Hi David At 02:56 5/03/02, David RR Webber - XMLGlobal wrote: >Correct me if I am wrong - you are talking about using XSLT in combination >with custom Java code - the purpose of the Java code being to pre-parse >the EDI into XML so that the XSLT can then process the EDI?
Correct. >The one obvious issue with this is the need to process codelists within >the EDI itself - so its not necessarily a simple <tagging> exercise (in >X12). There are several solutions. It's not too difficult to process code lists in XSLT, large lists being stored in a separate XML document. However if speed is a concern, you will want to pre or post-process the codes. >My experience is that XSLT is not designed to handle non-XML source data, >and so struggles in this area. Absolutely, you have to pre-process it. XSLT has not built-in parsing capabilities. If you're willing to pre-process though it's mostly painless. The two issues I have found are that XSLT is a scripting language and that it has to load the entire document in memory. The second one is a limitation of XSLT processor and it might or might not be a blocking point. Most EDI transactions are small enough that it is seldom a problem in practice however. Depending on your point of view, the scripting language can be either a blessing or a serious problem. On the downside, it means that you're not maintaining a simple conversion table (as with your GoXML product) but a script, i.e. software code. On the positive side, there are no limitations to the structure of the data you're working with. One of our customers has built a user interface that compiles the style sheet from a graphical view of the map. It helps with the maintenance and you can still get down to code level for the real though operations. Neat stuff. >Great book though! Thanks :-) --ben Applied XML Solutions at www.marchal.com "concise, useful, and illuminating," Dr Dobbs Journal ------ XML/edi Group Discussion List ------ Homepage = http://www.XMLedi-Group.org Unsubscribe = send email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Leave the subject and body of the message blank Questions/requests: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To receive only one message per day (digest format) send the following message to [EMAIL PROTECTED], (leave the subject line blank) digest xmledi-group your-email-address To join the XML/edi Group complete the form located at: http://www.xmledi-group.org/xmledigroup/mail1.htm
