Beginner’s Guide to AS/400 XML & How CoolSpools Can Convert it For You

If you work in an IBM AS/400, System i or iSeries environment, did you know it’s possible to convert data from your spool files into a variety of file formats?

The easy way to do this is by using a spool file converter, such as CoolSpools. This clever piece of software takes data direct from your System i spool files and converts into to file formats such as XML.

But why would you want to produce XML? The experts behind CoolSpools, Ariadne Software, explain:

First up – what is XML?

An abbreviation of “Extensible Markup Language”, XML is a format that presents information in a way that can be understood both by human readers and by machines.

What can I use XML for?

There are many uses for XML documents. They can be used to exchange data over the internet, to populate content management systems, for web development, database development… the uses are almost endless.

How do I produce XML documents?

If you’re running an IBM AS/400 server, the easiest way to populate XML documents with the data you need is by using a spool file converter and database tool such as CoolSpools software.

Sounds difficult!

Not with CoolSpools software. It’s designed to do all the hard work – the data extraction, the spool file conversion, the formatting… what you’ll get is AS/400 data that is ready to be imported into your CMS, web application or whatever else you need.

Why is using CoolSpools spool file converter better than manually creating interface files?

Many reasons! The data is coming direct and automatically from your AS/400 – so there’s no need to worry about human error leading to incorrect data. And converting AS/400 data automatically to XML is much, much faster than manually processing it, so you’ll save time too.

So what else can CoolSpools software do?

Too many things to mention here! As well as converting AS/400 data to XML, you can also convert spool files to PDF (and even insert images), convert spool files to Excel (and apply conditional formatting), convert spool files to HTML (ideal for web developers) plus a whole host of other popular file formats. CoolSpools can even email your outputted files to the recipients you specify – everything’s taken care of for you.

Find out more about how CoolSpools software can help you produce accurate, fast XML at https://coolspools.com/.