ABSTRACT
Extensive Markup Language (XML) is being championed as the language for greasing the wheels of the drive toward e-commerce over the “Net.” Light on their feet and already relying on modern relational database management systems, they are readily equipped to switch over to XML. The major areas of problems/challenges in legacy data management stem from five main categories: Character sets and translations, Poor data typing, Hierarchical structures—header/trailer record systems, Embedded sub table structures, and Departed “Legacy Programmers”. One of the principal contributors to data migration problems in mainframe applications is the lack of strong data typing. Preparing flat-plane databases for XML tagging requires a three step process. There are Analyze current data, Clean up current data, and Transform the data. The data untangling is best done on the host, as moving the data en masse to a server fight must corrupt the packed, binary and signed data during the conversion of the characters from the host to the server.
