Implementation of an interface from the finance and asset accounting to the IDEA inspection software. The interface is designed such that it generates XML data formats from COBOL record structures, subdivides ISAM files into several data sets according to predefined criteria, and can process the dumped data. Numerical data stored as binary coded decimal are converted to ASCII.
Supplement
The interface consists of several technically different components. The application is written in JAVA and requires Microsoft XP as an operating system. It also uses some files saved as text files to control the processing. The ISAM data sets are unloaded by a Unix shell script, using an unloading tool of the ISAM file system from ACUCOBOL-GT. The data is converted in a batch processing job. Configuration information (e.g. file paths, file extensions, converter settings such as specification of millennium handling) can be input and processing information (e.g. starting the conversion, output of error messages, information) can be output via online dialogs. It is also possible to enter information (e.g. creator of the data set) which is not contained in the data being converted, but is needed to meet the requirements of the GDPdU.
Subject description
The provision of tax-relevant data from accountancy software that is over 20 years old for data media provision in the context of the digital financial inspection necessitates the new development of an individual interface. This is capable of generating sequential text files with fixed record lengths from unloaded ISAM files. On the one hand, the data is converted from Unix to DOS and, on the other, numerical data stored as binary coded decimal is unpacked into the ASCII format. Data record descriptions are generated in the XML format from COBOL record descriptions of the old system and from a document with the relations between the records. One part of the ISAM files contains data records with different lengths which do not belong together from a functional point of view. Before the transformation they must be broken down into further data stocks according to functional criteria. The interface is deployed as a standalone application which is used by the head office and the branches.