Tabular Export

This document describes the structure of the tabular export and its specification.

Structure of TableExport

The overall structure is:

<TableExport>
  <TableList>
    <Table>(repeats)
      : table details
    </Table>
  </TableList>
</TableExport>

Each <Table> contains:

<Table>
  <tableName/>           Name of table
  <ColumnList>
    <Column>             (repeats)
      : column data
    </Column>
  </ColumnList>
  <RowList>
    <Row>                (repeats)
      : row data
    </Row>
  </RowList>
</Table>

Each <Column> contains:

<Column>
  <columnName/>          Name of column
  <dataType/>            Data type - see below
</Column>

The format currently supports five data types:

string	Any string, assumed to have no line feeds.
number	Any number.
timestamp	A timestamp, format yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.sss
text	Text that may contain line feeds.

Each <Row> contains a <FieldList>, which contains multiple <Field> elements. Each <Field> contains:

<Field>
  <columnName/>
  <value/>
</Field>

Example:

<Table>
  <tableName>ExampleTable</tableName>
    <ColumnList>
      <Column>
        <columnName>name</columnName>
        <dataType>string</dataType>
      </Column>
      <Column>
        <columnName>numberOfPets</columnName>
        <dataType>number</dataType>
      </Column>
    </ColumnList>
    <RowList>
      <Row>
        <FieldList>
          <Field>
            <columnName>name</columnName>
            <value>Roger</value>
          </Field>
          <Field>
            <columnName>numberOfPets</columnName>
            <value>3</value>
          </Field>
        </FieldList>
      </Row>
      <Row>
        <FieldList>
          <Field>
            <columnName>name</columnName>
            <value>Clarissa</value>
          </Field>
          <Field>
            <columnName>numberOfPets</columnName>
            <value>7</value>
          </Field>
        </FieldList>
      </Row>
      <Row>
        <FieldList>
          <Field>
            <columnName>name</columnName>
            <value>George</value>
          </Field>
          <Field>
            <columnName>numberOfPets</columnName>
            <value>0</value>
          </Field>
        </FieldList>
      </Row>
    </RowList>
</Table>

This represents the table


name	numberOfPets
Roger	3
Clarissa	7
George	0

Notes:

Rows are not sorted.
Fields are not necessarily sequenced within rows. To convert to columns you must iterate through the ColumnList, and use this to select the fields from each row.
Null values are omitted, or coded as empty elements.
The <TableList> and <FieldList> elements may appear to be redundant. However, they allow additional data to be attached to the entire export and to a row, without breaking rules for simple XML (See http://www.minimalit.com/newsletters/2005-11-01-minimal_integration_5_keep_xml_simple.htm).

Table specification

The specification of the tabular export created by the tabulate process is provided as an XML document.

This XML document is the same as the TableExport, except:

Each Table has a rowPath which describes the path to each row, relative to TableExport element.
Each Column has a fieldPath which describes the path to each field, relative to the row.
There is no RowList

The rowPath and fieldPath can contain any XPath statement.