FormatCheck 01.01.00 review

FormatCheck is a Java-based application used to verify the format of flat files

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 0K Developer: David Read

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FormatCheck is a Java-based application used to verify the format of flat files. The verification can be quite complex including verification of header/child records within a file, checking for batch header/trailer value matches, and requiring 1 of a set of fields within a record. FormatCheck project features a Swing-based GUI and creates printable reports. Development on FormatCheck began in late 2004 and it has been used on various projects since then.

We have found FormatCheck to be of value when creating file feed definitions for data marts and data warehousing. The ability of the tool to handle a diverse set of file formats, defined in an XML file, allows a set of definitions to be created and shared with the target data owners who can then verify their data extracts before passing them onto the warehousing team. Since FormatCheck is written in Java is can be used on various platforms.

The core of FormatCheck is a set of flat file format definitions that the data architect creates. These definitions express the rules for the file format, including record lengths, record sequence (e.g. a detail must follow either a header or other detail), and data within the records. Multiple formats can be shipped with the tool and a drop-down is provided to allow the user to select which file type he or she wishes to verify.

To use the tool, the user selects the format type and data file and then presses the "Verify File" button. The data file is processed and the set of errors is reported in the FormatCheck window. The user may either copy the errors onto the clipboard or print them. Further, FormatCheck will allow the user to print the data records (either all or those that had errors reported) in a structured format so that columns position are easily identified.

Requirements:
Ant
Java Environment

What's New in This Release:
With this release the incorporation of Log4J, JUnit, and Cobertura is complete.
The unit tests initially placed in several of the classes have been converted to use JUnit.
Due to this conversion, the Apache Xerces library used by the application has been updated to the latest version - leading to the addition of the xml-apis.jar file on the classpath.