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MQSeries.net Forum Index » General IBM MQ Support » CCDT binary to JSON format conversion?

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zpat
PostPosted: Thu Mar 10, 2022 6:39 am    Post subject: CCDT binary to JSON format conversion? Reply with quote

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Joined: 19 May 2001
Posts: 5849
Location: UK

Is there any handy and free conversion tool that will read a binary CCDT and generate it in JSON format (which is usable from MQ client v9.1.2).

I've never really understood why the CCDT had to be binary in the first place as it's just a list of entries.
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PaulClarke
PostPosted: Thu Mar 10, 2022 2:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Joined: 17 Nov 2005
Posts: 1002
Location: New Zealand

Whether you use the standard CCDT or a JSON CCDT is, of course, entirely up to you but there are some advantages to the standard CCDT. Not least of which is the fact that, being binary, there is a very high probability that the data is formatted correctly. This means that any problems in the definition of your channel definitions is discovered at the time you issue the DEFINE CHANNEL command. With a JSON CCDT you run the risk of only finding out that the definition is incorrect at run time - worse still it is possible that a channel definition is not used because it is incorrect and you never get to know about it. I am not saying there aren't some advantages of using a JSON CCDT. I see the main one being the ability to define two (or more) channels with the same name rather than being able to create one by hand.

It is not necessarily an advantage to be able to create the JSON CCDT in a standard editor. It depends on how reliable your typing is and whether you ever make typos. Of course to mitigate this problem you can use something like MQSCX, which can create/edit both standard and JSON type CCDTs but then you are issuing DEFINE/ALTER CHANNEL commands (either interactively or in a script) and the format of the actual storage file makes little difference.

Cheers,

Paul.
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Paul Clarke
MQGem Software
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gbaddeley
PostPosted: Thu Mar 10, 2022 2:39 pm    Post subject: Re: CCDT binary to JSON format conversion? Reply with quote

Jedi

Joined: 25 Mar 2003
Posts: 2492
Location: Melbourne, Australia

zpat wrote:
... I've never really understood why the CCDT had to be binary in the first place as it's just a list of entries.


Probably because it is just a linked list of MQCD structures. The MQ Client library can easily do binary reads of the file and directly get values out of the structure, without needing to parse or validate anything.

The ZPARMS module on z/OS is a similar concept. It is a binary object module that is generated from an assembler macro. MQ reads in the binary structure to get values. No parsing required !

Personally, I prefer text format name / value parameter files. Sure it takes a few more microseconds to parse the file, and validation and error exception handling is required, but the human experience is more pleasant.
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zpat
PostPosted: Fri Mar 11, 2022 1:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Joined: 19 May 2001
Posts: 5849
Location: UK

MQclient.ini is not a binary format and has worked fine for many years.

There must be editors which can validate JSON format to avoid run-time syntax errors.

I would prefer that developers were able to edit their own channel definitions rather than rely on MQ support teams to do it (with binary CCDTs).

MQ Java/JMS applications traditionally don't use CCDTs and they work fine.

Anyway, JSON provides one way forward but it would be nice to have some tool to generate it from existing binary CCDTs.

IBM used to release lots of handy "support pacs" -what's happened to them
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Well, I don't think there is any question about it. It can only be attributable to human error. This sort of thing has cropped up before, and it has always been due to human error.
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PaulClarke
PostPosted: Fri Mar 11, 2022 3:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Location: New Zealand

Treat your Developers to a copy of MQSCX, it is not expensive and far cheaper than bothering the MQ Support Teams. Then your Developers can not only create their own JSON or traditional CCDT files but also gain the benefit of the other dozens of useful things MQSCX can do for them.
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bruce2359
PostPosted: Fri Mar 11, 2022 7:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Joined: 05 Jan 2008
Posts: 9394
Location: US: west coast, almost. Otherwise, enroute.

zpat wrote:
There must be editors which can validate JSON format to avoid run-time syntax errors.

Syntax errors and Run-time errors are different animals. MQSC definitions may be syntactically correct, but fail at run-time - incorrect (misspelled) queue-name, channel- or qmgr-name, as examples.
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