XSL Transformation

Based on a XSL template external XML data sources can be transformed into the Imixs XML schema. The result of thus a transformation can be posted to the Imixs-Workflow REST service API. This is how a interface between an external system and the Imixs Workflow engine can be realized. The following example shows how to transform xml data:

The XML Data

This is a sample of a xml data structure provided by an external system. The structure contains several ‘Documents’ containing detail information and DocumentLevelFields

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Batch>
	<Documents>
		<Document>
			<Identifier>DOC1</Identifier>
			<Type>Imixs-RG</Type>
			<Valid>true</Valid>
			<Reviewed>true</Reviewed>
			<ErrorMessage></ErrorMessage>
			<DocumentLevelFields>
				<DocumentLevelField>
					<Name>RG-NR</Name>
					<Value>05052011</Value>
					<Type>STRING</Type>
					<Page>PG0</Page>
					<FieldOrderNumber>1</FieldOrderNumber>
				</DocumentLevelField>
			</DocumentLevelFields>
		</Document>
		<Document>
			<Identifier>DOC2</Identifier>
			<Type>Imixs-RG</Type>
			<Valid>true</Valid>
			<Reviewed>true</Reviewed>
			<ErrorMessage></ErrorMessage>
			<DocumentLevelFields>
				<DocumentLevelField>
					<Name>RG-NR</Name>
					<Value>44032011</Value>
					<Type>STRING</Type>
					<Page>PG0</Page>
					<FieldOrderNumber>1</FieldOrderNumber>
				</DocumentLevelField>
			</DocumentLevelFields>
			
		</Document>
	</Documents>
</Batch>

Transforming the XML Data with XSLT

With a XSL template it is possible to transform the given XML data into the Imixs XML schema. This XML format of an Imixs EntityCollection has the following structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<data>
    <document>
       <item>
         <name>numsequencenummer</name>
         <value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:string">1</value>
       </item>
       <item>
         <name>namlasteditor</name>
         <value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:string">sally</value>
       </item>
       <item>
         <name>$uniqueid</name>
         <value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:string">13189f34ce7-5668d41
         </value>
       </item>
       <item>
         <name>_ordernumber</name>
         <value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:string">345</value>
       </item>
    </document>
    <document>
       <item>
         <name>numsequencenummer</name>
         <value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:string">2</value>
       </item>
       <item>
         <name>namlasteditor</name>
         <value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:string">Karl</value>
       </item>
       <item>
         <name>$uniqueid</name>
         <value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:string">13189f34ce7-5668d41
         </value>
       </item>
       <item>
         <name>_ordernumber</name>
         <value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:string">345555</value>
       </item>
    </document>
</data>

See details about the xml format in the section XML. To transform the external data source a simple XSL template can be used like shown in the following example:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
	xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

	<xsl:template match="/">
		<data>
			<xsl:apply-templates select="Batch/Documents/Document[Type='Imixs-RG']">
			</xsl:apply-templates>
		</data>
	</xsl:template>

	<xsl:template match="Batch/Documents/Document[Type='Imixs-RG']">
		<document>
		
		<!-- setting General Workflow Settings -->
			<item>
				<name>type</name>
				<value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
					xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:string">workitem</value>
			</item>
			<item>
				<name>namcreator</name>
				<value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
					xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:string">ephesoft-batch-process</value>
			</item>
			
			<item>
				<name>$modelversion</name>
				<value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
					xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:string">office-de-0.0.1</value>
			</item>
			
			<item>
				<name>$taskid</name>
				<value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
					xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:int">4000</value>
			</item>
			<item>
				<name>$eventid</name>
				<value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
					xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:int">20</value>
			</item>
			
			
			<!-- extract _ordernumber -->
			<item>
				<name>_ordernumber</name>
				<value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
					xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:string">
					<xsl:value-of
						select="DocumentLevelFields/DocumentLevelField[Name='RG-NR']/Value" />
				</value>
			</item>
		</document>
	</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

This XSL template selects all Document nodes with the type=‘Imixs-RG’. For each document node the condition xsl:apply-templates creates a new entity tag with different item nodes. The template creates the entity tag and provides some workitem fields with fixed values. In the last section of the xsl:template a value from the provided DocumentLevelField tag is extracted and transformed into an item with the name “_ordernumer” and the corresponding value. The result of such a transformation can be used to be posted to the Imixs Rest Service interface. See the section Post XML Data.