XMLFragmenter

Each fragment is output as a separate FME feature via the Fragments port. Each feature from the port will have an xml_fragment attribute holding the fragment. The fragment is a valid XML document that may be further processed via subsequent XML-based and/or XQuery-based transformers.

Three additional attributes are added to the Fragments features:

• xml_matched_element – records the element that was matched. This attribute can be used to identify which element matched the expression, if the last component of the matched expression is a wildcard character (*).
• xml_id – holds an ID for that element. This attribute is not guaranteed to be globally unique, but it will be unique only in the context of the input document.
• xml_parent_id – holds an ID for the parent of that element. If the parent of the element is not matched or it does not have any parent, then this attribute is empty.
• xml_parent_child_pos – holds the position of the element in relation to its parent. If the parent of the element is not matched or it doesn’t have any parent, then this attribute is empty. The xml_parent_child_pos starts its count at 0.

If ‘Flatten Options’ or/and ‘Descendent Options’ are enabled, then the Fragments features will have additional attributes related to the contents of the matched XML element.

The XML source type is either an XML file or a feature attribute whose value is the entire XML document.

This parameter specifies which fragments to map. The Feature Paths are either whitespace-separated xfMap match expressions or each expression can be specified on new line.

This parameter can be typed directly in the text box or click the browse button to display the editor or choose a feature attribute.

Example

<dc:metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">

<dc:subject>Utah</dc:subject>

<dc:subject>boundaries</dc:subject>

<dc:subject>County</dc:subject>

<dc:subject>Administrative</dc:subject>

<dc:subject>geoscientificInformation</dc:subject>

<dc:description>This data set represents county boundaries in Utah at 1:24,000 scale.</dc:description>

<dc:date>2004-04-20T00:00:00.000</dc:date>

<dc:type>dataset</dc:type>

<dc:identifier xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">{42AE2814-FCC1-4BC2-BAF4-CA3E55514997}</dc:identifier>

<dc:language>en</dc:language>

<dc:spatial>

<dcmiBox:Box name="Geographic" projection="EPSG:4326" xmlns:dcmiBox="http://dublincore.org/documents/2000/07/11/dcmi-box/">

<dcmiBox:northlimit units="decimal degrees">42.01</dcmiBox:northlimit>

<dcmiBox:eastlimit units="decimal degrees">-109.21</dcmiBox:eastlimit>

<dcmiBox:southlimit units="decimal degrees">36.98</dcmiBox:southlimit>

<dcmiBox:westlimit units="decimal degrees">-114.1</dcmiBox:westlimit>

</dcmiBox:Box>

</dc:spatial>

<dc:rights></dc:rights>

</dc:metadata>

These are a few Feature Paths xfMap expressions targeting the above <dc:metadata> input document:

If a feature path in ‘Elements to Match’ matches multiple elements, then this parameter can be used to specify which elements should be excluded in the results. The input to this parameter also takes the form of the feature path xfMap expressions described in the ‘Elements to Match’ parameter.

Using the input document above, if the ‘Elements to Match’ is set to ‘dcmi:Box/*’ and ‘Elements to Exclude’ is set to ‘dcmi:northlimit dcmi:eastlimit” then only 2 fragment features will be output corresponding only to <dcmi:southlimit> and <dcmi:westlimit> elements.

Setting this parameter to Yes will merge the attributes from the input feature to the output features.

The Options button opens the XML Flatten Options dialog. These options control the children of the matched elements to be flattened as attributes/attribute lists on the features produced.

The default view is Basic mode, where several options are listed:

• Ignore Specific Sub-Elements > Sub-Elements To Ignore : specify the children of the matched elements (from Flatten Paths) that should be ignored. For example, In the example above, if Flatten Paths is “shipto”, then if this option is set to “country city” then both country and city contents are ignored in the output.
• Skip Empty Elements : specify whether empty elements should be mapped as empty feature attributes
• Add Custom Prefix > Prefix: specify the prefix for all the feature attributes that will be added from the flattened XML structure
• Include XML Child Position > Attribute Name: specify the attribute name whose value will be the position of the child element within its parent.
• Add Ancestor Attributes > Ancestor Element(s) : specify the parent element(s) of the elements in Flatten Path whose XML attributes will also be added as feature attributes in the output.

