Quick notes on some recent COBOL dabblings below. Am I missing something?

It looks like the MF COBOL XML libraries allow you to read and write XML files only.

I am trying to come up with a creative way to send XML or display the raw XML.

For example, if I read an ISAM file and move the data to a XML (XD), when I display the record, it shows me the field data instead of the data wrapped in XML tags.

Since my ultimate goal is to write a CGI program that returns an XML data island in an HTML page, it looks like I could use the MF CGI/EHTML preprocessor to spit out the HTML page and include the XML without much fuss. Am I right?

I assumed that the XML features would allow you to toggle between data and XML. I can't really find that feature in the doco. I suppose it makes sense that by design XML is just a data feed and folks just want to get at the data and don't care much about the XML document.

I apologize if this request for comment is out of place on this forum.

QQ! No love from the OC Gangsta Clique.

For the short term, leveraging the Micro Focus XML preprocessor to write an XML file in the CGI call and redirect the page to the XML file that is written.

This may sound crazy but, leveraging the XML preprocessor seems like the most efficient way to write the XML files in COBOL without getting into the business of writing out.

In the end, we may refactor to the HTML Preprocessor because dropping the XML document in a little data island on a web page may make the overall process more efficient.

No love?, or no MF to verify against or even guess to? ;)

Is what you are discussing feasible? Sounds like it. Easy? Can't say.

Wishing you the best streez. Your plan seemed more than reasonable, and I for one was looking forward to seeing your 'I succeeded' post.

Cheers,
Brian