Use XMLPARSE to select the parser that you want to use for XML processing and, therefore, the XML processing capabilities that are available to your program.

XMLPARSE option syntax

Default is: XMLSS

Abbreviations are: XP(X), XP(C)

If you specify the XMLPARSE(XMLSS) option, XML PARSE statements are processed using the z/OS XML System Services parser.
The following XML parsing capabilities are available only when the XMLPARSE(XMLSS) option is specified:

• Enhanced namespace processing (special registers XML-NAMESPACE, XML-NNAMESPACE, XML-NAMESPACE-PREFIX, and XML-NNAMESPACE-PREFIX)
• The RETURNING NATIONAL phrase of the XML PARSE statement, for selecting automatic conversion of document fragments to Unicode UTF-16
• The ENCODING phrase of the XML PARSE statement, for specifying the encoding of the input document
• Direct parsing of XML documents encoded in UTF-8
• Parsing of XML documents, a buffer of XML at a time
• Offloading of XML parsing to System z™ Application Assist Processors (zAAPs)

If you specify the XMLPARSE(COMPAT) option, XML PARSE statements are processed using the XML parser that is a built-in component of the COBOL run time.
XML PARSE statement results and operational behaviors are compatible with those of Enterprise COBOL Version 3.
When you specify XMLPARSE(COMPAT), Enterprise COBOL does not support the advanced features described above for XMLPARSE(XMLSS).
The syntax for the RETURNING NATIONAL and ENCODING phrases of the XML PARSE statement is not accepted.