Importing XML into FMPro 6

[Jeff Mao]

I've read through a lot of the posts in this forum, but still not sure how I would create (and use) an XSLT template to allow me to import data from an XML file. Here's a link to a sample of the data I'd like to be able to import. Thanks for any guidance anyone can offer!

Jeff

FileMaker Version: Dev 6

Platform: Mac OS X Panther

[Fenton]

Having looked at the XML I have to wonder why you'd want to bring this into FileMaker. It looks like what it says it is, a template describing how a "report" is to be drawn on a page. If FileMaker exported a layout's specs it would look something like this. It's not really information that one would normally want to keep in a database.

Something like this can be brought in to FileMaker using an XSL stylesheet. But it requires a fair amount of fiddling. Is this something you're going to be doing over and over? Or just a 1 shot deal?

[Jeff Mao]

Over and over,...I've got a working database now that I use to create files that look like this, although I "cheated" by simply creating a text calculation that drops my data into this template as opposed to having FM create the XML since I don't really get the whole XLS/XSLT thing.

Creating reports in PowerSchool, where this came from, is tedious and very time consuming because every object on the report has to be defined individually via a web interface. Using FMPro I can duplicate objects and then ust edit parts, etc and data entry is just faster when you are not tied to a web interface that forces you to constantly reload pages to see different object definitions.

Creating these files in FMPro is one thing, but I'd also like to be able to import them as there is a large PS userbase who share report templates, but then to edit them, I'm stuck again in the web interface after importing to PS.

Jeff

[Fenton]

Well, as I said, it can be done. Not real difficult, but a little tedious. You should get Beverley Voth's book. It has explicit instructions on how to create XSL stylesheets so you can import and export XML into/out of FileMaker.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/155622043X/qid=1082165030/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-7058302-0792769?v=glance&s=books

or, for humans,

Filemaker Pro 6 Developer's Guide to Xml/Xsl