Field Combiner

The Field Combiner stage combines fields coming from the previous stage in a dataflow to create an XML string.

Field Combiner Options

Option Name Description
Output column name Specify the name of the column that will have the combined fields as XML string.
Output Fields This section helps you select the fields to be combined and perform various actions on those fields.
Note: The Apply Namespace dropdown list and Element, Attribute, and Remove buttons get enabled when you select one or more elements/attributes in the schema pane.
  • Quick Add: Click this button to open the Add/Remove Fields pop-up window. This window displays a list of all the fields coming from the previous stage. Select the fields you want to combine.
    Note: The selected fields are displayed in the schema pane below the Search node field.
  • Search node: Type the name of the node to which you want to navigate in the schema pane. The typed node gets highlighted and its XML path is displayed in the XPath field below the pane.
  • Element: Click this button to convert an attribute to an element in the XML string.
  • Attribute: Click this button to convert an element to an attribute in the XML string.
  • Apply Namespace: If you want to specify an XML namespace for an element or an attribute, select it here.
    Note: You can create namespaces by clicking the Namespace button above. For details on this, see Defining Namespace section below.
  • Remove: Click this button to remove the elements/attributes that you do not want in the XML string.
XPath Click anywhere in this field to view the XML path (XPath) of the node highlighted in the schema pane. To see all the previous XPaths viewed by you, click the down arrow at the right end of the field.
Note: XPath is a language for finding information in an XML document. For further details on this, see https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_xpath.asp
  • Runtime: Use this button to specify multiple runtime instances of Field Combiner. This results in significant performance improvement.
  • OK: Click this button to save all the details entered in this stage.
  • Cancel: Click this button to cancel all the updates you made.
  • Help: Click this button to refer to the help file for this stage.

Defining Namespace

Namespaces allow you to have duplicate element and attribute names in your output by assigning each element or attribute to an XML namespace.

To define one or more namespaces:
  1. On the Field Combiner Options screen, click the Namespace button. The Namespace Details pop-up window is displayed.
  2. In the Prefix column, enter the prefix to be associated with an element or attribute.
  3. In the Namespace column, specify the URL of the namespace.
  4. Repeat to define as many namespaces as you want to use.