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carolynherlin1-Visitor
1-Visitor
August 16, 2010
Question

Exporting XML

  • August 16, 2010
  • 3 replies
  • 999 views


I have a need to pull selected information from my "master" XML file and write it to an XML file with a different DTD. I'll need a separate process to take information from that separate XML file and put it back in my "master." Does any one have suggestions about thebest way to go about this?



Thanks,

Carolyn Herlin


    3 replies

    C
    ClayHelberg18-Opal
    18-Opal
    August 16, 2010
    Hi Carolyn—



    This sounds like a perfect job for XSLT. You can apply an XSLT tranformation in Arbortext pretty easily, and XSLT is designed for this sort of thing. You would need one transformation stylesheet for the export piece (“pull selected information from the ‘master’ XML file”), and another one for the import piece (“take information from the separate XML file and put it back in the ‘master’”).



    You could also do it using ACL, or the Arbortext Object Model via Java, Javascript, or VBScript. Or, you could do it outside of Arbortext completely, using Perl or something like that.



    It really depends on what kind of skills you have available, either yourself or in other staff you can assign to the task. If you don’t already know it, XSLT can have a bit of a learning curve to it. But then again, any other approach is going to involve some programming of one kind or another, so you’ll need someone with appropriate expertise to handle the implementation.



    --Clay


    A
    Anonymous
    August 16, 2010
    Couple of routes to go with this.



    If the "master" isn't terribly complex, I'd go with open(id,path) func
    to create new doc fragment with doctype declaration pointing to
    different DTD. Use while(getline(id,var)) {put(id,var)} with some
    match/match_result funcs to just pull over what you're after.



    If the structure is complex enough that a line-by-line pull might create
    invalid structure, you'd probably be better off with doc_open(). I do
    this a lot with larger documents, to keep from creating windows and
    loading styles that bog down the machine with larger docs.



    Some expanded definition on the structures you're working with and what
    kind of information is being passed back and forth would help narrow
    down some approaches.



    HIH,



    -Jason
    N
    naglists1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    August 16, 2010
    I agree with Clay. XSL should be your first choice (barring, also as Clay
    suggests, deep skills in any other technology that will work and little or
    no skills in XSL).

    I am always very wary of "round-tripping" where, I like to joke, the
    operative term is "trip," as in it will trip you up. While this is sometimes
    unavoidable, great care should be taken before committing to such a
    workflow. Round-tripping is inherently fragile since the code supporting to-
    and fro- is typically very, very tightly aimed at the narrowest successful
    set of elements/attributes/features. Changes to either side of the trip can
    cause problems, even seemingly unrelated changes. Applications (custom and
    off-the-shelf) on both sides of the trip can become version bound when
    scarce resources prevent the testing necessary to vet an upgrade. Etc. etc.
    etc.

    On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 12:20 PM, Carolyn Herlin
    <->wrote:

    > I have a need to pull selected information from my "master" XML file and
    > write it to an XML file with a different DTD. I'll need a separate process
    > to take information from that separate XML file and put it back in my
    > "master." Does any one have suggestions about the best way to go about this?
    >
    >
    >
    > Thanks,
    >
    > Carolyn Herlin
    >
    >
    >
    >
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