FileMaker Fundamentals: Learning XML/XSL Importing

by Matt Petrowsky

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There's so much data moving around daily on our networks (including the Internet at large) that it would hurt your brain to even think of how many bits and bytes move over the air and wires.

The methods by which all this data is pushed and pulled around is all a matter of protocols, ports, packets and more. For us mere database developers, we need to know the various methods for pushing and pulling some of this data into our solutions.

This is where XML/XSL (and XPath) come into play. While importing and exporting into known structures, such as csv or tab delimited, is just fine when you have 100% control of both the sending and receiving end, things can get a bit more complicated when you have to start doing a lot of data massaging and you don't control the whole process. Cleaning up messy data can be far less worth your time, in the long run, as opposed to picking up a new skill or learning a new format.

While XML isn't anything new, it may be new to you and knowing how to use it, along with XSL and XPATH is one of those things which almost every developer may come across at least one - if not a few (or many) times in the life of all the solutions they may touch.

So, the trick is to pick something both fun, realistic and useful in order to learn how to import XML data into a FileMaker solution. Watching this video will provide you with a level of confidence to continue your education and push forward with using this ubiquitous encoding of data. If you have an option of doing bulk imports via tab delimited, csv or xml my hope is that you choose XML if you don't control the whole process. This video will show you why!