Anyone interested in a FileAid-like software on windows/unix/mac ?

[dcricket]

Hi All,
I allow myself to write this note to present a piece of software I am currenlty writing. It's a FileAid like software, java based, hence running on all systems where a JVM is installed.

Pretty much like FileAid, it's aimed to help people working with copybooks and data mapped to their fields.

I primarily designed it coz' me a lot of people around me were dealing quite a lot with copybooks and flat files on windows, without any mainframe knowledge or COBOL technical skills. I tried to find some windows free software to help us, but we couldn't really find something that matched our needs. That's how I got to start that program.

Now I think it has reached a certain degree of stability. We have already used it against some simple copybooks at work, and so far it starts to fit pretty much the initial goal.

So here I am before you today I'm starting this thread to ask if any of you would be interested by such a software, and if yes, if you'd'be willing to test it to help me improve it ?

We use very simple copybook formats in our cross-platform developments at work, and complex copybooks are likely not to be understood by this version so far. Hence I need help to help me improve it: by testing it against different styles of coding and by giving me feedbacks.

If anyone should be willing to try it (and potentially help me eventually) you can check this page to view a few screenshots, get the binaries and/or the source code:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/openfileaid/

Any help or feedback, even minimal, would be appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[BruceMartin]

You could look at RecordEditor (

http://record-editor.sourceforge.net/)

It does FileAid like editting on the PC. The main RecordEditor uses a DB to store layouts (there is a Cobol Import function); there is also a seperate CobolEditor that will edit files (Native Mainframe and PC) using a Cobol Copybook.

The package has a Copybook analysis fuction (in the RecordEditor on File menu). It is a bit rough but it does show the Fields, there Starting positions and lengths.

You could also look at (all on source forge)

cb2xml - contains code to analyse Cobol copybooks
JRecord - Will do IO on Mainframe Cobol type files using a cobol copybook
JFileAid - Very basic FileAid Editor (last time I looked anyway)

Good luck with the project

 

[dcricket]

Hi Bruce,
Thanks for your feedback, and sorry for the delay.

I remember checking RecordEditor, but i dismissed it because of the database: back then, i didn't grasp the need for a db since all i wanted to do was to have a structured view of copybooks. But i'll give it a try since some of the features you present seem to fit my needs.

Funny thing about JFileAid: i'm the one who started this project. I never went too far though, for two main reasons. First lack of time... But also i didn't appreciate at all the netbeans framework and the constraints that go with it. I struggled to get it to work easily on several computers, so i decided to stop.

I started OpenFileAid recently with a new design (100% standard java) and more advanced features (a proper parser for instance.)

Anyway, thanx for your input. If you're interested i'll keep you posted. I'll try to publish frequent releases, so don't hesitate to check it out now and then.

@++