RE: spltoXML API Does it exist? and is it even worth it,if it does not?

["Haas, Matt" <Matt.Haas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A better approach my be to just spit out the XML and then convert it into 
whatever format you need using XSLT.

I know what I'm about to suggest isn't an RPG solution but if you can create a 
Java class that contains methods to get all the data elements that go on the 
report, there is an open source project called Betwixt 
(http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/betwixt/) that can generate the XML stream 
for you.

We have a web app here that we used this on to generate XML which we format in 
many different ways (several different export formats and also different web 
pages) using XSLT. I was not involved in setting this up in our environment but 
it is very easy to use.

Matt

-----Original Message-----
From: SCarter@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:SCarter@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, August 04, 2003 12:11 PM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: spltoXML API Does it exist? and is it even worth it, if it does
not?



we are starting to distribute reports to our user via pdf and now actually
to customers and vendors.
The way we do this is ok, but not very flexible.

we take the created and convert it to PDF, using the esend tool from ASC,
then e-mail this as an attachment to whomever.
What I am thinking about is a way to essentially keep the print file and
instead of doing an except or write to the record call a procedure that
writes to an XML stream file on the IFS.
the call would be somthing like this

spltoXML(tag:pointer to record format:file:record formatstart or end flag)
tag = xml tab
Pointer = assuming this is the best way to get the data from the calling
program to the procedure
file = I am assuming that I would need this to inspect the layout of the
print file
record format = to get the number of fields and their sizes and types to
analyze the pointer correctly
flag = to determin if this is the start or end of this section of XML

Is this even feasible with RPG?

on the pc side I would have the XSL style sheets necessary for whatever we
needed for conversion html PDF or any new form of media....



J. Scott Carter
Programmer/Analyst
e-mail: Mailto:scarter@xxxxxxxxxxx
Phone: 214.583.0348