Styles of XML

9.2.4.1 Styles of XML

The XML message is formatted in either dynamic or static XML. At runtime the contents of dynamic XML are data values that cannot be predetermined using a sample XML or XSD document. The contents of static XML that determine tables and column element or attribute names can be predetermined using those sample documents.

The following two examples contain the same data.

Example 9-5 An Example of Static XML

<NewMyTableEntries> 
  <NewMyTableEntry> 
    <CreateTime>2010-02-05:10:11:21</CreateTime> 
    <KeyCol>keyval</KeyCol> 
    <Col1>col1val</Col1>
  </NewMyTableEntry>
</NewMyTableEntries>

The NewMyTableEntries element marks the transaction boundaries. The NewMyTableEntry indicates an insert to MY.TABLE. The timestamp is present in an element text value, and the column names are indicated by element names.

You can define rules in the properties file to parse either of these two styles of XML through a set of XPath-like properties. The goal of the properties is to map the XML to a predefined source definitions file through XPath matches.

Example 9-6 An Example of Dynamic XML

<transaction id="1234" ts="2010-02-05:10:11:21">
  <operation table="MY.TABLE" optype="I">
    <column name="keycol" index="0">
      <aftervalue><![CDATA[keyval]]></aftervalue>
    </column>
    <column name="col1" index="1">
      <aftervalue><![CDATA[col1val]]></aftervalue>
    </column>
  </operation> 
</transaction>

Every operation to every table has the same basic message structure consisting of transaction, operation and column elements. The table name, operation type, timestamp, column names, column values, etc. are obtained from attribute or element text values.

Parent topic: XML Parsing