XMLSampleGenerator

There are no special requirements for the input features of this transformer. If the Path to Element parameter is set to an attribute value, the attribute should contain a valid XML path expression.

Features output from this transformer will have an attribute containing an XML document that was generated from the XML schema file listed in the transformer parameters.

This parameter specifies the location of the XSD file from which the XML will be generated. It is important that the file selected for this parameter contains the definition of the element to be generated. Since it is common for an XSD file to import other XSD files, the value of this parameter may differ depending on the desired output of the transformer.

If an entire document is to be generated, you should select the "base" XSD file. If a specific element is to be generated, you might have to select a different XSD file.

This parameter serves two purposes:

• First, for XSD files that contain more than one top-level element, you can use this parameter to specify which element is to be generated.
• Second, you can use this parameter to instruct the transformer to generate an element that is not a top-level element. To do so, enter the path to the element as the parameter value. For example, the following path may be used to generate an animation element from the Collada 1.4 schema:

/COLLADA/library_animations/animation

Note that this path must be namespace correct. That is, the path elements must match the target namespaces of the XSD schemas being used. For example, to generate a Date element in the AIXM schema, the following path may be used.

aixm:HoldingPatternTimeSlice/aixm:timeSliceMetadata/gmd:MD_Metadata/gmd:dateStamp/gco:Date

This parameter may be used to exclude elements from the generated XML. Multiple element names may be entered in a space separated list. As in the path parameter, the element names in this parameter must be namespace correct; the element names must use the same namespace prefixes as the XSD files. Wildcards may be used in the element names. For example, the following value will cause all elements in the gml namespace to be excluded, along with the gmd:dateStamp element.

gml:* gmd:dateStamp

If the generated XML is being annotated with comments, a comment will be inserted for each excluded element.

An XML schema may designate some XML attributes as optional. If this parameter is set to Yes, the optional attributes will be included in the XML output. If this parameter is set to No, only XML attributes marked as "required" will be included in the output document.

An XML schema may designate the minimum and maximum number of times an element may occur in a particular location. If this parameter is set to No, only elements whose minimum number of occurrences is greater than zero will be included in the output XML document. If this parameter is set to Yes, all elements will be included at least once in the output document.

This parameter controls the output when the XML schema contains abstract substitution groups.

• First Member Only: This is the default value for this parameter. Only the first member of the substitution group will be generated.
• All Members: All members of the substitution group will be generated. In general, an abstract substitution group should be substituted by a single member. This parameter may be used to examine all the possible substitution group members. Using this value may lead to an output document which is very large.
• No Members: No substitution group members will be generated. Instead, if the ‘Annotate XML with Comments’ parameter is set to ‘Yes’, the output will contain a comment listing the path to the substitution group members. These paths could then be used in another XMLSampleGenerator to generate the individual substitution group members.

This parameter controls the output when the XML schema contains an xs:choice. An xs:choice lists a number of possible elements which may appear in the output.

• First Option Only: This is the default value for this parameter. Only the first option in the choice will be generated.
• All Options: All of the choice options will be generated. In general, a schema-valid document will contain only a single option. This parameter value may be used to examine all the possible choice options. Using this value may lead to an output document which is very large.
• No Options: No choice options will be generated. Instead, if the ‘Annotate XML with Comments’ parameter is set to ‘Yes’, the output will contain a comment listing the path to the choice options. These paths could then be used in another XMLSampleGenerator to generate the individual choice options. Note that only paths to elements will be listed. Nested sequences and choices will not produce any paths.

If this parameter is set to Yes, the output will be prefaced with an XML header. If the parameter is set to No, the output will not contain an XML header.

If this parameter is set to Yes, the output will contain XML comments describing the output.

These comments will describe what is required to convert the sample XML into an XML document that is valid according to the given schema. This includes warnings about recursive complex types and substitution groups, details on the acceptable multiplicity of elements and information on the data types that an element may contain.

This parameter specifies the attribute to which the XML document will be written. The default is _result.