XMLAppender
Assembles several XML documents into one.
The transformer has two input ports, one accepting a single XML document, and another accepting multiple XML fragments.
By default, the XMLAppender works by inserting every incoming XML fragment to the end of the main XML document. The Append Path In Document and Append Fragments As parameters may be used to control where the fragments are inserted in the document.
Input Ports
Input features containing the main XML document.
Input features containing the XML fragments.
Output Ports
This is the output for the main XML document with the appended fragments.
Multiple main documents are allowed only if the Group By parameter is used, otherwise duplicate main documents are output via this port. The main documents are considered a duplicate of each other when the values of their composite Group By key equal.
Fragments with no corresponding Group By main XML document are output via this port.
Parameters
Transformer
Use this parameter to organize multiple main documents and fragments into groups. Multiple main XML documents are allowed when their composite Group By key differ. Unused documents and fragments, those without corresponding keys, are routed to the UnusedDocument and UnusedFragment ports, respectively.
Note: How parallel processing works with FME: see About Parallel Processing for detailed information.
This parameter determines whether or not the transformer should perform the work across parallel processes. If it is enabled, a process will be launched for each group specified by the Group By parameter.
Parallel Processing Levels
For example, on a quad-core machine, minimal parallelism will result in two simultaneous FME processes. Extreme parallelism on an 8-core machine would result in 16 simultaneous processes.
You can experiment with this feature and view the information in the Windows Task Manager and the Workbench Log window.
No: This is the default behavior. Processing will only occur in this transformer once all input is present.
By Group: This transformer will process input groups in order. Changes on the value of the Group By parameter on the input stream will trigger batch processing on the currently accumulating group. This will improve overall speed if groups are large/complex, but could cause undesired behavior if input groups are not truly ordered.
XML Document
Selecting from the list enables that selection's corresponding parameter:
- Attribute with XML Document: Choose the attribute containing the main XML document.
- XML Document Filename: Browse to the XML file.
This parameter controls how the fragments are inserted into the document in relation to a selected or matched element. The possible values for the parameter are:
- Preceding Children
- Succeeding Children
- Preceding Siblings
- Succeeding Siblings
The values are to be understood in relation to the selected or matched element, which is specified by the Append Path In Document parameter.
The default value for this parameter is Succeeding Children.
This parameter specifies a single element, or a path to a single element, in the document. Each element in the path is separated by a forward slash, ‘/’. A wildcard, ‘*’, may also be used as the prefix or local-name of the element (for example, ‘*:e’, ‘p:*’, or just ‘*’, which translates to ‘*:*’).
The parameter’s default value is the empty string. This will match or select the root element.
Consider the following XML document:
<data>
<metadata>…</metadata>
<initialize>…</initialize>
<!--Insert XML fragments here -->
<finalize>…</finalize>
</data>
To insert fragments after the <initialize> element we can either:
1) Specify Append Path In Document as "data/initialize", and
2) Set Append Fragments As to Succeeding Siblings
or:
1) Specify Append Path In Document as "data/finalize", and
2) Set Append Fragments As to Preceding Siblings
XML Fragment
Selecting from the list enables that selection's corresponding parameter:
- Attribute with XML Fragment: Choose the attribute containing the XML Fragment.
- XML Fragment Filename: Browse to the XML file.
XML Output
Selecting from the list enables that selection's corresponding parameter:
- Attribute with XML Output: Choose the attribute to hold the appended results.
- XML Output File: Specifies the file to contain the appended results.
This parameter is used to select the encoding for the appended results.
Pretty Printing
The parameter specifies if the XML output should be pretty-printed with indentation.
This parameter specifies the size of a single indentation.
By default, the tab character is used for pretty printing, use this parameter to replace the tabs with spaces.
By default, the text within a tag is left untouched. If this parameter is set to Yes, the text will be pretty printed. If a tag contains both a text value element and another nested tag element, the second of either the text value or nested tag will not be pretty printed. The example below shows a block of XML code on the left along with its pretty printed output on the right.
Example | Pretty Printed |
---|---|
<example> |
<example> |
text value |
text value #text value is the first element |
<nestedTag> |
<nestedTag> #<nestedTag> is the second element |
some value |
some value |
</nestedTag> |
</nestedTag> |
</example> |
</example> |
Editing Transformer Parameters
Using a set of menu options, transformer parameters can be assigned by referencing other elements in the workspace. More advanced functions, such as an advanced editor and an arithmetic editor, are also available in some transformers. To access a menu of these options, click beside the applicable parameter. For more information, see Transformer Parameter Menu Options.
Transformer Categories
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