XML Import

[Bill Campbell]

On Tue, Apr 14, 2009, Kenneth Brody wrote:
>Scott Walker wrote:
>> 
>> Thanks for the input.  I need to get on something with this.  I was hoping
>> someone had developed a generic "black box" where you could plug in the xml
>> schema info and your fp file map info and have it do a lot of the heavy
>> lifting.  With the fact that every xml file from a different source will
>> have a different schema the only constant is my applications layout.
>> Perhaps each xml source will have to be programmed by hand.  I will have to
>> do some real thinking on this.  There has to be a better way than that.
>[...]
>
>I don't think there can be a "generic black box" when it comes to XML, 
>unless you can impose some sort of standardization on the files you are 
>going to import.  The fact that the field you are looking for may be a 
>"<bar>" node within a "<foo>" node when coming from company A, and a 
>"<grok>" node within a "<snarf>" from company B means that someone, 
>somewhere, needs to tell filePro where things are at least once.

Standardization of things like this is why XML supports schemas,
DTDs, and validation against these.  There are standards for many
(most) types of XML documents used in business as these are
necessary for many of the B2B transactions now using XML for
electronic data exchange.

Don't ask me for details as this is not an area in which I have
any significant expertise, only one that I have read about in
passing while doing other things.

Bill
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