Terms

To better understand the Copybook data protocol, it is important to understand the following terms:

Copybook: A hierarchical structure that is used to define the layout of data. The copybook identifies the field names, their lengths, and their relationships to each other.
Copybook File Definition: A file in plain text format containing a copybook.
Field: A single element in a copybook. A field encapsulates a name for, the length of, and the data type for a single logical piece of data in a record.
Payload: A collection of one or more records that VSE identifies in either a single request or a single response.
Payload Mapping File: Also known as a Payload Copybook Mapping or Payload to File Definition Map, a payload mapping file is an XML document describing how to identify the copybook or copybooks required to parse a payload. The payload mapping file provides the basic structure for the resulting XML.
Record: A collection of data with no inherent structural elements. One or more fields making up a single copybook defines a record. A record may not contain data for every field a copybook defines, but the relationship between records and copybooks is always one-to-one. A specific record is defined only by a single copybook, and a single copybook defines only one record.