XML: Deep/Array Elements

Question

There have been several questions posted about how to create iFS type Definitions for XML files which contain compound elements or arrays of compound elements. The solution to this problem has already been posted elsewhere but here is a summary
of how to make this work.
Here is an example XML file which contains an array of compound elements. The file represents a Purchase Order. Note how the <LINEITEMS> element consits of an array of <LINEITEM> elements. Note how each instance of the <LineItem> elements consists of
<ITEMNUMBER>,<ITEMDESCRIPTION>,<QUANTITY> & <UNITPRICE> elements.
<?xml version = '1.0' standalone = 'yes'?>
<PURCHASEORDER>
<REQUESTER>Angela B. Miller</REQUESTER>
<USERID>amiller</USERID>
<COSTCENTER>A10</COSTCENTER>
<REFERENCE>AMILLER:20000419-070435930</REFERENCE>
<ACTIONS>
<ACTION>
<ACTIONEDBY>eclark</ACTIONEDBY>
<DATEACTIONED></DATEACTIONED>
</ACTION>
</ACTIONS>
<SHIPPINGINSTRUCTIONS>
<SHIPTONAME>Mark D. Drake</SHIPTONAME>
<ADDRESS>
500 Oracle Parkway MS 5op-4
Redwood Shores,
CA 94065
</ADDRESS>
<PHONE>650 506 7000</PHONE>
</SHIPPINGINSTRUCTIONS>
<SPECIALINSTRUCTIONS>
Please Expidite Delivery. Partial Delivery
will be accepted
</SPECIALINSTRUCTIONS>
<LINEITEMS>
<LINEITEM>
<ITEMNUMBER>1</ITEMNUMBER>
<ITEMDESCRIPTION>Video Cabinet</ITEMDESCRIPTION>
<QUANTITY>1</QUANTITY>
<UNITPRICE>1800.0</UNITPRICE>
</LINEITEM>
<LINEITEM>
<ITEMNUMBER>2</ITEMNUMBER>
<ITEMDESCRIPTION>Left Hand Audio Cabinet</ITEMDESCRIPTION>
<QUANTITY>1</QUANTITY>
<UNITPRICE>1200.0</UNITPRICE>
</LINEITEM>
<LINEITEM>
<ITEMNUMBER>3</ITEMNUMBER>
<ITEMDESCRIPTION>Right Hand Audio Cabinet</ITEMDESCRIPTION>
<QUANTITY>1</QUANTITY>
<UNITPRICE>1200.0</UNITPRICE>
</LINEITEM>
<LINEITEM>
<ITEMNUMBER>4</ITEMNUMBER>
<ITEMDESCRIPTION>Center Speaker Cabinet</ITEMDESCRIPTION>
<QUANTITY>1</QUANTITY>
<UNITPRICE>800.0</UNITPRICE>
</LINEITEM>
<LINEITEM>
<ITEMNUMBER>5</ITEMNUMBER>
<ITEMDESCRIPTION>Audio Speaker Cabinet</ITEMDESCRIPTION>
<QUANTITY>2</QUANTITY>
<UNITPRICE>500.0</UNITPRICE>
</LINEITEM>
<LINEITEM>
<ITEMNUMBER>6</ITEMNUMBER>
<ITEMDESCRIPTION>Center Speaker Panel</ITEMDESCRIPTION>
<QUANTITY>1</QUANTITY>
<UNITPRICE>120.0</UNITPRICE>
</LINEITEM>
<LINEITEM>
<ITEMNUMBER>7</ITEMNUMBER>
<ITEMDESCRIPTION>Audio Speaker Panel</ITEMDESCRIPTION>
<QUANTITY>2</QUANTITY>
<UNITPRICE>55.0</UNITPRICE>
</LINEITEM>
<LINEITEM>
<ITEMNUMBER>8</ITEMNUMBER>
<ITEMDESCRIPTION>Cabinet</ITEMDESCRIPTION>
<QUANTITY>1</QUANTITY>
<UNITPRICE>695.0</UNITPRICE>
</LINEITEM>
</LINEITEMS>
</PURCHASEORDER>
If an XML document contains compound elements similar to the LINEITEMS element in the above example, if stores each instance of the compound element as a seperate repository object. This means that in order to store a document similar to the Purchase Order it is necessary to create several different classobjects.
First a Type Definition for the purchase order is required. This will create the classobject that defines the repository object used to store each instance of the PurchaseOrder. It defines the attributes of each of the top level elements of the purchaseorder object, including their datatype.
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<CLASSOBJECT>
<NAME>PurchaseOrder</NAME>
<SUPERCLASS REFTYPE="name">Document</SUPERCLASS>
<DESCRIPTION>Internet Purchase Order</DESCRIPTION>
<BEANCLASSPATH>ifs.demo.purchaseOrder.type.PurchaseOrder</BEANCLASSPATH>
<ATTRIBUTES>
<ATTRIBUTE>
<NAME>Reference</NAME>
<DATATYPE>String</DATATYPE>
<DATALENGTH>64</DATALENGTH>
</ATTRIBUTE>
<ATTRIBUTE>
<NAME>Requester</NAME>
<DATATYPE>String</DATATYPE>
<DATALENGTH>48</DATALENGTH>
</ATTRIBUTE>
<ATTRIBUTE>
<NAME>UserID</NAME>
