The PLISAXx (x = A or B) built-in subroutines provide basic XML parsing capability which allows programs to consume inbound XML documents, check them for well-formedness, and react to their contents.
These subroutines do not provide XML generation, which must instead be accomplished by PL/I program logic or by using the XMLCHAR built-in function.
PLISAXA and PLISAXB have no special environmental requirements. They execute in all the principal run-time environments, including CICS, IMS, and MQ Series, as well as z/OS batch and TSO.
PLISAXA and PLISAXB do have some important limits: they have no support for XML name spaces, no support for Unicode UTF-8 documents, and they require that the entire XML document be passed to them (either in a buffer or a file) before they do any parsing of it. The PLISAXC built-in subroutine does not have these limits, and while it has much similarity with the PLISAXA and PLISAXB built-in subroutines, it is different enough that this chapter will not describe it. The next chapter will discuss PLISAXC in detail.