XMLFormatter

Categories

Format Specific

Web

Provides various options for formatting and cleaning up XML documents.

Configuration

Input Ports

Input features that contain the XML document information.

Output Ports

If a feature is successfully formatted, it will be output through this port.

If a feature does not have a well-formed XML document, it will be output through this port.

Parameters

XML Input

Selecting from the list enables that selection's corresponding parameter:

  • Attribute with XML Text: Choose the attribute that contains XML Text.
  • XML Filename: Browse to the XML file.

Formatting Type

Select the desired formatting of the XML input:

  • None: No formatting is performed
  • Pretty-Print XML: XML elements will be formatted by adding indentations and new lines for improved readability. Any white spaces between the start tag and end tag will be preserved.
  • Linearize: All XML contents will be put on a single line.

Whitespace Handling

Select the desired whitespace handling for XML Formatting:

Preserve all whitespace: all whitespace are considered significant and will be preserved as much as possible

Remove excess whitespace: excess whitespace will be removed, lines containing only whitespace characters, from the start tag to the first non-whitespace character and from the last non-whitespace character to the end tag.

As defined by xsi:schemaLocation: whitespace in the XML document is either significant or insignificant as defined by the schema in the xsi:schemaLocation attribute.

As defined by an external schema: whitespace in the XML document is either significant or insignificant as defined by an external schema file.

External Schema

When enabled, pick an external schema file to be used to determine the significance of whitespace in the XML document.

Indent Size

Specifies the indentation size. The valid values are the numbers 0 to 9, with 1 being the default.

Replace Tabs with Spaces

By default the Tab character is used to pretty-print the indentations; set this to Yes substitutes the Tab character with a Space. The size of a single indentation is controlled by the Indent Size parameter.

Text Indent

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>

Remove All Comments

When set to Yes, this parameter removes all comments within the XML input.

Remove XML Header

When set to Yes, this parameter removes the xml header (text declaration).

Remove Empty Elements

When set to Yes, this parameter removes elements that have no attributes and contain no content between the Start and End Tag.

For example,

<example> </example>

will be removed, however

<example property=”empty”/>

will not since it contains an attribute.

Collapse Empty Elements

When set to Yes, this parameter creates an empty tag for elements that have no content between the Start and End Tag.

For example,

<example property=”empty> <example>

will be collapsed into

<example property=”empty”/>

Clean up Redundant Namespace Declarations

Remove redundant and extraneous namespace declarations. For example, the following XML document that has redundant namespace declarations:

<root>

<f:element1 xmlns:f="http://www.w3schools.com/example">

<f:element2 xmlns:f=" http://www.w3schools.com/example"> some text </f:element2>

<f:element3 xmlns:f=" http://www.w3schools.com/example"> some text </f:element3>

</f:element1>

</root>

Selecting Yes for this parameter will return the following results:

<root>

<f:element1 xmlns:f="http://www.w3schools.com/example">

<f:element2> some text </f:element2>

<f:element3> some text </f:element3>

</f:element1>

</root>

Remove Embedded xsi:schemalocation

When set to Yes, this parameter removes all embedded xsi:schemalocation attribute from all elements that are not the root element.

XML Output Type, Attribute to contain XML output, XML Output File

The XML features that have been successfully processed can be output to a feature attribute by specifying an attribute name in the Attribute to contain XML output parameter, or to a file by specifying the path to the file in theXML Output File parameter.

Output Encoding

Specify an encoding for the XML output. If not specified, UTF-8 is used.

Error and Warning List Name

Features with at least one warning or error will be output through the Failed port with a new list attribute added to the features.

 If the default _xml_error is the list name, the elements of the list attribute contain the following:

Elements of List Attribute Description
_xml_error{}.type WARNING, ERROR or FATAL ERROR
_xml_error{}.file the file where the warning or error occurs
_xml_error{}.line the line where the warning or error occurs
_xml_error{}.col the column where the warning or error occurs
_xml_error{}.desc the details about the warning or error

Note: List attributes are not accessible from the output schema in FME Workbench unless they are first processed using a transformer that operates on them, such as ListExploder or ListConcatenator. Alternatively, AttributeExposer can be used.

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.

Defining Values

There are several ways to define a value for use in a Transformer. The simplest is to simply type in a value or string, which can include functions of various types such as attribute references, math and string functions, and workspace parameters. There are a number of tools and shortcuts that can assist in constructing values, generally available from the drop-down context menu adjacent to the value field.

Using the Text Editor

The Text Editor provides a convenient way to construct text strings (including regular expressions) from various data sources, such as attributes, parameters, and constants, where the result is used directly inside a parameter.

Text Editor

Using the Arithmetic Editor

The Arithmetic Editor provides a convenient way to construct math expressions from various data sources, such as attributes, parameters, and feature functions, where the result is used directly inside a parameter.

Arithmetic Editor

Conditional Values

Set values depending on one or more test conditions that either pass or fail.

Parameter Condition Definition Dialog

Content

Expressions and strings can include a number of functions, characters, parameters, and more.

When setting values - whether entered directly in a parameter or constructed using one of the editors - strings and expressions containing String, Math, Date/Time or FME Feature Functions will have those functions evaluated. Therefore, the names of these functions (in the form @<function_name>) should not be used as literal string values.

String Functions

These functions manipulate and format strings.

Special Characters

 A set of control characters is available in the Text Editor.

Math Functions

Math functions are available in both editors.
Date/Time Functions Date and time functions are available in the Text Editor.

Math Operators

These operators are available in the Arithmetic Editor.

FME Feature Functions

These return primarily feature-specific values.

FME Parameters

FME and workspace-specific parameters may be used.
Creating and Modifying User Parameters Create your own editable parameters.

Dialog Options - Tables

Transformers with table-style parameters have additional tools for populating and manipulating values.

Row Reordering

Enabled once you have clicked on a row item. Choices include:

  • Add a row
  • Remove a row
  • Move current row up one
  • Move current row down one
  • Move current row to top
  • Move current row to bottom

Cut, Copy, and Paste

Enabled once you have clicked on a row item. Choices include:

  • Cut a row - delete and copy to clipboard
  • Copy a row to the clipboard
  • Paste a row from the clipboard

Cut, copy, and paste may be used within a transformer, or between transformers.

Filter

Start typing a string, and the matrix will only display rows matching those characters. Searches all columns. This only affects the display of attributes within the transformer - it does not alter which attributes are output.

Import

Import populates the table with a set of new attributes read from a dataset. Specific application varies between transformers.

Reset/Refresh

Generally resets the table to its initial state, and may provide additional options to remove invalid entries. Behavior varies between transformers.

Note: Not all tools are available in all transformers.

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