Re: Create JSON string in ASCII with one field BASE64 encoded

Thanks Scott.
Since my initial variable value is in EBCDIC, this is what I am planning to
do:
1. Convert the variable to ASCII
2. Encode the ASCII value in BASE64
3. Convert the encoded value to EBCDIC and save back in my variable
4. Create JSON using DATA-GEN
5. Convert the JSON document to ASCII and send it out.

I am not encoding the complete JSON document in BASE64, as the consumer of
my data is expecting only that one variable to be encoded.

I was trying to write a test program to try the encoding, but it won't
Bind, giving error "apr_base64_encode" not found.

I tried adding library QSYSDIR to the LIBL, but got the same error message.
DSPSRVPGM for QSYSDIR/QAXIS10HT shows the procedure. Not sure what
the problem is.

Vinay

On Tue, Aug 8, 2023 at 7:26 PM Scott Klement <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Base64 always preserves the binary value of the data. That's what it's
all about. So if you want the data to be decoded in (which is weird for
an application newer that 1998 -- ASCII has mostly been replaced with
unicode.)

Your steps will look like this:

1) Get the ASCII data (in ASCII format) and encode it in base64.

2) Put the encoded data in your JSON field. If the JSON building tool
you're using is expecting input in EBCDIC, make sure you've converted
the base64-encoded string to EBCDIC (it won't change the underlying
values once decoded.)

3) Create your JSON document (which should be encoded in UTF-8 --a
version of Unicode -- that's the standard for JSON -- which means your
encoded string will also be encoded in UTF-8... again, it won't change
the underlying value.)

4) Encode the JSON document in base64 as well.

5) Send the result whereever it needs to go.

As for IBM-supplied APIs. They provide the Apache Portable Runtime
(APR) which has base64 routines, I'm not a huge fan, but they exist.
SQL also has a base64 function, that works nicely, aside from the fact
that it has a relatively short string length, which can be an issue
sometimes.

For creating JSON, I would either use SQL or DATA-GEN. Personally, I
prefer the latter -- I find it easier and more elegant, other people
prefer SQL... both will do the job.

-SK

On 8/8/2023 6:05 PM, Vinay Gavankar wrote:

Hi,

I want to create a JSON string where one of the fields needs to be BASE64
encoded. The JSON string will then be converted to ASCII to be sent out

to

be used by an ASCII based server.
For example,
{
"Field1" : "aaa",
"Field2" : "bbb",
"Field3" : "ccc"
}
where Value bbb needs to be BASE64 encoded.
I am assuming that BASE64 encoding of EBCDIC and ASCII will give

different

results, and just encoding bbb in EBCDIC before creating JSON string and
then converting full string to ASCII will not do the trick. Is that

correct?

Also, what is the best way of BASE64 encoding/decoding using IBM supplied
APIs?

Any ideas will be greatly appreciated. TIA

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