OWB 10R2 XML_ETL_UTILS xml data into multiple targets

Question

I am having some trouble with loading an XML file correctly into the target tables.
The XML is looking like this (simplified))
<DATA>
<ROW rowid="1">
<FIELD1>bla1.1</FIELD1>
<FIELD2>bla1.2</FIELD2>
<CHILDREN>
<CHILD id="c1_1">bla_c1.1</CHILD>
<CHILD id="c1_2">bla_c1.2</CHILD>
<CHILDREN>
<PETS>
<PET id="p1_1">bla_p1.1</PET>
<PETS>
</ROW>
<ROW rowid="2">
<FIELD1>bla2.1</FIELD1>
<FIELD2>bla2.2</FIELD2>
<CHILDREN>
<CHILD id="c2_1">bla_c2.1</CHILD>
<CHILDREN>
<PETS>
<PET id="p2_1">bla_p2.1</PET>
<PET id="p2_2">bla_p2.2</PET>
<PETS>
</ROW>
</DATA>
A have a very simple data model:
TABLE data (DATAID, FIELD1, FIELD2)
TABLE datadetails (DETAILID, DATAID, DETAILTYPE, DETAILKEY, DETAILVALUE)
(Both set to truncate/insert)
When generating the pluggable mappings using the XML_ETL_UTILS each 'level' is generated into a pluggable map (DATA, ROW, CHILDREN, CHILD, PETS, PET).
1) The first problem I have was how to keep the relationship between the 2 tables. When inserting data into the 'datadetails' table, the data has to been linked to the correct row of the 'data' table.
This has been solved (not the best way I think) by manually modify the pluggable mappings CHILDREN, CHILD, PETS and PET to include and pass through the 'rowid' attribute so this 'rowid' can be inserted into the 'datadetails' table when inserting the details.
-> My guess is that there should be a better way or the XML_ETL_UTILS should be able to generate the code to handle this 'parent<->child' relation preservation. Only I don't know how (yet).
2) The problem I am facing now (after manually modifying the generated pluggable mappings to pass through the ID of the parent), is that for each parent ALL details of the XML file are inserted and not just the details belonging to that particular parent.
It seems that when processing the data for the 'datadetails' table, it re-read the whole XML file and looks for all instances of the detail element of the particular pluggable mapping.
This results in a 'datadetail' table looking like this
DETAILID DATAID DETAILTYPE DETAILKEY DETAILVALUE
*1 1 CHILDREN c1_1 bla_c1.1
*2 1 CHILDREN c1_2 bla_c1.2
*3 1 PETS p1_1 bla_p1.1
4 1 CHILDREN c2_1 bla_c2.1
5 1 PETS p2_1 bla_p2.1
6 1 PETS p2_2 bla_p2.2
7 2 CHILDREN c1_1 bla_c1.1
8 2 CHILDREN c1_2 bla_c1.2
9 2 PETS p1_1 bla_p1.1
*10 2 CHILDREN c2_1 bla_c2.1
*11 2 PETS p2_1 bla_p2.1
*12 2 PETS p2_2 bla_p2.2
This is off course not correct. Only the ones marked with a * should be there.
When trying to add a filter within the pluggable mappings to only look for the elements that have the correct parent (fortunately we do have the parent ID available because of the previously mentioned manual modifications of the mappings), the code that gets generated is not correct because it generated code with incorrect (missing) references to the correct variables and doesn't work.
-> Any idea of how to fix this?
=> More in general: what is the correct approach with OWB to load XML files that contain multiple rows and rows can have multiple level parent<->child relations? (Very common in XML world). Somewhere after processing we need a relational model to hold this data. Any help, examples, etc. is very much appreciated.
Don't hesitate to call/e-mail me for questions/remarks, etc.
Regards,
Patrick

Answer 1

Hi Tullio
es you will have to regenerate the pluggable mappings (rerun the expert). and you can either rebuild your map or synchronize the pluggable mapping operator in the map.
The error crept in when I introduced the 'create root node' option in the expert, this path worked, just the original did not ..sorry:) The fix should resolve your problem and I will get a full update uploaded.
Thanks
David