CODEWITHSUNDEEP
biztalk
hosir
hosir

Reputation: 477

How to specify the Flat File Schema to handle random sequence of different line types?

I have a two types of flat file lines,

  1. start with @, e.g. @111 222 333

  2. start with #, e.g. #777 888 999

We can use tag identifier to identify these two types of lines. Unfortunately, these two lines may appear in any sequence in a file, like @@###, or @#@#@, or ###@@ etc.

If use flat file dissembler schema, seems the sequence must be in order, say @@@##, @##, it can disassemble all flat file content into XML format.

But if the file format is @@#@@# or @###@#, it cannot dissemble all file content and will stop at the middle, say @@#@@# can only disassemble @@#, @###@# can only disassemble @###.

I think it is because the flat file schema specify the sequence is @ and then #, therefore, @ cannot appear after # (please inform if my understanding is wrong).

Any solution to our case?

Thanks.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 795

Answers (1)

Dijkgraaf
Dijkgraaf

Reputation: 11527

Put a the tagged records under a Choice Group that can occur multiple times. See example below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<xs:schema xmlns="http://Scratch.FlatFileSchemaRandomTagOrder" xmlns:b="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003" targetNamespace="http://Scratch.FlatFileSchemaRandomTagOrder" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <xs:annotation>
    <xs:appinfo>
      <b:schemaInfo standard="Flat File" root_reference="Root" default_pad_char=" " pad_char_type="char" count_positions_by_byte="false" parser_optimization="speed" lookahead_depth="3" suppress_empty_nodes="false" generate_empty_nodes="true" allow_early_termination="false" early_terminate_optional_fields="false" allow_message_breakup_of_infix_root="false" compile_parse_tables="false" />
      <schemaEditorExtension:schemaInfo namespaceAlias="b" extensionClass="Microsoft.BizTalk.FlatFileExtension.FlatFileExtension" standardName="Flat File" xmlns:schemaEditorExtension="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003/SchemaEditorExtensions" />
    </xs:appinfo>
  </xs:annotation>
  <xs:element name="Root">
    <xs:annotation>
      <xs:appinfo>
        <b:recordInfo structure="delimited" preserve_delimiter_for_empty_data="true" suppress_trailing_delimiters="false" sequence_number="1" child_order="postfix" child_delimiter_type="hex" child_delimiter="0x0D 0x0A" />
      </xs:appinfo>
    </xs:annotation>
    <xs:complexType>
      <xs:sequence>
        <xs:annotation>
          <xs:appinfo>
            <b:groupInfo sequence_number="0" />
          </xs:appinfo>
        </xs:annotation>
        <xs:choice minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">
          <xs:annotation>
            <xs:appinfo>
              <b:groupInfo sequence_number="1" />
            </xs:appinfo>
          </xs:annotation>
          <xs:element name="RecordHash">
            <xs:annotation>
              <xs:appinfo>
                <b:recordInfo structure="delimited" preserve_delimiter_for_empty_data="true" suppress_trailing_delimiters="false" sequence_number="1" tag_name="#" child_order="infix" child_delimiter_type="char" child_delimiter=" " />
              </xs:appinfo>
            </xs:annotation>
            <xs:complexType>
              <xs:sequence>
                <xs:annotation>
                  <xs:appinfo>
                    <b:groupInfo sequence_number="0" />
                  </xs:appinfo>
                </xs:annotation>
                <xs:element name="Field1" type="xs:string">
                  <xs:annotation>
                    <xs:appinfo>
                      <b:fieldInfo sequence_number="1" justification="left" />
                    </xs:appinfo>
                  </xs:annotation>
                </xs:element>
                <xs:element name="Field2" type="xs:string">
                  <xs:annotation>
                    <xs:appinfo>
                      <b:fieldInfo justification="left" sequence_number="2" />
                    </xs:appinfo>
                  </xs:annotation>
                </xs:element>
                <xs:element name="Field3" type="xs:string">
                  <xs:annotation>
                    <xs:appinfo>
                      <b:fieldInfo justification="left" sequence_number="3" />
                    </xs:appinfo>
                  </xs:annotation>
                </xs:element>
              </xs:sequence>
            </xs:complexType>
          </xs:element>
          <xs:element name="RecordAt">
            <xs:annotation>
              <xs:appinfo>
                <b:recordInfo sequence_number="2" structure="delimited" preserve_delimiter_for_empty_data="true" suppress_trailing_delimiters="false" tag_name="@" child_order="infix" child_delimiter_type="char" child_delimiter=" " />
              </xs:appinfo>
            </xs:annotation>
            <xs:complexType>
              <xs:sequence>
                <xs:annotation>
                  <xs:appinfo>
                    <b:groupInfo sequence_number="0" />
                  </xs:appinfo>
                </xs:annotation>
                <xs:element name="Field1" type="xs:string">
                  <xs:annotation>
                    <xs:appinfo>
                      <b:fieldInfo sequence_number="1" justification="left" />
                    </xs:appinfo>
                  </xs:annotation>
                </xs:element>
                <xs:element name="Field2" type="xs:string">
                  <xs:annotation>
                    <xs:appinfo>
                      <b:fieldInfo justification="left" sequence_number="2" />
                    </xs:appinfo>
                  </xs:annotation>
                </xs:element>
                <xs:element name="Field3" type="xs:string">
                  <xs:annotation>
                    <xs:appinfo>
                      <b:fieldInfo justification="left" sequence_number="3" />
                    </xs:appinfo>
                  </xs:annotation>
                </xs:element>
              </xs:sequence>
            </xs:complexType>
          </xs:element>
        </xs:choice>
      </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>
  </xs:element>
</xs:schema>

Sample file 

@111 222 333
#777 888 999
@111 222 333

Output 

<Root xmlns="http://Scratch.FlatFileSchemaRandomTagOrder">
  <RecordAt xmlns="">
    <Field1>111</Field1>
    <Field2>222</Field2>
    <Field3>333</Field3>
  </RecordAt>
  <RecordHash xmlns="">
    <Field1>777</Field1>
    <Field2>888</Field2>
    <Field3>999</Field3>
  </RecordHash>
  <RecordAt xmlns="">
    <Field1>111</Field1>
    <Field2>222</Field2>
    <Field3>333</Field3>
  </RecordAt>
</Root>

Upvotes: 1

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