The Advanced button opens the Advanced Editor, which provides additional options for customizing the feature attributes. The functionality of each option is described in the table below. The options here allows customization of the attributes and attribute lists of the matched XML subtree that will be added to FME Features.

All the options have more detailed examples and descriptions in the FME Readers/Writers manual: XML (Extensible Markup Language) Reader/Writer.

Example

Given the same XML input as above, and Feature Paths xfMap expression is set to “dcmiBox:Box” with the default options in “Flatten Options” will produce the following feature:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Feature Type: `XMLFragmenter_FRAGMENTS'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `eastlimit' has value `-109.21'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `eastlimit.units' has value `decimal degrees'

Attribute(string)         : `fme_type' has value `fme_no_geom'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `northlimit' has value `42.01'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `northlimit.units' has value `decimal degrees'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `southlimit' has value `36.98'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `southlimit.units' has value `decimal degrees'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `westlimit' has value `-114.1'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `westlimit.units' has value `decimal degrees'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `xml_fragment' has value `?<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-

16"?><dcmiBox:Box name="Geographic" projection="EPSG:4326" 

xmlns:dcmiBox="http://dublincore.org/documents/2000/07/11/dcmi-box/">

<dcmiBox:northlimit units="decimal degrees">42.01</dcmiBox:northlimit>

<dcmiBox:eastlimit units="decimal degrees">-109.21</dcmiBox:eastlimit>

<dcmiBox:southlimit units="decimal degrees">36.98</dcmiBox:southlimit>

<dcmiBox:westlimit units="decimal degrees">-114.1</dcmiBox:westlimit>

</dcmiBox:Box>'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `xml_id' has value `id-Box-1.2.1.11.1'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `xml_matched_element' has value `Box'

Attribute(string)         : `xml_type' has value `xml_no_geom'

Geometry Type: Unknown (0)

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The Elements As Fragments parameter can be specified to extract the children of the matched elements as xml fragments.

Example

The same XML input as shown in the above example – with the Feature Paths xfMap expression set to “dcmiBox:Box”, the default options accepted in Flatten Options, and Descendant Options Elements As Fragment set to ‘dcmi:northlimit dcmi:southlimit” – will produce the following feature. (The differences compared to the previous example are highlighted in bold.)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Feature Type: `XMLFragmenter_FRAGMENTS'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `eastlimit' has value `-109.21'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `eastlimit.units' has value `decimal degrees'

Attribute(string)         : `fme_type' has value `fme_no_geom'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `northlimit' has value `42.01'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `northlimit.units' has value `decimal degrees'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `southlimit' has value `36.98'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `southlimit.units' has value `decimal degrees'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `westlimit' has value `-114.1'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `westlimit.units' has value `decimal degrees'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `xml_fragment' has value `?<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-

16"?><dcmiBox:Box name="Geographic" projection="EPSG:4326"

xmlns:dcmiBox="http://dublincore.org/documents/2000/07/11/dcmi-box/">

<dcmiBox:northlimit units="decimal degrees">42.01</dcmiBox:northlimit>

<dcmiBox:eastlimit units="decimal degrees">-109.21</dcmiBox:eastlimit>

<dcmiBox:southlimit units="decimal degrees">36.98</dcmiBox:southlimit>

<dcmiBox:westlimit units="decimal degrees">-114.1</dcmiBox:westlimit>

</dcmiBox:Box>'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `xml_fragment_northlimit{0}' has value `<?xml 
version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?><dcmiBox:northlimit units="decimal degrees" 
xmlns:dcmiBox="http://dublincore.org/documents/2000/07/11/dcmi-box/">42.01</dcmiBox:northlimit>'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `xml_fragment_southlimit{0}' has value `<?xml 
version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?><dcmiBox:southlimit units="decimal degrees" 
xmlns:dcmiBox="http://dublincore.org/documents/2000/07/11/dcmi-box/">36.98</dcmiBox:southlimit>'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `xml_id' has value `id-Box-1.2.1.11.1'

Attribute(encoded: utf-16): `xml_matched_element' has value `Box'

Attribute(string)         : `xml_type' has value `xml_no_geom'

Geometry Type: Unknown (0)

=================================================

Exposes any attributes so they can be used by other transformers. Type directly in the text box or click the browse button to display the editor and add attributes there.