Using transformation language to define data paths

Where data is being exported from SunSystems, the input data (source) will be described in SunSystems hierarchical format (SSML), and the output (target) will be in any hierarchical or flat format.

Where data is being imported into SunSystems, the source data (input) may be in any hierarchical or flat format, and the target (output) will be described in SunSystems hierarchical format (SSML).

Note: Where data is being transferred from SSML to same SSML format, this is innately understood using a provided system transformation. If value changes are required, a separate transformation script will be required.

TML generates data based on values that the TML writer provides. To identify data in the input and output the TML writer uses data-paths that uniquely describe the location of each field in the data.

A data-path is formed by taking each field in the hierarchy of the data and concatenating them together using forward-slashes ('/') as separators. For example, data with a hierarchical structure of:

SSC
		Payload
				PurchaseOrder
						Date

is described as

SSC/Payload/PurchaseOrder/Date

A data-path can reference an attribute within an element using the '@' notation. For example, given the following XML structure:

<SSC>
		<Payload>
				<PurchaseOrder Reference="123"/>
		</Payload>
</SSC>

the following data-path would reference the Purchase Order Reference attribute:

SSC/Payload/PurchaseOrder/@Reference