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XML Reference: Siebel eBusiness Application Integration Volume V > Siebel XML Converters >

XML Hierarchy Converter

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The XML Hierarchy Converter does not use integration object metadata, but instead relies on simple rules for converting between an XML hierarchy and an XML document. The important distinction between this service and the XML Converter is a Property Set of type XMLHierarchy, which is always presented as a child of Service Method Arguments and as a parent of the XML document root element.

As shown in Figure 5, every XML element becomes a property set where the XML tag name becomes the Type. For example, the XML element Contact becomes a property set of the type Contact in Siebel application. In addition, every XML attribute becomes a property within the element's property set. For example, if the attribute of the XML element "Contact" is City = "Toronto", "City=Toronto" will be a property for Contact.

Figure 5.  XML Hierarchy Representation of XML Document Structure

The convenience of having this representation is that the XML Hierarchy Converter can convert to and from this representation in the same way, independent of whether or not the XML document includes a Siebel Message or an external XML document. This representation is also handled in Siebel Workflow because it allows all the XML documents in memory to be treated as the Hierarchical Service Parameter of type XML Hierarchy.

The following should be noted about XML Hierarchy representation in the Siebel application:

As illustrated in Figure 5, there is a Property Set of type XML Hierarchy that always appears as a child of the Service Method Argument and the parent of the root XML element.
Elements are represented by Property Sets. The XML tag is the type in the property set and the value assigned to that XML tag is the Value in the property set. For example, if an XML element has a value such as <Contact City="Toronto">Davis, Pace</Contact> as shown in Figure 5, then the Value in the property set would be set to Davis, Pace and the Type in the property set would be set to contact.
Attributes are represented as properties on the Property Set that represent the attribute's element.
Child elements are represented as child property sets and Parent elements as Parent property sets.
Processing instructions are represented as a child Property Set of type ProcessingInstructions, which is at the same level as the root element (the child of XML Hierarchy). In Figure 5, the root element is Account.

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