XML DataSource

XML is another widely used format to store information.

The XML data transform requires xml-config files which are xml based data mapping rules.

Data Mapping

The XML data mapping definitions are defined using XML syntax. A typical config file looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xml-inputs xmlns="http://axelor.com/xml/ns/data-import"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://axelor.com/xml/ns/data-import
  https://axelor.com/xml/ns/data-import/data-import_7.1.xsd">

  <input file="contacts.xml" root="address-book">

    <bind node="configs/titles/title" type="com.axelor.contact.db.Title"
      search="self.code = :code" update="false">
      <bind node="@code" to="code" />
      <bind node="text()" to="name" />
    </bind>

    <bind node="configs/country" type="com.axelor.contact.db.Country"
      search="self.code = :code" update="false">
      <bind node="@code" to="code" />
      <bind node="text()" to="name" />
    </bind>

    <bind node="contacts/contact" type="com.axelor.contact.db.Contact">
      <bind node="title" to="title" search="self.name = :title" />

      <!-- if @code of node title exist and not empty then bind to field notes -->
      <bind node="title/@code" to="notes" alias="title_code"
        if="title_code &amp;&amp; !title_code.empty" /> <!-- NOT SURE -->

      <!-- MEV_ERP_ID is provided with "context" : so here it may be null -->
      <bind eval="MEV_ERP_ID" to="notes" if="MEV_ERP_ID"/>

      <bind node="name[@type='F']" to="firstName" />
      <bind node="name[@type='L']" to="lastName" />
      <bind node="email" to="email"/>

      <!-- generate email if doesn't exist -->
      <bind to="email" eval='"${firstName}.${lastName}@gmail.com".toLowerCase()'
        if="email == null || email.empty"/>

      <!-- bind multi-value field -->
      <bind node="my/address-list/address" to="addresses">
        <bind node="line1" to="street"/>
        <bind node="line2" to="area"/>
        <bind node="city" to="city"/>
        <bind node="@zip" to="zip"/>

        <!-- find country codes and put them in the context -->
        <bind node="../../../@location" alias="location_contact"/>
        <bind node="city/@country" alias="city_country"/>

        <!--
          if location_contact exists then use it,
          if city_country exists then use it
          else use 'FR'
        -->
        <bind to="country" search="self.code = :country"
          eval="location_contact" if="location_contact != null"/>
        <bind to="country" search="self.code = :country"
          eval="city_country" if="city_country != null"/>
        <bind to="country" search="self.code = :country"
          eval="'FR'" if="location_contact == null &amp;&amp; city_country == null"/>

      </bind>
    </bind>

  </input>

</xml-inputs>

You can see the mapping is almost identical to CSV mapping format. The only difference is the <bind> tag which required node attribute that tags xpath expressions to bind a particular node to the object field.

Let’s see the binding in details:

The <input> tag is used to map a source xml file to a target model type.

Attribute Description

file

the source input file name

root

the root element name

The <bind> tag can be used to map nodes to target object fields.

Attribute Description

node

xpath expression to locate the node

alias

if node is relative xpath, a simple name to be used in context

to

the target model field name

adapter

type adapter, followed by an optional string argument separated by | character

search

jpql where clause search for existing record

update

true in order to allow updating an existing record

create

false in order to prevent creation if an existing record is not found

eval

groovy expression, to transform the value

if

boolean groovy expression, only bind if condition passed

if-empty

only update the target value if target field is empty (or null)

The <bind> tag can again have nested <bind> tags in case of binding relational fields.

Node Binding

Node binding uses xpath expressions to bind a node (element or attribute) values to the object fields.

The xpath is relative to the parent node or the root node of the given <input>.

  • attribute nodes can be located with @attribute syntax

  • text nodes can be located with text() method

Some examples:

<!-- bind value of code attribute -->
<bind node="@code" to="code" />

<!-- bind text value of a node -->
<bind node="text()" to="name" />

<!-- bind name node depending on type attribute value -->
<bind node="name[@type='F']" to="firstName" />
<bind node="name[@type='L']" to="lastName" />

<!-- find country codes and put them in the context -->
<bind node="../../../@location" alias="location_contact"/>
<bind node="city/@country" alias="city_country"/>