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Walkthrough: Creating a Flat File Schema From a Document Instance

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This walkthrough shows you how to create a flat file schema from a document instance using the BizTalk Flat File Schema Wizard based on the following sample purchase order. For an introduction to the BizTalk Flat File Schema Wizard, see How to Use BizTalk Flat File Schema Wizard.

Sample Purchase Order

Each line of the purchase order ends with a carriage return line feed (CRLF), marked in green. The purchase order starts with a PO tag shown in red and followed by a date. Two repeating fixed positional fields contain customer information and are shown in purple. After the comment field, there is a repeating field starting with an ITEMS tag that contains multiple records delimited by commas (,) and data values separated by pipes (|), which are shown in blue.

Prerequisites

Before exercising this walkthrough, make sure the following software is installed and configured on your server:

  • Microsoft Visual Studio

  • Microsoft BizTalk Server with the Developer tools installed

    To prepare the document instance for the walkthrough, copy the following into a text editor, and save it as a text file. Be sure to copy all line feeds and carriage returns.

PO1999-10-20
US        Alice Smith         123 Maple Street    Mill Valley    CA 90952
US        Robert Smith        8 Oak Avenue        Old Town       PA 95819
ITEMS,ITEM872-AA|Lawnmower|1|148.95|Confirm this is electric,ITEM926-AA|Baby Monitor|1|39.98|Confirm this is electric

Start the wizard

  1. In Visual Studio, open the Solution Explorer.

  2. To add the new flat file schema, right-click the project, and select Add. Click New Item.

  3. In the Add New Item window, do the following:

    1. In the Categories section, select Schema Files.

    2. In the Templates section, select Flat File Schema Wizard.

    3. In the Name field, enter PurchaseOrder.xsd for the new schema.

    4. Click Add.

  4. When the BizTalk Flat File Schema Wizard opens, the Welcome Page appears.
    To skip this screen when running the wizard in the future, select the Do not show this introduction page again box. Click Next to continue.

Selecting purchase order instance

  • On the Flat File Schema Information screen, select your instance and enter the following information. When you are done, click Next to continue.

    • Instance file: Click the Browse button to locate the flat file from which the schema will be generated. Browse to the folder containing the text file you created in the Prerequisites section of Walkthrough: Creating a Flat File Schema From a Document Instance.

    • Record name: Type PO as it will be the schema root name.

    • Target namespace: Type http://Flat_File_Project.PurchaseOrder for schema target namespace.

    • Code page: Select UTF-8 (65001) from the drop down selection list.

    • Count positions in bytes: Check this box if you wish to count the positional data fields by bytes. By default, the positional data fields are counted in characters. In this walkthrough, leave the Count positions in bytes check box unchecked.

Select purchase order data

  • On the Select Document Data screen, the contents of the flat file are displayed. Select the data needed for creating the schema, and then click Next.

    Note

    If you would like to use the entire document instance, you can press Ctrl-A to select all.

    Note

    Check Wrap long lines box if you want to view the entire document instance content wrapped into the edit box throughout the wizard.

    Note

    If you are creating the schema from an interchange instance, select only the part that represents the individual document structure.

Delimit purchase order record

  • As each line of the purchase order ends with a carriage return line feed (CRLF), select By delimiter symbol, and then click Next on Select Record Format screen.

Specify purchase order record property

  • On the Delimited Record screen, enter the following to define the first level of the schema and when you are done, click Next.

    • Child delimiter: Select {CR}{LF}.

      Note

      Child delimiter property is an editable box with drop down selection list contains a set of default values. The Child delimiter can be specified as a character or as a hexadecimal value. For example, \{ or {0x0D0A}.

    • Escape character: An escape character is a single character that suppresses any special meaning of the character that follows it. See Escape Characters for more information. Leave it blank for the walkthrough.

      Note

      When using \, {, and } for Child delimiter or Escape character, a back slash must be used. For example, \\, and \{.

    • Check Record has a tag identifier box and type PO in Tag. In a multiple records file, PO will be used to identify each individual record. Click Next to continue.

      Delimited Record screen

Define the element in the purchase order record

  1. The wizard has identified four elements in the purchase order record; you must now define the element property. In the first row, do the following:

    1. Type date for the Element Name.

    2. Select Field element for Element Type.

    3. Select date from the drop-down selection list for Data Type.

  2. Repeat Steps a to c for the following elements. When you are done, click Next.

    Element Name Element Type Data Type
    customer Repeating record
    Ignore
    items Record

    Child Elements screen

    Note

    You can select multiple rows and then change their Element Type to a single type by using the mouse and the SHIFT or CTRL key.

    Note

    After you click Next on the Child Elements screen, you will not be able to click Back to redefine or make any changes to the child elements. You may need to close the wizard and launch the wizard again to define the flat file schema.

