Handling of Items in Binary Form

You can direct the plug-in to represent elementary items in binary format instead of the default XSD type.

By default, the Plug-in represents elementary items as an XSD type appropriate to the copybook definition. For example, the COBOL PICTURE X(10) item is displayed as a string element with the maximum length of 10 in the schema. To handle an elementary item in binary form instead, select base64Binary as an XSD type for an item in the Field Configuration page. Subsequently, the Plug-in represents the item as a sequence of bytes with no transformation or validation of the data. You can then apply custom processing to the binary data. For details, see Field Configuration Page.

Note the following rules:

• During rendering of an item with the base64Binary XSD type:
  • The base64Binary value must not contain more bytes than the number of bytes that the item occupies. Otherwise, the Render Copybook Data activity throws an exception.
  • If your base64Binary value contains less bytes than the number of bytes occupied by the item, the Plug-in pads it. The character used as a filler depends on the copybook specifics and Filler Character setting of the Render Copybook Data activity. See description of the Filler Character field in Render Copybook Data configuration.
  • The COBOL VALUE clause and PL/I INIT attribute are not in effect.
• During parsing, the Parse Copybook Data activity always returns the number of bytes that the item occupies.