Write to XML

The Write to XML stage writes the output of a job or subflow to an XML file.

File Properties Tab


Field Name	Description
Data file	Specifies the path to the output XML file. Click the ellipses button (...) to locate the file you want. Note: If the Spectrum Technology Platform server is running on Linux, remember that file names and paths on these platforms are case sensitive.
Actual File	Displays the structure specified in the Fields tab. If you click an element and the file specified in the Data file field contains the element, a preview of the data will be displayed. Note that only data from simple elements can be displayed in the preview.
Export Schema	Click this button to save an XSD file that represents the schema shown in the Actual File view. The schema file is immediately saved to the location you specify.

Fields Tab

The Fields tab defines the fields you want to include in the output XML file. When you add fields, they are displayed in a tree structure. The tree displays the name of the element or attribute that will be written to the XML file. In parentheses following the element-attribute name is the name of the dataflow field followed by the data type, as in this example:

This indicates that four elements and one attribute will be written to the XML file. The attribute is indicated by the red "@" sign.

Note that the element State will contain the data from the field StateProvince and be string data. Likewise, the element ZIP will contain data from the PostalCode field and be string data. The XML file might look like this:

<XmlRoot>
    <Customer Status="0">
        <AddressLine1>7713 Mullen Dr</AddressLine1>
        <City>Austin</City>
        <State>TX</State>
        <ZIP>78757-1346</ZIP>
    </Customer>
    <Customer Status="0">
        <AddressLine1>1825B Kramer Ln</AddressLine1>
        <City>Austin</City>
        <State>TX</State>
        <ZIP>78758-4260</ZIP>
    </Customer>
</XmlRoot>

Note: The root element name (in this example <XmlRoot>) is specified on the File Properties tab.

The following table describes the options on the Fields tab.


Option Name	Description
Add	Adds a field to the output.
Modify	Modifies how the field is written to XML. You can specify the following: Output type This option is available if you are modifying a simple field. It specifies whether the dataflow field should be written to an XML element or attribute. Element Select this to write the field's data to an XML element. Specify the element name you want to use in the Element name field. Attribute Writes the field's data to an attribute of the parent element. Specify the attribute name you want to use in the Attribute name field. Element name/Attribute name Specifies the name of the element or attribute to be written to the XML file. The default name is the dataflow field name. Change all children to This option is available if you are modifying a complex element. It specifies the type of XML you want the complex element to contain. One of the following: No change The child types remain as they are currently defined, either element or attribute. You can specify the type for each field individually by selecting the field and clicking Modify. Elements All simple fields under the element are written as XML elements. Attributes All simple fields under the element are written as XML attributes. Namespace If you want to specify an XML namespace to use for the element or attribute, select it here. You can create namespaces on the Fields tab of the Write to XML stage. Include empty fields Check this box to include in the output file XML elements that have a null value or no data. If you do not check this box, empty elements will not be included in the output. For example, if you define an element named `<City>` but there is a record that does not have any data in the City field, the XML output will contain the following if you check Include empty fields: `<City xs:nil="true"></City>` If you do not check this box the `<City>` element will not be written to the output file. Note: Dataflow field displays the field whose data will be written to the element or attribute. This is displayed so that if you change the element or attribute name to something different you can still see which field's data is contained in the element or attribute.
Remove	Removes the selected field from the output. If you remove a list field all child fields are also removed. If you remove a child field, just the selected child field is removed from the list field.
Remove All	Removes all the fields from the output.
Move Up/Move Down	Reorders the selected field. Note that you cannot move simple elements into complex elements. If you want to modify the elements in a complex element, you must modify your dataflow's Aggregator stage to include the dataflow fields you want in the complex element. For more information, see Creating Complex XML from Flat Data.
Regenerate	Replaces the fields currently defined with the fields coming into Write to XML from the upstream channel.

Runtime Tab


Option Name	Description
Generate multiple files	Select this option to write records to different files instead of writing all records to one file. The file to which each record is written is specified in the record itself. Each record must contain a field that specifies either a file name or the full file path of the file to which you want the record written. For example, if you want to send the stock prices of different companies (of various groups) to all the clients separately, this feature writes the stock prices of different companies into separate files that may be sent to each of the clients, if you so wish. If you enable the Generate multiple file option you must specify an output file on either the Spectrum Technology Platform server or on an FTP server. If you want to write data to a file on an FTP server you must define a connection to the file server using Spectrum Management Console. Note: The records in the column you select in the File path field must be in sorted order. Use this feature when record contains either a file name or the full file path of the file.
File path field	Selects the field that contains the path (either a file name or the full file path) of the file to which you want to write the record. Note that only the simple type elements mapped directly to a root will be listed in the File path field. This field is only enabled if you select the Generate multiple files.
Generate schema at runtime	Select this option to generate an XSD at runtime and insert a `noNamespaceSchemaLocation` reference to schema in the XML file. The value of attribute `noNamespaceSchemaLocation` is XSD file name in the XML file. If you export the schema while editing a dataflow, there will be no reference to the XSD in the output XML file and the user would need to manually add in the reference to the XSD.
Schema path	Specifies the path to save the XSD file that contains the schema of the output XML file. Click the ellipses button (...) to browse to the file you want. The schema file is saved to the location you specify when you run the dataflow.