  3. After you complete the steps in this procedure, the first level of the schema is generated as shown in the following screenshot. Three unique elements are defined, and you will continue to further define the child records for the elements in the purchase order record. Click Next.

    Image that shows the first level of the schema.

Define the customer record

  1. Because we defined the customer element as the Repeating record type and the items element as the Record type, the BizTalk Flat File Schema Wizard now continues to further define these two elements. On the Schema View screen, select customer, and then click Next to continue.

  2. To work with the customer record, you need to select the data that represents that element. Because it is a repeating record, either of the lines can be used to define the record. Select the first line of customer data and click Next to continue.

  3. On the Select Record Format page, select By relative positions, and then click Next.

  4. The wizard provides a visual tool for showing and calculating the distance between the fields. On the Positional Record page, use the left mouse button to click the position marker 10 to represent where the name field begins. Click the following position markers to represent the rest of the data fields:

    Field Name Position Marker
    street 30
    city 50
    state 65
    postalcode 68

    Click Next to continue.

    Positional Record screen

  5. On the Child Elements page, you specify the properties of the child elements. Select the first row and type country as the Element Name. Leave the default values in the other columns. Type the following values for the other properties for the Element Name:

    Element Name Value
    customer_Child2 fullName
    customer_Child3 street
    customer_Child4 city
    customer_Child5 state
    customer_Child6 postalcode

    Click Next to continue.

    Image that shows the Child Elements screen.

  6. The child elements of the customer record are created as shown in the following screenshot. Click Next to define the child elements for the items record.

    Image that shows the child elements of the customer record.

Define the items record

  1. On the Schema View page, select items, and then click Next.

  2. On the Select Document Data page, select the entire line begins with ITEMS, and then click Next to define its child elements.

  3. On the Select Record Format page, select By delimiter symbol, and then click Next.

  4. In the Items record, commas are used to delimit the individual items. Therefore, on the Delimited Record page, enter the following to define the items record. When you are done, click Next.

    • Select , from Child delimiter drop-down selection list.

    • Leave the Escape character text box blank.

    • Select Record has a tag identifier and type ITEMS in Tag.

      In a multiple items record, ITEMS is used to identify each individual record.

  5. Using the values from the Delimited Record page, the wizard identifies two child elements. Because one of them is a repeating record, select the first element and enter item for Element Name, and then select Repeating Record from the drop down selection list for Element Type. Leave the rest of the default values in the columns. Select the second row and select the Ignore from Element Type list. When you click Next, the next level for the items record is created in the schema. You continue to define the final part of the purchase order schema.

  6. Select item and then click Next to continue on the Schema View page.

  7. On the Select Document Data page, select ITEM872-AA|Lawnmower|1|148.95|Confirm this is electric. Click Next to continue.

  8. On the Select Record Format page, select the By delimiter symbol option because the individual item is delimited by a pipe (|).

  9. On the Delimited Record page, enter the following to define the item record. When you are done, click Next.

    • Select | from the Child delimiter drop down selection list.

    • Leave the Escape character text box blank.

  10. On the Child Elements page, the wizard has identified five child elements. Select the first row and enter productCode for Element name. Leave the default values in the rest of the columns. For the rest of the Element Name properties, type the following:

    Element Name Value
    item_Child2 description
    item_Child3 quantity
    item_Child4 unitPrice
    item_Child5 notes

    Click Next to continue.

  11. You have defined all the nodes for the purchase order schema. On the Schema View page, click Finish.

  12. You can now view the final purchase order schema. You can also refine the schema by using the BizTalk Schema Editor. See Flat file property name table and the Property tables in Schema Node Properties. More details on this property in the UI guidance and developers API namespace reference.

Summary

In this walkthrough you have learned how to use the BizTalk Flat File Schema Wizard to create a flat file schema from a document instance.

Next Steps

Validate PO Instance

To ensure that the PurchaseOrder.xsd schema can correctly parse the PO instance, do the following:

  1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the PurchaseOrder.xsd and then select Properties.

  2. In the Property Pages, make sure that the Input Instance Filename field is pointing to the location of the PO instance you created in the Prerequisites section of Walkthrough: Creating a Flat File Schema From a Document Instance. Click OK to close the dialog.

  3. In Solution Explorer, right-click PurchaseOrder.xsd, and then select Validate Instance. The validation component opens.

  4. After validation is completed, a link is provided to you for viewing the XML output based on parsing result on PO instance using the PurchaseOrder.xsd schema. To view the XML output, press Ctrl and click the link.

Create Pipelines for the Schema

Now you can create a receive or send pipeline based on the PurchaseOrder.xsd schema to use with your BizTalk application.

To create a new pipeline, see How to Create a New Pipeline. To configure the Flat File Pipeline components, see How to Configure the Flat File Assembler Pipeline Component and How to Configure the Flat File Disassembler Pipeline Component.

See Also

How to Use BizTalk Flat File Schema Wizard
Creating Schemas Using BizTalk Flat File Schema Wizard