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XML format in Azure Data Factory and Synapse Analytics pipelines

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APPLIES TO: Azure Data Factory Azure Synapse Analytics

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Follow this article when you want to parse the XML files.

XML format is supported for the following connectors: Amazon S3, Amazon S3 Compatible Storage, Azure Blob, Azure Data Lake Storage Gen1, Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2, Azure Files, File System, FTP, Google Cloud Storage, HDFS, HTTP, Oracle Cloud Storage and SFTP. It is supported as source but not sink.

Dataset properties

For a full list of sections and properties available for defining datasets, see the Datasets article. This section provides a list of properties supported by the XML dataset.

Property Description Required
type The type property of the dataset must be set to Xml. Yes
location Location settings of the file(s). Each file-based connector has its own location type and supported properties under location. See details in connector article -> Dataset properties section. Yes
encodingName The encoding type used to read/write test files.
Allowed values are as follows: "UTF-8", "UTF-16", "UTF-16BE", "UTF-32", "UTF-32BE", "US-ASCII", "UTF-7", "BIG5", "EUC-JP", "EUC-KR", "GB2312", "GB18030", "JOHAB", "SHIFT-JIS", "CP875", "CP866", "IBM00858", "IBM037", "IBM273", "IBM437", "IBM500", "IBM737", "IBM775", "IBM850", "IBM852", "IBM855", "IBM857", "IBM860", "IBM861", "IBM863", "IBM864", "IBM865", "IBM869", "IBM870", "IBM01140", "IBM01141", "IBM01142", "IBM01143", "IBM01144", "IBM01145", "IBM01146", "IBM01147", "IBM01148", "IBM01149", "ISO-2022-JP", "ISO-2022-KR", "ISO-8859-1", "ISO-8859-2", "ISO-8859-3", "ISO-8859-4", "ISO-8859-5", "ISO-8859-6", "ISO-8859-7", "ISO-8859-8", "ISO-8859-9", "ISO-8859-13", "ISO-8859-15", "WINDOWS-874", "WINDOWS-1250", "WINDOWS-1251", "WINDOWS-1252", "WINDOWS-1253", "WINDOWS-1254", "WINDOWS-1255", "WINDOWS-1256", "WINDOWS-1257", "WINDOWS-1258".		 No
nullValue Specifies the string representation of null value.
The default value is empty string.		 No
compression Group of properties to configure file compression. Configure this section when you want to do compression/decompression during activity execution. No
type
(under compression)		 The compression codec used to read/write XML files.
Allowed values are bzip2, gzip, deflate, ZipDeflate, TarGzip, Tar, snappy, or lz4. Default is not compressed.
Note currently Copy activity doesn't support "snappy" & "lz4", and mapping data flow doesn't support "ZipDeflate", "TarGzip" and "Tar".
Note when using copy activity to decompress ZipDeflate/TarGzip/Tar file(s) and write to file-based sink data store, by default files are extracted to the folder:<path specified in dataset>/<folder named as source compressed file>/, use preserveZipFileNameAsFolder/preserveCompressionFileNameAsFolder on copy activity source to control whether to preserve the name of the compressed file(s) as folder structure.		 No.
level
(under compression)		 The compression ratio.
Allowed values are Optimal or Fastest.
- Fastest: The compression operation should complete as quickly as possible, even if the resulting file is not optimally compressed.
- Optimal: The compression operation should be optimally compressed, even if the operation takes a longer time to complete. For more information, see Compression Level topic.		 No

Below is an example of XML dataset on Azure Blob Storage:

{
    "name": "XMLDataset",
    "properties": {
        "type": "Xml",
        "linkedServiceName": {
            "referenceName": "<Azure Blob Storage linked service name>",
            "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
        },
        "typeProperties": {
            "location": {
                "type": "AzureBlobStorageLocation",
                "container": "containername",
                "folderPath": "folder/subfolder",
            },
            "compression": {
                "type": "ZipDeflate"
            }
        }
    }
}

Copy activity properties

For a full list of sections and properties available for defining activities, see the Pipelines article. This section provides a list of properties supported by the XML source.

Learn about how to map XML data and sink data store/format from schema mapping. When previewing XML files, data is shown with JSON hierarchy, and you use JSON path to point to the fields.

XML as source

The following properties are supported in the copy activity *source* section. Learn more from XML connector behavior.

Property Description Required
type The type property of the copy activity source must be set to XmlSource. Yes
formatSettings A group of properties. Refer to XML read settings table below. No
storeSettings A group of properties on how to read data from a data store. Each file-based connector has its own supported read settings under storeSettings. See details in connector article -> Copy activity properties section. No

Supported XML read settings under formatSettings:

Property Description Required
type The type of formatSettings must be set to XmlReadSettings. Yes
validationMode Specifies whether to validate the XML schema.
Allowed values are none (default, no validation), xsd (validate using XSD), dtd (validate using DTD).		 No
namespaces Whether to enable namespace when parsing the XML files. Allowed values are: true (default), false. No
namespacePrefixes Namespace URI to prefix mapping, which is used to name fields when parsing the xml file.
If an XML file has namespace and namespace is enabled, by default, the field name is the same as it is in the XML document.
If there is an item defined for the namespace URI in this map, the field name is prefix:fieldName.		 No
detectDataType Whether to detect integer, double, and Boolean data types. Allowed values are: true (default), false. No
compressionProperties A group of properties on how to decompress data for a given compression codec. No
preserveZipFileNameAsFolder
(under compressionProperties->type as ZipDeflateReadSettings)		 Applies when input dataset is configured with ZipDeflate compression. Indicates whether to preserve the source zip file name as folder structure during copy.
- When set to true (default), the service writes unzipped files to <path specified in dataset>/<folder named as source zip file>/.
- When set to false, the service writes unzipped files directly to <path specified in dataset>. Make sure you don't have duplicated file names in different source zip files to avoid racing or unexpected behavior.		 No
preserveCompressionFileNameAsFolder
(under compressionProperties->type as TarGZipReadSettings or TarReadSettings)		 Applies when input dataset is configured with TarGzip/Tar compression. Indicates whether to preserve the source compressed file name as folder structure during copy.
- When set to true (default), the service writes decompressed files to <path specified in dataset>/<folder named as source compressed file>/.
- When set to false, the service writes decompressed files directly to <path specified in dataset>. Make sure you don't have duplicated file names in different source files to avoid racing or unexpected behavior.		 No

Mapping data flow properties

In mapping data flows, you can read XML format in the following data stores: Azure Blob Storage, Azure Data Lake Storage Gen1, Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2, Amazon S3 and SFTP. You can point to XML files either using XML dataset or using an inline dataset.

Source properties

The below table lists the properties supported by an XML source. You can edit these properties in the Source options tab. Learn more from XML connector behavior. When using inline dataset, you will see additional file settings, which are the same as the properties described in dataset properties section.

Name Description Required Allowed values Data flow script property
Wild card paths All files matching the wildcard path will be processed. Overrides the folder and file path set in the dataset. No String[] wildcardPaths
Partition root path For file data that is partitioned, you can enter a partition root path in order to read partitioned folders as columns No String partitionRootPath
List of files Whether your source is pointing to a text file that lists files to process No true or false fileList
Column to store file name Create a new column with the source file name and path No String rowUrlColumn
After completion Delete or move the files after processing. File path starts from the container root No Delete: true or false
Move: ['<from>', '<to>']		 purgeFiles
moveFiles
Filter by last modified Choose to filter files based upon when they were last altered No Timestamp modifiedAfter
modifiedBefore
Validation mode Specifies whether to validate the XML schema. No None (default, no validation)
xsd (validate using XSD)
dtd (validate using DTD).		 validationMode
Namespaces Whether to enable namespace when parsing the XML files. No true (default) or false namespaces
Namespace prefix pairs Namespace URI to prefix mapping, which is used to name fields when parsing the xml file.
If an XML file has namespace and namespace is enabled, by default, the field name is the same as it is in the XML document.
If there is an item defined for the namespace URI in this map, the field name is prefix:fieldName.		 No Array with pattern['URI1'->'prefix1','URI2'->'prefix2'] namespacePrefixes
Allow no files found If true, an error is not thrown if no files are found no true or false ignoreNoFilesFound

XML source script example

The below script is an example of an XML source configuration in mapping data flows using dataset mode.

source(allowSchemaDrift: true,
    validateSchema: false,
    validationMode: 'xsd',
    namespaces: true) ~> XMLSource

The below script is an example of an XML source configuration using inline dataset mode.

source(allowSchemaDrift: true,
    validateSchema: false,
    format: 'xml',
    fileSystem: 'filesystem',
    folderPath: 'folder',
    validationMode: 'xsd',
    namespaces: true) ~> XMLSource

XML connector behavior

Note the following when using XML as source.

  • XML attributes:

    • Attributes of an element are parsed as the subfields of the element in the hierarchy.
    • The name of the attribute field follows the pattern @attributeName.

  • XML schema validation:

    • You can choose to not validate schema, or validate schema using XSD or DTD.
    • When using XSD or DTD to validate XML files, the XSD/DTD must be referred inside the XML files through relative path.

  • Namespace handling:

    • Namespace can be disabled when using data flow, in which case the attributes that defines the namespace will be parsed as normal attributes.
    • When namespace is enabled, the names of the element and attributes follow the pattern namespaceUri,elementName and namespaceUri,@attributeName by default. You can define namespace prefix for each namespace URI in source, in which case the names of the element and attributes follow the pattern definedPrefix:elementName or definedPrefix:@attributeName instead.

  • Value column:

    • If an XML element has both simple text value and attributes/child elements, the simple text value is parsed as the value of a "value column" with built-in field name _value_. And it inherits the namespace of the element as well if applies.

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