This is my first post in joining the FM Forums. Glad to have found such great support/community source this early.

I apologize if my question reads a little bit silly to some, as I am brand new to the Filemaker product, and getting my feet wet.

I am using Filemaker Pro 12 Advanced On my PC, and currently using the VTC online training courses to help me learn my way around.

My question is - when importing an XML file, Filemaker requires an XSLT file so that it efectively understands what it should "do" with the data being imported.

I have not really found substantial (in my opinion) information on the Filemaker structure or requirements in XSLT files, that I can learn how to create this.

I have an XML file that is essentially a catalog of product data (pricing, shipping, descriptions, supporting links, etc..), and I wish to import that file into my database to take the information and place it into the fields and tables I have created. I was hoping to automate this as much as possible, as the XML file is allways delivered in the same format (I have an XSD file with this format).

I am hoping that someone can either tell me what function or aspoects of Filemaker I should be learning or studying to get a better understanding of how to acomplish this.

I am hoping I understand this procedure I am trying to do (importing xml to the database) and I am on the right path, or am I making the import to difficult on myself?

Also is there tools or programs that can simplify this type of work for me?

I appreciate any help, and thank you in advance.

Filemaker can only import XML in its own schema, which they call the FPMXMLRESULT grammar. You can see what such file needs to look like by exporting your data as XML, using FPMXMLRESULT grammar and no stylesheet.

The purpose of the XSLT stylesheet is to transform your source XML data into FPMXMLRESULT grammar - that's why it needs to be custom-tailored. There are numerous stylesheets posted here (in this and in the XML section) that you can use as examples. There are also a few examples included with the application.

Some lady wrote a book called Filemaker Developers Guide to XSLT (or something similar) that was highly regarded at the time. I have no idea if it's still relevant.