Namespace, IXpathFunction "tree" return

Question

I am trying to implement an IXpathFunction component. My Java runs fine but I am having trouble getting the data back into my BPEL process in a usable way.
So far I have 3 User Defined Functions. 2 of them I can read from just fine but one of them is giving me fits.
My returns for these are:
String (base64 encoded binary actually... but that's just a big string)
tree -- <caseNumber resultString=" " status=" " messageOut=" "/>
When I check the flow trace I see this in the update:
<caseNumberEdit xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/f17userDefinedFunctions" resultString="011-4563457" status="0" messageOut="Success"/>
tree -- <sortList xmlns:f17="http://entp.hud.gov/f17UserDefinedFunctions"><f17:sortedCollection><f17:item></f17:item></f17:sortedCollection></sortList>
When I check the flow trace I see this i the update:
<sortedCollection xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/f17userDefinedFunctions"><item xmlns="">134</item><item xmlns="">34555</item><item xmlns="">35345</item><item xmlns="">555134</item></sortedCollection>
So.... What's the deal? My Java program doesn't send that text: it sends:
<sortList xmlns:f17="http://xmlns.oracle.com/f17userDefinedFunctions">
<sortedCollection>
<f17:item>134<f17:item>
<f17:item>34555</f17:item>
<f17:item>35345</f17:item>
<f17:item>555134</f17:item>
</f17:sortedCollection>
</sortList>
I create a variable based on "sortedCollection" and use the following statement to run my function and move the data to that variable:
(I have already moved data to each element in "$sortBuffer" prior to this copy statement)
<copy ignoreMissingFromData="yes" bpelx:insertMissingToData="yes">
        <from>oraext:parseEscapedXML(f17:sortList(ora:getContentAsString($sortBuffer)))</from>
        <to>$sortBuffer</to>
</copy>
I can see that my Java class read the input and did its job (sorted the items numerically) and that the sorted data was returned but even though $sortBuffer
has been populated I can't read the data. Each of the nodes defined in the schema evaluate as empty.
Here is the schema for these objects:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252" ?>
<schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
            xmlns:f17="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
            xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
            targetNamespace="http://xmlns.oracle.com/f17userDefinedFunctions"
            elementFormDefault="qualified">
        <f17:element name="caseNumberEdit" >
            <f17:complexType>
                <f17:attribute name="resultString" type="f17:string"/>
                <f17:attribute name="status" type="f17:int"/>
                <f17:attribute name="messageOut" type="f17:string"/>
            </f17:complexType>
        </f17:element>
        <f17:element name="sortedCollection" >
            <f17:complexType>
                <f17:sequence>
                    <f17:element name="sortlist">
                        <f17:complexType>
                            <f17:sequence>
                                <f17:element name="item" type="string" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
                            </f17:sequence>
                        </f17:complexType>
                    </f17:element>
                </f17:sequence>
            </f17:complexType>
        </f17:element>
</schema>

Answer 1

Yes sure.
I have a plsql region which calls a procedure and in that procedure I have a cursor which selects values from a table with a hierarchical structure (self referencing). At the moment I pass in a start value and generate the values in the cursor using a tree walk.
What I would like to do is present my hierarchical structure in tree report on screen and then somehow pass the values displayed on the screen into my procedure.
I could write my own tree report that is based on a collection and every time a node is opened I would update the collection with the child node values etc. I could then use the collection in my plsql procedure. However, producing a tree report by hand will be a bit of work, so I was wondering what was available out of the box, or if someone had already done it.
I hope this clear and please don’t ask me to reproduce it on apex.oracle.com :-)
Shunt