COBOL data migration
CoSort converts data types and file formats
Conversion of COBOL data types
The IRI software can translate fields with Micro Focus (MF) and Ryan-McFarland (RM)-compatible data. Both IRI CoSort as well as IRI NextForm can fields of these types be converted into others, and from other data types into COBOL types, see Details here.
For CoSort users, data type conversions such as MF_CMP3 (packed decimals) to NUMERIC and EBCDIC to ASCII can also be performed as part of sorts and other jobs. The CoSort SortCL Control Language programSortCLcombines data migration with data staging (transformation), data masking, and reporting.
A free COBOL copybooktranslation tool (called cob2ddf) converts File Dictionary (FD) layouts into Data Definition File (.DDF) metadata repositories that any IRI product can use. Use your existing metadata to facilitate the conversion of the defined data.
Convert endian types
CoSort can also handle the conversion and processing of data in big and little-endian formats at the file or field level. Regardless of whether the original dataset comes from a big-endian (mainframe) machine or a little-endian machine, CoSort can process it, support data on both platforms, and retain or convert endianness based on big, little, or byte order mark specifications, see Details here.
Convert indexed, variable-length, and blocked files
CoSort and NextForm can also convert a number of proprietary sequential COBOL and indexed file formats into other file formats such as CSV, flat file, and XML. Source files can be in the ACUCOBOL-GT Vision and MF-ISAM indexed file format or feature Micro Focus Variable Length (MFVL) long or short records. Other supported file formats include Line Sequential, Record Sequential, Variable Sequential, Text, Blocked, and LDIF.
Define your input and output file formats, as well as your desired record and field layouts. Write a SortCL job script by hand or define it visually in the IRI Workbench GUI, which is based on Eclipse. Use the same script to define data transformations, data type conversions, field-level security (such as masking or encryption), and to generate reports.
Mix COBOL file data with database tables and files in other formats simultaneously. Output to tables and files in one or more formats. Details here: