Innovative Routines International (IRI), Inc., The CoSort Company

Free Java GUI Designs and Deploys SortCL Jobs

Background

SortCL -- short for Sort Control Language -- is the CoSort package's most popular and feature-rich user interface. Both a standalone executable and callable library routine, the SortCL program uses easy metadata to define the layouts (DDL) and manipulations (DML) of massive flat files. SortCL users can combine: data transformation, conversion, protection and reporting. For more details, see the Solution areas of this web site, and:

Products > CoSort > SortCL
Products > CoSort > SortCL Metadata

SortCL jobs are specified in text files and run from the command line, batch scripts, programs, and the Graphical User Interface-to-SortCL ("gui2scl") application. In 1999, CoSort Version 7 featured the first cross-platform sort job design and launch GUI.

CoSort Version 9 continues to provide an easy-to-use alternative to command-line operations for developing, reviewing, and deploying SortCL jobs across a network.

The Java-based "gui2scl" client-side application and the "guiagent" server-side listener work in tandem to create, read, modify, save, launch, and feedback on, new and existing SortCL job scripts. You can use the GUI and text editors interchangeably.

How it Works

After installing a current Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and the gui2scl client application, you are ready to build a new SortCL script, import an existing SortCL script, and preview available SortCL metadata (.ddf) repositories:

Once you open or start a SortCL script and specify runtime options for it, specify your input files and their field layouts.

Next, select the kind of job to run; i.e. a:

• Sort
• Merge
• Report
• Check
• Join

Note that you can still combine many different actions in the same job script. For example, a multi-table join operation can also involve sorting and aggregation, and product multiple, custom-formatted report outputs containing remapped fields (that may include encryption, math, or other complex transforms).

After the input source(s), action, and output target(s) are specified, review your active SortCL script, and use the navigation tree to help you modify it.

Save the script to make it available for approval, and later modification and use throughout the enterprise. At execution time, just choose the SortCL job and platform you need:

With gui2scl you can design SortCL jobs on any Java desktop, and run the job on any Unix, Linux or Windows platform where SortCL is licensed and more CPU resources may be available.

Where Can I Get More Information on SortCL?

Here: Products > CoSort > SortCL
SortCL plays in an integral role in almost every Solution area described on this web site. Click to read about SortCL's role in:

• Business Intelligence
• Data Governance
• Data Transformation
• ETL/DB Acceleration
• Field Protection
• File Interchange
• Sort Migration