL Server)

•	record structures to generate conversion programs through XCONV cpy2xml/xmlconverter

•	Control Files to upload data through the target database bulk loader (Oracle sqlldr, UDB load or MSSQL bcp)

•	XML descriptor of the processed table, for further usage with esqlconv