XML Import

[Nancy Palmquist]

Scott Walker wrote:
>
> I have a new project I am starting on and would like some advice & 
> perhaps some code.
>
> My customer has about (20) factories that they represent. Each factory 
> has their own program used to produce a quote for stuff sold by that 
> factory. So when my customer needs to produce a quote to one of their 
> customers for something they sell for factory A, they use factory A’s 
> program to produce the quote. Then they reenter the data from that 
> quote into my software. Likewise, if they need to produce a quote to 
> one of their customers for something they sell for factory B, they use 
> factory B’s program to produce the quote and then reenter data from 
> that quote into my software. In this way, my customer can track all 
> the quotes to their cusotomers in one centralized database. Many of 
> these programs can (or will in the future) be able to output an XML 
> file. The layout of the XML files from each different factory will be 
> different (and not controlled by us!).
>
> Sounds sort of like EDI with no agreed upon standards.
>
> So I need some some sort of method of mapping the data from these 
> different sources, which will be in XML files with different 
> structures, into my quote program (with it’s structure) for easy 
> importing. The factories may change and their XML files may change 
> over time so I really want to avoid hard coding stuff and instead have 
> some flexible black box type software in the middle, hopefully in filePro.
>
> If anyone has done anything like this and can share some guidance, I 
> would appreciate it. If you have an application or code that can be 
> incorporated into my code that would make this process easier, I would 
> be willing to pay for it.
>
> Regards,
>
> Scott
>
> Scott Walker
>
> RAM Systems Corp
>
> (704) 896-6549
>
> ScottWalker at RAMSystemCorp.com
>
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>
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>   
Scott,

I designed an XML <> filepro interface. I set up a filePro database 
which uses the XML tag(s) to do a lookup to the file and then tells me 
what file and field the data should post to or read from. (Depending on 
if you are reading or writing XML)

Each XML structure is assigned a master code (could be something in the 
XML or how you get the file that identifies the source as you called 
Plant A, B, C) so you can get the right interface.

Don't know if you want to talk this over more but I have found it very 
workable, since the formats that I read and write have changed over time 
and all I really had to do was adjust the filePro database to make the 
changes.

Nancy

-- 
Nancy Palmquist 		MOS & filePro Training Available
Virtual Software Systems	Web Based Training and Consulting	
PHONE: (412) 835-9417		   Web site:  http://www.vss3.com