The One Stop Shop for all your DATACOM/IDEAL migration needs

The DataKom tool suite covers all aspects of CA-Datacom to SQL migration. It is a robust and proven solution, that addresses data migration (mapping to relational technology, cleansing, etc.), programs (COBOL as well as CA-IDEAL), and Dataqueries.

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CA-IDEAL

DataKom migrates CA-IDEAL applications to standard and readable COBOL. Datacom idiosyncracies are addressed (such as deletion of sets of records one by one replaced by a single SQL statement) to improve quality and readability, thereby considerably easing the maintenance of the migrated application. The CA-Ideal to COBOL translator does not stop at programs only, but covers all aspects of the CA-IDEAL programming environment:

• IDEAL Panels are converted to CICS BMS maps
• IDEAL Reports are converted to semantically equivalent COBOL programs

Emulation or embedded SQL

When it comes to migrating COBOL programs, DataKom provids two migrations paths, of which one, the other or both can be used:

• An emulation solution for Call Level Datacom allows your COBOL programs to run untouched in the target environment, thereby minimizing the disruption from modifying the code. DataKom generates a DBNTRY replacement module that can be called by your COBOL programs as if it were the original CA-Datacom, and which provides identical functionality using your SQL database of choice for persistence. DataKom even includes a COPYDD replacement facility, (coupled with the DataKom data dictionary, see below) to make this migration a smooth one.

  Unlike other emulators, DataKom does not build dynamic SQL statements on the fly, but relies on compile-time code generation to use the fastest static SQL constructs available.

• Alternatively, a source to source translation process can convert your programs, replacing data manipulation calls to CA-Datacom by strictly equivalent embedded SQL statements, thereby making your programs maintainable by developers without specialized CA-Datacom knowledge.

Both methods can be used, if desirable. For example, a rapid cutover can use DataKom's emulation solution, and the translated source with embedded SQL can be put into production at your leisure.

Data dictionary

DataKom includes a complete data dictionary management system, which can be initially populated with the original CA-Datacom data dictionaries (BTG files), and which drives the entire migration process (including data migration, code translation, etc.).

A graphical user-interface is provided to ease data dictionary management jobs, such as:

• Overriding the default behavior when mapping CA-Datacom concepts to SQL (Table and column names, data types, etc.)
• Reverse engineering dates, so that the resulting SQL database is more semantically accurate.
• Specifying the data cleansing process, on a field by field or table by table basis
• Creating new tables, indexes, elements, etc.

Data migration

The DataKom toolset addresses data migration, taking all the aspects of this issue into account:

• EBCDIC to ASCII conversion if necessary, taking the original codepage into account
• Data cleansing, specified centrally in the data dictionary rather than coded ad hoc in migration programs
• Sorting and deduplication if necessary
• COBOL REDEFINE clauses are taken into account, using a default heuristic, that can be overriden locally or globally

The DataKom data migration toolset allows for versatile database schema operations, such as synthetizing one or more Datacom column as dates in SQL, deciding whether specific column contain binary data or should go through an EBCDIC to ASCII conversion.

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CA-IDEAL and CA-DATACOM are trademarks of Computer Associates.