What is z/OS XML System Services?

z/OS XML System Services (z/OS XML®) parser is a system level XML parser that is integrated with the base z/OS operating system. It is intended for use by system components, middleware, and applications that need a simple, efficient, non-validating XML parsing solution. z/OS XML may currently be accessed by a C/C++ or an assembler programming interface.

• The z/OS XML parser is an integrated parser for z/OS.
• The z/OS XML parser provides a C/C++ and assembler interface for callers to use.
• The z/OS XML parser provides a buffer-in, buffer-out processing model instead of the event driven model common to SAX parsers.
• The z/OS XML parser natively handles a number of character encodings, including the following:
  • UTF-8
  • UTF-16 (big endian)
  • IBM-1047
  • IBM-037
• The z/OS XML parser uses buffer spanning to handle documents of unbounded length.
• The z/OS XML parser contains minimal linkage overhead.
• The z/OS XML parser provides the ability for parsing operations to be run on a zAAP (zSeries Application Assist Processor) processor.
• The z/OS XML parser provides assistive aids to the user in debugging not well formed documents.

Learn more about z/OS XML

To learn more about the z/OS XML parser, see
z/OS XML System Services User's Guide and Reference.

There are also a couple of Hot Topics articles: Meet the Parsers: z/OS and XML - a different approach, which provides a good overview of the z/OS XML parser and its features, and Kicking down the costs of XML, which looks at how the z/OS XML parser uses ZAAPs to improve its performance.