XML - Joel Lipman .Com

A quick run through of setting up an export process in SITS

: Joel Lipman; Extensible Markup Language; 21 August 2014; Hits: 3275

Applies to

SITS:Vision v8.7.0
Uniface v9.6.03
Microsoft Windows 7
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (SP1) - 11.0.3128.0

What?
"Quick" may not be the right word, so this is a somewhat summarized article on how to get data out of SITS, up to running the monitors and populating an OUTPUT table in the SITS database. Note that this does not include steps thereafter in the Staging or Target destination which will be specific to your business requirements.

Why?
If you're developing in SITS, and you use the client, the first time(s) you do this, the task is rather daunting. Having done it a few times and run through a few, I thought I'd note this down to remind me if I ever work for a company using SITS:Vision again.

How?

: Joel Lipman; XML Stylesheet Language Transformations; 18 August 2014; Hits: 8369

What?
An article on how to declare an XML element as NULL using the attribute "xsi:nil". I'm going to use a very short example by providing a blank date of birth value:

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-- What I have:
<DATE_OF_BIRTH />
<DATE_OF_BIRTH_EUROPEANFORMAT>//</DATE_OF_BIRTH_EUROPEANFORMAT>

-- What I want:
<DATE_OF_BIRTH xsi:nil="true" />
<DATE_OF_BIRTH_EUROPEANFORMAT xsi:nil="true" />

-- What I have:
<DATE_OF_BIRTH />
<DATE_OF_BIRTH_EUROPEANFORMAT>>//</DATE_OF_BIRTH_EUROPEANFORMAT>
-- What I want:
<DATE_OF_BIRTH xsi:nil="true" />
<DATE_OF_BIRTH_EUROPEANFORMAT xsi:nil="true" />

Why?
Outputting from SITS:Vision to our staging environment, the application would only output blank values using single tags so we had to find a place to introduce it. On strings this has little worth, but on dates which could be NULL, this was necessary (unless we interpreted dates as strings which we don't want to do):

Category: XML Stylesheet Language Transformations :: Article: 578

: Joel Lipman; Extensible Markup Language; 13 August 2014; Hits: 2002

XSD Elements

Element	Explanation
all	Specifies that the child elements can appear in any order. Each child element can occur 0 or 1 time
annotation	Specifies the top-level element for schema comments
any	Enables the author to extend the XML document with elements not specified by the schema
anyAttribute	Enables the author to extend the XML document with attributes not specified by the schema
appinfo	Specifies information to be used by the application (must go inside annotation)
attribute	Defines an attribute
attributeGroup	Defines an attribute group to be used in complex type definitions
choice	Allows only one of the elements contained in the declaration to be present within the containing element
complexContent	Defines extensions or restrictions on a complex type that contains mixed content or elements only
complexType	Defines a complex type element
documentation	Defines text comments in a schema (must go inside annotation)
element	Defines an element
extension	Extends an existing simpleType or complexType element
field	Specifies an XPath expression that specifies the value used to define an identity constraint
group	Defines a group of elements to be used in complex type definitions
import	Adds multiple schemas with different target namespace to a document
include	Adds multiple schemas with the same target namespace to a document
key	Specifies an attribute or element value as a key (unique, non-nullable, and always present) within the containing element in an instance document
keyref	Specifies that an attribute or element value correspond to those of the specified key or unique element
list	Defines a simple type element as a list of values
notation	Describes the format of non-XML data within an XML document
redefine	Redefines simple and complex types, groups, and attribute groups from an external schema
restriction	Defines restrictions on a simpleType, simpleContent, or a complexContent
schema	Defines the root element of a schema
selector	Specifies an XPath expression that selects a set of elements for an identity constraint
sequence	Specifies that the child elements must appear in a sequence. Each child element can occur from 0 to any number of times
simpleContent	Contains extensions or restrictions on a text-only complex type or on a simple type as content and contains no elements
simpleType	Defines a simple type and specifies the constraints and information about the values of attributes or text-only elements
union	Defines a simple type as a collection (union) of values from specified simple data types
unique	Defines that an element or an attribute value must be unique within the scope

XSD Restrictions/Facets for Datatypes

Constraint	Description
enumeration	Defines a list of acceptable values
fractionDigits	Specifies the maximum number of decimal places allowed. Must be equal to or greater than zero
length	Specifies the exact number of characters or list items allowed. Must be equal to or greater than zero
maxExclusive	Specifies the upper bounds for numeric values (the value must be less than this value)
maxInclusive	Specifies the upper bounds for numeric values (the value must be less than or equal to this value)
maxLength	Specifies the maximum number of characters or list items allowed. Must be equal to or greater than zero
minExclusive	Specifies the lower bounds for numeric values (the value must be greater than this value)
minInclusive	Specifies the lower bounds for numeric values (the value must be greater than or equal to this value)
minLength	Specifies the minimum number of characters or list items allowed. Must be equal to or greater than zero
pattern	Defines the exact sequence of characters that are acceptable
totalDigits	Specifies the maximum number of digits allowed. Must be greater than zero
whiteSpace	Specifies how white space (line feeds, tabs, spaces, and carriage returns) is handled

Source(s):

w3schools.com

SITS: Export field code and name

: Joel Lipman; Extensible Markup Language; 12 August 2014; Hits: 2333

Applies to:

Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise
SITS:Vision Students (v8.7.0)

What?
You might be able to work it out from the online manuals but it took me a while, we wanted to bring back both the code and the lookup value in our XML to our Staging environment.

Why?
Let's take the country of birth of a person as an example as it is expected to be a long list and where just using the parameter &S is not workable. Instead I want to use &G[] and get both the code and the lookup value:

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-- What I have: no export format
<stu_codc>5826</stu_codc>

-- What I could have: export format set to get lookup value
-- &GCOD_NAME.COD.SRS
<stu_codc>England</stu_codc>

-- What I want: export format to get multiple values
-- &G[COD.SRS:•<•<COD_CODE.COD•>•>|•<•<COD_NAME.COD•>•>]
<stu_codc>5826|England</stu_codc>

-- What I have: no export format
<stu_codc>5826</stu_codc>
-- What I could have: export format set to get lookup value
-- &GCOD_NAME.COD.SRS
<stu_codc>England</stu_codc>
-- What I want: export format to get multiple values
-- &G[COD.SRS:•<•<COD_CODE.COD•>•>|•<•<COD_NAME.COD•>•>]
<stu_codc>5826|England</stu_codc>

How?

Category: Extensible Markup Language :: Article: 575

: Joel Lipman; Extensible Markup Language; 08 August 2014; Hits: 1980

What?
Trying to export a STU record but I want to use the XET template I created rather than the pre-installed XML export formats. When I try to export using data format XET, the system has never heard of it.

Why?
To test the XET I created, I want to see what the resulting XML will look like so that my post-staging phase can be developed as it will know what the data and label fields look like.

How?