afplib

JAVA Library for reading & writing AFP (Advanced Function Presentation) Files. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Function_Presentation

afplib provides a low level API to transform AFP files, i.e. structured fields, triplets, ... into JAVA objects and vice versa. To make use of it you need to know MO:DCA (see http://afpcinc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/MODCA-Reference-Mixed-Object-Document-Content-Architecture-Reference.pdf). afplib is build on top of EMF (Eclipse Modeling Framework) - http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/emf/

Home: http://afplib.org

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afplib is also the base for a commercial product the author built: https://afpworx.com an analyzing tool for AFP files. If you want to understand how your AFP is structured give it a shot - Free trials are available on the website.

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How to get started

Create a new maven project (https://maven.apache.org)

Use a pom like this:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
	<groupId>org.afplib.samples</groupId>
	<artifactId>HelloWorld</artifactId>
	<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>

	<dependencies>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.afplib</groupId>
			<artifactId>afplib</artifactId>
			<version>0.0.14</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.eclipse.emf</groupId>
			<artifactId>org.eclipse.emf.ecore</artifactId>
			<version>2.10.1</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.eclipse.emf</groupId>
			<artifactId>org.eclipse.emf.common</artifactId>
			<version>2.10.1</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.eclipse.emf</groupId>
			<artifactId>org.eclipse.emf.ecore.xmi</artifactId>
			<version>2.10.1</version>
		</dependency>
	</dependencies>

	<build>
		<sourceDirectory>src</sourceDirectory>
		<plugins>
			<plugin>
				<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
				<version>3.1</version>
				<configuration>
					<source>1.7</source>
					<target>1.7</target>
				</configuration>
			</plugin>
		</plugins>
	</build>
</project>

Create a Hello World App

import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;

import org.afplib.afplib.AfplibFactory;
import org.afplib.afplib.BDT;
import org.afplib.afplib.Comment;
import org.afplib.afplib.EDT;
import org.afplib.io.AfpOutputStream;


public class HelloWorld {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		try (AfpOutputStream aout = new AfpOutputStream(new FileOutputStream("hello.afp"))) {

			BDT bdt = AfplibFactory.eINSTANCE.createBDT();
			bdt.setDocName("HELLOWLD");
			Comment comment = AfplibFactory.eINSTANCE.createComment();
			comment.setComment("My first AFPLib Program");
			bdt.getTriplets().add(comment);
			
			aout.writeStructuredField(bdt);

			EDT edt = AfplibFactory.eINSTANCE.createEDT();
			edt.setDocName("HELLOWLD");
			aout.writeStructuredField(edt);
			
		} catch (IOException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}
	
}

Overview

Have a look on the definition of Begin Document (BDT) - MOD:CA reference page 128:

and afplib's representation of it:

...
public interface BDT extends SF {
	String getDocName();
	void setDocName(String value);

	Integer getReserved();
	void setReserved(Integer value);

	EList<Triplet> getTriplets();
} // BDT

afplib frees you from creating the structured field introducer (ID, calculating structured field length), and knowing which attributes at what position and length a structured field has.

Consider e.g. following file:

5A002BD3A8A8000000C8C5D3D3D6E6D3C400001965D4A840868999A2A340C1C6D7D3898240D79996879981945A0010D3A9A8000001C8C5D3D3D6E6D3C4

or broken down:

hex code	description
5A 00 2B	magic byte (5a) and length
D3 A8 A8 00 00 00	id (BDT) and flags
C8 C5 D3 D3 D6 E6 D3 C4 00 00	DocName = HELLOWLD (EBCDIC)
19 65	Triplet Length and ID (Comment)
D4 A8 40 86 89 99 A2 A3 40 C1 C6 D7 D3 89 82 40 D7 99 96 87 99 81 94	My first AFPLib Program (EBCDIC)
5A 00 10	magic byte and length
D3 A9 A8 00 00 01	id (EDT) and flags
C8 C5 D3 D3 D6 E6 D3 C4	DocName = HELLOWLD (EBCDIC)

afplib transforms this binary data into the following:

		try(AfpInputStream ain = new AfpInputStream(new FileInputStream("hello.afp"))) {
			
			BDT bdt = (BDT) ain.readStructuredField();
			EDT edt = (EDT) ain.readStructuredField();
			
			System.out.println(bdt.getDocName());
			System.out.println(bdt.getReserved());
			System.out.println(bdt.getTriplets().size());
			System.out.println(((Comment)bdt.getTriplets().get(0)).getComment());

			System.out.println(edt.getDocName());
			
		} catch (IOException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}

Output:

HELLOWLD                # System.out.println(bdt.getDocName());
0                       # System.out.println(bdt.getReserved());
1                       # System.out.println(bdt.getTriplets().size());
My first AFPLib Program # System.out.println(((Comment)bdt.getTriplets().get(0)).getComment());
HELLOWLD                # System.out.println(edt.getDocName());