Fixed length fields get their lengths from field definitions in XML structure definition file.

Variable fields get their actual lengths at run time, from input data - from defined preceding length subfields.

Delimited fields are supported with arbitrary delimiter lengths and values. Delimiters are not restricted to ASCII characters and can be defined in hexadecimal format.

Same or different delimiter values and lengths can be defined for different fields.

Selected file names and locations can always be named and saved as configuration templates, to minimize the required effort when running similarly configured tasks in the future.

ParseAce© has been designed to serve as a universal parsing tool - not limited to any specific protocol, data structure or format. It can be used for viewing and checking the contents of many different data structures, as long as you have (prepared or received) the corresponding definition XML files.

Many times we can find several differently structured records in the same file (header, detail, trailer...) or differently structured messages in the same message exchange sequence (sign-on, transaction request, response, sign-off...). In such circumstances, parsing of different data structures from the same input has to be somehow defined and supported. In ParseAce©, this is achieved by linking data structure definitions with the corresponding structure identifiers (SIDs) - values which are located on a predefined known position in all of the records or in all of the messages.

When you do not want all of the records (or messages) to be parsed, you can explicitly specify a list of record numbers or ranges of record numbers that you actually need and want to see in the output file.

The result of parsing is a HTML output file, in which you can see the fields with their actual values clearly separated and displayed with different background colours. Defined field names show up as soon as the mouse pointer is positioned to hover over displayed fields.

ParseAce© supports multiple value-dependent meaning descriptions and specific background colours, which can be assigned to different possible values of a field.

Defined field values do not have to be ASCII coded and can be specified in XML in hexa-decimal format.

By using a field definition parameter (chkval="Y") in the XML, you specify that the value in this field is only allowed to be one of the values defined in the subordinate meaning definitions. If the value in this field is not one of those explicitly specified, ParseAce© will report a data error.

Field values in the output HTML file can be formatted and presented in several ways: without any conversion (as ASCII characters), converted to hexa-decimal format, to binary format or to decimal number equivalents of binary field values.

Groups of randomly ordered delimited fields with tag field identifiers are also supported. Delimiters as well as tags can have arbitrary lengths and values (not necessarily ASCII).

ParseAce© was developed with non-ASCII (binary) contents in mind. This means that it can successfully parse data structures with binary contents, which can be presented in a user-friendly readable form.

To avoid any ASCII text processing limitations, records in input data files do not need to end with <CR><LF> control characters. You can define your own end-of-record identifiers or even choose not to use them at all.