<DATATYPE>String</DATATYPE>
<DATALENGTH>32</DATALENGTH>
</ATTRIBUTE>
<ATTRIBUTE>
<NAME>CostCenter</NAME>
<DATATYPE>String</DATATYPE>
<DATALENGTH>3</DATALENGTH>
</ATTRIBUTE>
<ATTRIBUTE>
<NAME>Vendor</NAME>
<DATATYPE>String</DATATYPE>
<DATALENGTH>32</DATALENGTH>
</ATTRIBUTE>
<ATTRIBUTE>
<NAME>PONumber</NAME>
<DATATYPE>Integer</DATATYPE>
</ATTRIBUTE>
<ATTRIBUTE>
<NAME>ShippingInstructions</NAME>
<DATATYPE>Integer</DATATYPE>
</ATTRIBUTE>
<ATTRIBUTE>
<NAME>ShippingInstructions</NAME>
<DATATYPE>PublicObject</DATATYPE>
<CLASSDOMAIN REFTYPE="name">
PurchaseOrderShippingInstructionsDomain
</CLASSDOMAIN>
</ATTRIBUTE>
<ATTRIBUTE>
<NAME>Rejection</NAME>
<DATATYPE>PublicObject</DATATYPE>
<CLASSDOMAIN REFTYPE="name">
PurchaseOrderRejectionDomain
</CLASSDOMAIN>
</ATTRIBUTE>
<ATTRIBUTE>
<NAME>Actions</NAME>
<DATATYPE>PublicObject_Array</DATATYPE>
<CLASSDOMAIN REFTYPE="name">
PurchaseOrderActionDomain
</CLASSDOMAIN>
</ATTRIBUTE>
<ATTRIBUTE>
<NAME>SpecialInstructions</NAME>
<DATATYPE>String</DATATYPE>
<DATALENGTH>2048</DATALENGTH>
</ATTRIBUTE>
<ATTRIBUTE>
<NAME>LineItems</NAME>
<DATATYPE>PublicObject_Array</DATATYPE>
<CLASSDOMAIN REFTYPE="name">
PurchaseOrderLineItemDomain
</CLASSDOMAIN>
</ATTRIBUTE>
</ATTRIBUTES>
</CLASSOBJECT>
Note that the LINEITEMS element is defined with a data type of PUBLICOBJECT_ARRAY. This means that the LINEITEMS attribute in the repository object will consist of a set of references to other objects in the repository. In order to store the data values from each of the child elements associated with instance of the LINEITEMS array a seperate repostitory object is required. Here is the Type Definition for the repository object used to store this data.
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<CLASSOBJECT>
<NAME>PurchaseOrderLineItem</NAME>
<SUPERCLASS REFTYPE="name">ApplicationObject</SUPERCLASS>
<DESCRIPTION>Internet Purchase Order</DESCRIPTION>
<BEANCLASSPATH>ifs.demo.purchaseOrder.type.PurchaseOrderLineItem</BEANCLASSPATH>
<DATABASEOBJECTNAME>POLineItem</DATABASEOBJETNAME>
<ATTRIBUTES>
<ATTRIBUTE>
<NAME>ItemNumber</NAME>
<DATATYPE>integer</DATATYPE>
</ATTRIBUTE>
<ATTRIBUTE>
<NAME>ItemDescription</NAME>
<DATATYPE>string</DATATYPE>
<DATALENGTH>128</DATALENGTH>
</ATTRIBUTE>
<ATTRIBUTE>
<NAME>Quantity</NAME>
<DATATYPE>integer</DATATYPE>
</ATTRIBUTE>
<ATTRIBUTE>
<NAME>UnitPrice</NAME>
<DATATYPE>double</DATATYPE>
</ATTRIBUTE>
</ATTRIBUTES>
</CLASSOBJECT>
If you refer back to the LineItems attribute definition in the PurchaseOrder object you will see that a ClassDomain is used to restrict what kind of objects can be referenced by an element in the LineItems array. In this case the ClassDom ain used is the PurchaseOrderLineItemDomain. The classdomain is used to restrict what type of objects can be referenced by an element in the LineItems Array. In this case it ensures that a LineItems elements can only contain references to an object of type PurchaseOrderLineItem.
Here is the definition of the PurchaseOrderLineItemDomain
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<CLASSDOMAIN>
<NAME>PurchaseOrderLineItemDomain</NAME>
<DOMAINTYPE>1</DOMAINTYPE>
<CLASSES>
<CLASS REFTYPE="name">PurchaseOrderLineItem</CLASS>
</CLASSES>
</CLASSDOMAIN>
Note that there are no limitiations on the level of nesting that these techniques support. Hopefully this gives you all of the information required to define the repository objects required to handle any kind of XML files with iFS.
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Answer 1

Hi Nicole,
unfortunately we cannot add in xmlforms at runtime more fields today (with an add button for instance).
I'm sorry 
Ralf