Vision files

Convert and Process ACUCOBOL Index Files

Overview
CLF/ELF
CSV
Excel
JSON
LDIF
LS-RS-VS
MF-ISAM
MFVL
Text
Variable blocked
Vision
VSAM
XML
Challenges

The ACUCOBOL file format (Vision Index) is proprietary and not human-readable. It can be used on mainframes or open systems and requires collation (sorting) or other processing, ultimately converting to or from other file formats.

Solutions

IRI's membership in Acucorp, Inc.'s Complementary Technology Program (CTP) helped CoSort sort, transform, report on, and convert Vision files*. IRI now offers embedded sequential and index file conversion from ACUCOBOL Vision through its partnership with Micro Focus in two packages:

IRI NextForm (COBOL Edition) converts Vision files to other formats (such as CSV, LDIF, MF-COBOL ISAM or Variable Length, Text, etc.) or from these other formats to Vision. See this example and this article on metadata requirements.

NextForm also supports field-level data type conversion and record layout remapping. The NextForm DBMS Edition add-on supports ODBC, allowing you to create source and target database tables directly within the same job.

If you need to mask, encrypt, or otherwise protect sensitive or personally identifiable information (PII) in the fields of your vision or converted files, use IRI FieldShield. FieldShield uses the same layout metadata as CoSort and NextForm for masking, encryption, and so on.

With the SortCLProgram in IRI CoSort Can you

    Transforming (e.g., sorting, joining) data into Vision files
    Convert or Create a Vision File to/from Another File Format
    Performing transformations and conversions together (to speed up DB loads)
    Protecting Data in Vision Files at the Field Level
    Creating detailed and summary reports

Each of these formatting and manipulation functions can be performed with or without simultaneous processing of other file formats. CoSort provides all of these actions, one or more at a time, to data architects who need to work with CSV, XML, LDIF, ISAM, Vision, Text, and other large flat files.

To convert, for example, from Vision to CSV, NextForm or CoSort (SortCL), your declaration of the job script input file would be /PROCESS=Vision, and for output, it could be /PROCESS=CSV (for Excel, etc.), ODBC (for RDB tables). At the same time, you can specify different field layouts and data types for the output.

Use IRI RowGen, if you need test data in Vision file formats. RowGen uses the same layout metadata as CoSort and NextForm, so that you can easily switch between generating test data and transforming real data.

Did you know?

The IRI CoSort Packages also offer a drop-in replacement for COBOL sort verbs, including plug-and-play functionality for ACUCOBOL-GT sort!

Product links

Other resources