XML errors in COBOL.

[Piggy Chop]

Hi,

I'm at a new comapny and they are using COBOL and XML parser but there are errors in that, looks like. Pretty often they have some errors because of missing fields and tags. Then they download the mainframe files, run it through to a third party tool (XMLSpy), identifies the error and according to this they updat the DB2 table using which the original file was created.

The question is this involves a lot of manual effort, what is the best way to deal with such scenarios. Please share your thoughts.

[enrico-sorichetti]

Pretty often they have some errors because of missing fields and tags.

XML format errors ( E.G unbalanced tags )
or application logic error ( EG. missing <tag>data</tag> )

why not reach an agreement with the provider of the data and FORCE them to provide good data ???
in the IT data chain ( or in any product chain ) the provider is RESPONSIBLE of the quality(goodness) of the data/product provided

[Piggy Chop]

Thanks for the reply enrico.

XML format errors ( E.G unbalanced tags )
or application logic error ( EG. missing <tag>data</tag> )

They have both kinds of errors.

why not reach an agreement with the provider of the data and FORCE them to provide good data ???
in the IT data chain ( or in any product chain ) the provider is RESPONSIBLE of the quality(goodness) of the data/product provided

That's a good suggestion and I'll investigate on how the data is loaded in DB2 table at first.

[enrico-sorichetti]

at least You could make them provide FORMALLY correct data
so that that the program needs only to care about the application logic

[Piggy Chop]

Actually, I'm thiking if we can use some schema against the data?