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"?>
    <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"?>
<collection>
    <entity>
       <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>$uniqueid</name>
         <value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:string">13189f34ce7-5668d41
         </value>
       </item>
       <item>
         <name>_ordernumber</name>
         <value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:string">345</value>
       </item>
    </entity>
    <entity>
       <item>
         <name>numsequencenummer</name>
         <value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:string">2</value>
       </item>
       <item>
         <name>namlasteditor</name>
         <value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:string">Karl</value>
       </item>
       <item>
         <name>$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>
    </entity>
</collection>

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

    <xsl:template match="Batch/Documents/Document[Type='Imixs-RG']">
       <entity>

       <!-- 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>$processid</name>
          <value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
              xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="xs:int">4000</value>
         </item>
         <item>
          <name>$activityid</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>
       </entity>
    </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.