9.8. XML Converter¶
The XML converter handles XML files. To use the XML converter, specify type = "xml" in your converter
definition.
9.8.1. Configuration¶
The XML converter supports parsing files in single-line mode or in multi-line mode. In single-line mode, each line
of an input file should be a valid XML document; in multi-line mode, the entire input file should be a single valid
XML document. In order to support XPath expressions, each XML document is fully parsed into memory.
For large documents, this may take considerable time and memory. Thus, it is usually better to use single-line mode
when possible. Line mode may be specified by options.line-mode = "single" or options.line-mode = "multi"
in your converter definition. If nothing is specified, single-line mode is used.
The XML converter will attempt to use the Saxon XML factory by default, if available. Saxon is generally much
faster than the default Java implementation. If desired, the parser may be specified by setting xpath-factory
to the fully-qualified class name of a javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory implementation.
If the XML source documents contain namespaces, you may need to define them through the xml-namespaces element.
See Handling Namespaces with Saxon, below.
The XML converter supports schema validation through XSD documents. To enable validation, specify an XSD file
using the xsd element. This file must be available on the classpath. Input documents which don’t validate
against the XSD will raise an exception.
Since a single XML document may contain multiple features, the XML parser supports an XPath expression pointing
to each feature element. This can be specified using the feature-path element.
The fields element in an XML converter supports an additional attribute, path. path should be a XPath
expression, which may be relative to the feature-path (if defined, above) or absolute to the document root.
The path expression will be evaluated to a string, and be available in the transform element as $0.
9.8.2. XML Composite Converters¶
Composite converters can handle processing different XML formats in a single stream. To use a composite
converter, specify type = "composite-xml" in your converter definition.
Composite converters can define top-level options, fields, etc, the same as a normal XML converter. These values will be inherited by each of the child converters. If each child is unique, then it is valid to not define anything at the top level.
Composite converters must define a converters element, which is an array of nested XML converter
definitions. In addition to the standard configuration, each nested converter must have a predicate
element that determines which converter to use for each XML document. The value passed into the predicate
will be the parsed XML document (available as $0), so generally the predicate will make use of the
xpath function (below). See Predicates for more details on predicates.
9.8.3. XML Transform Functions¶
The transform element supports referencing the result of the path expression through $0. Each value will
be a string.
In addition to the standard functions in Transformation Function Overview, the XML converter provides the following XML-specific functions:
9.8.3.1. xpath¶
The xpath function allows you to evaluate an XPath expression outside the context of a field. Generally, the
path expression is preferred when using XML fields, but the xpath function is useful for composite converter
predicates, as described above.
The xpath function takes between 2 and 4 arguments. The first argument is the XPath expression, as a string.
The second argument is the XML document on which to apply the XPath expression. Generally the document being
considered is available as $0. The third argument is the fully-qualified class name of a
javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory implementation. If omitted, the default Saxon factory will be used. The fourth
argument is a java.util.Map containing any XML namespaces that may be required for XPath evaluation, and may be
omitted if namespaces are not used. Generally, the parseMap function will be required to create
an appropriate namespace map. See Handling Namespaces with Saxon, below.
9.8.3.2. xmlToString¶
This will convert an XML element to a string. It can be useful for quickly representing a complex object, for example in order to create a feature ID based on the hash of a row.
9.8.4. Example Usage¶
Assume the following SimpleFeatureType:
geomesa.sfts.example = {
attributes = [
{ name = "number", type = "Integer" }
{ name = "color", type = "String" }
{ name = "weight", type = "Double" }
{ name = "source", type = "String" }
{ name = "geom", type = "Point" }
]
}
And the following XML document:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<doc>
<DataSource>
<name>myxml</name>
</DataSource>
<Feature>
<number>123</number>
<geom>
<lat>12.23</lat>
<lon>44.3</lon>
</geom>
<color>red</color>
<physical height="5'11" weight="127.5"/>
</Feature>
<Feature>
<number>456</number>
<geom>
<lat>20.3</lat>
<lon>33.2</lon>
</geom>
<color>blue</color>
<physical height="h2" weight="150"/>
</Feature>
</doc>
You could ingest with the following converter:
geomesa.converters.myxml = {
type = "xml"
id-field = "uuid()"
feature-path = "Feature" // optional path to feature elements
xsd = "example.xsd" // optional xsd file to validate input
xpath-factory = "net.sf.saxon.xpath.XPathFactoryImpl"
options = {
line-mode = "multi" // or "single"
}
fields = [
{ name = "number", path = "number", transform = "$0::integer" }
{ name = "color", path = "color", transform = "trim($0)" }
{ name = "weight", path = "physical/@weight", transform = "$0::double" }
{ name = "source", path = "/doc/DataSource/name/text()" }
{ name = "lat", path = "geom/lat", transform = "$0::double" }
{ name = "lon", path = "geom/lon", transform = "$0::double" }
{ name = "geom", transform = "point($lon, $lat)" }
]
}
9.8.5. Handling Namespaces with Saxon¶
Using the default Java XPath factory, XML namespaces can generally be ignored. However, the Saxon factory
requires namespaces to be declared. You can accomplish this through the xml-namespaces configuration.
Example XML:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<foo:doc xmlns:foo="http://example.com/foo" xmlns:bar="http://example.com/bar">
<foo:DataSource>
<foo:name>myxml</foo:name>
</foo:DataSource>
<foo:Feature>
<foo:number>123</foo:number>
<bar:geom>
<bar:lat>12.23</bar:lat>
<bar:lon>44.3</bar:lon>
</bar:geom>
<foo:color>red</foo:color>
<foo:physical height="5'11" weight="127.5"/>
</foo:Feature>
</foo:doc>
Config:
{
type = "xml"
id-field = "uuid()"
feature-path = "foo:Feature" // optional path to feature elements
xsd = "example.xsd" // optional xsd file to validate input
xpath-factory = "net.sf.saxon.xpath.XPathFactoryImpl"
options = {
line-mode = "multi" // or "single"
}
xml-namespaces = {
foo = "http://example.com/foo"
bar = "http://example.com/bar"
}
fields = [
{ name = "number", path = "foo:number", transform = "$0::integer" }
{ name = "color", path = "foo:color", transform = "trim($0)" }
{ name = "weight", path = "foo:physical/@weight", transform = "$0::double" }
{ name = "source", path = "/foo:doc/foo:DataSource/foo:name/text()" }
{ name = "lat", path = "bar:geom/bar:lat", transform = "$0::double" }
{ name = "lon", path = "bar:geom/bar:lon", transform = "$0::double" }
{ name = "geom", transform = "point($lon, $lat)" }
]
}