JobDataXml

Overview

The JobDataXml enables TFORMer SDK to use XML-files as JobData for printing a Job.

The data in the specified XML file provides the values of the DataFields. The XML file must comply with the formats recognized by TFORMer (see below). An optional XSLT file may be used to transform the XML file handed to TFORMer into one of the supported XML file formats.

The following XML formats can be used:

Generic XML Format (Variant 1)

  <Root>
    <Records>
      <Record>
        <V Name="DataFieldName1">Value</V>
        <V Name="DataFieldName2">Value</V>
        <V Name="DataFieldName3">Value</V>
      </Record>
      <Record>
        <V Name="DataFieldName1">Value</V>
        <V Name="DataFieldName2">Value</V>
        <V Name="DataFieldName3">Value</V>
      </Record>
      :
      Further Data Records
      :
    </Records>
  </Root>

Name	Description
Root	This is the root element. It encloses all other elements of the XML-file.
Records	This element encloses all records.
Record	This element represents one Record. Within a Record the single DataField-values are defined.
V	Data-Element. This element defines the name and the value of the DataField.
DataFieldName	Name of the DataField (must be unique within a Record).
Value	The actual value of the DataField.

The elements can be named arbitrarily. This means the terms Root, Records and Record can be selected at will. Only the order of the element-nodes is decisive: TFORMer interprets the lowest level of the XML-file as name/value pairs for data-fields, superordinate nodes always correspond to records.

Generic XML Format (Variant 2)

Variant 2 is comparable to variant 1, but instead of using the syntax <V Name="DataFieldName">Value</V> you can specify DataField-values using the following syntax:

  <Root>
    <Records>
      <Record>
        <DataFieldName1>Value</DataFieldName1>
        <DataFieldName2>Value</DataFieldName2>
        <DataFieldName3>Value</DataFieldName3>
      </Record>
      <Record>
        <DataFieldName1>Value</DataFieldName1>
        <DataFieldName2>Value</DataFieldName2>
        <DataFieldName3>Value</DataFieldName3>
      </Record>
      :
      Further Data Records
      :
    </Records>
  </Root>

XML Files Exported by Microsoft® Access

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <dataroot xmlns:od="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:officedata">
    <tblTableName>
      <DataFieldName1>Value</DataFieldName1>
      <DataFieldName2>Value</DataFieldName2>
      <DataFieldName3>Value</DataFieldName3>
    </tblTableName>
    <tblTableName>
      <DataFieldName1>Value</DataFieldName1>
      <DataFieldName2>Value</DataFieldName2>
      <DataFieldName3>Value</DataFieldName3>
    </tblTableName>
    :
    Further Data Records
    :
  </dataroot>

Internal XML Format

TFORMer Designer uses this format to store DataField name/value pairs.

Note:

This file format is created with TFormer_SaveXml and can then be used as JobData with the function TFormer_SetDataFile.

  <PSData>
    <Form>
      <Records>
        <Record Copies="1">
          <V Name="DataFieldName1">Value</V>
          <V Name="DataFieldName2">Value</V>
          <V Name="DataFieldName3">Value</V>
        </Record>
        <Record Copies="1">
          <V Name="DataFieldName1">Value</V>
          <V Name="DataFieldName2">Value</V>
          <V Name="DataFieldName3">Value</V>
        </Record>
      </Records>
    <ImportedVariables/>
    </Form>
  </PSData>

Name	Description
PSData	This is the root element. It encloses all other elements within the XML-file.
Form	This element encloses all records for one FormLayout. It must be specified only once.
Records	This element encloses all records to be printed. It must be specified only once.
Record	This element encloses all data-fields for one Record. For each Record there is one (optional) attribute named Copies. If this attribute is missing it defaults to 1 – meaning that this Record is used once. If you want to use the same data for multiple records you can specify the number of copies using this attribute.
V	Data-Element. This element consists of the DataField-name (attribute name) and the value.
DataFieldName	Name of the DataField (must be unique within a Record).
Value	The actual value of the DataField.
ImportedVariables	Used internally by TFORMer.

Example

Assume a suitable XML-file is available. The corresponding call to create the JobData and to assign it to a Job is as follows:

  // Use the XML file InputData.XML as data source 
  eCode = TFormer_SetXmlDataFile (hTForm, "path/data.xml"); 

More Information

For a general description see JobData.