XSLT之后如何将XML数据保存在一起？ （在MS-Access中）

Question

I'm trying to parse XML data that comes to me as attribute-centric, into an element-centric style using an XSL Transformation. My goal is to be able to import it into an access database. I've succeeded in parsing it into elements, but my issue now resides in the data being split into multiple tables. I've got multiple categories of element tags, but after the parse when the xsl creates 'blank' header tags for sections, access splits into a new table when it hits the blank tag. The structure is (simply)

MeterReadings(with small description attributes)

MetersRead(with small description attributes)

Meter(with the majority of description attributes I need)

Status(with small description attributes)

What happens is the XSL creates all of the attributes into elements but then leaves the headers (MeterReadings,MetersRead,Meter,Status) as blank elements. This causes access to separate these 4 into separate tables, which ends up almost creating useless data as the majority of data in 'Meter' requires the identifiers from the 'MeterReadings' and so on.

I'm a student programmer on placement and brand new to XML/XSLT. Currently my XSL looks like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
    xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt" exclude-result-prefixes="msxsl">
    <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>

    <xsl:template match="@* | node()">
        <xsl:copy>
            <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()"/>
        </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="@*">
    <xsl:element name="{name()}">
    <xsl:value-of select="."/></xsl:element>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

This is how my XML looks after transformation, I have around 150k lines of data before the transformation so you can't see MeterReadings in this snip, because it would have to encompass around 1700 lines to see it encapsulated.

<MetersRead>
<Meter>
<MeterIrn>(Dummy Data)</MeterIrn>
<MeterName>(Dummy Data)</MeterName>
<IsActive>(Dummy Data)</IsActive>
<SerialNumber>(Dummy Data)</SerialNumber>
<MeterType>(Dummy Data)</MeterType>
<Description></Description>
<InstallDate>(Dummy Data)</InstallDate>
<RemovalDate></RemovalDate>
<AccountIdent></AccountIdent>
<AccountName></AccountName>
<SdpIdent>(Dummy Data)</SdpIdent>
<Location>(Dummy Data)</Location>
<TimeZoneIndex>(Dummy Data)</TimeZoneIndex>
<Timezone>(Dummy Data)</Timezone>
<TimeZoneOffset>(Dummy Data)</TimeZoneOffset>
<ObservesDaylightSavings>(Dummy Data)</ObservesDaylightSavings>
<MediaType>(Dummy Data)</MediaType>
<Status>
<Code>(Dummy Data)</Code>
<Text>(Dummy Data)</Text>
</Status>
</Meter>

So hopefully you can see what I mean here, where MetersRead / Meter / Status are open blank tags, this is where MS-Access will split a new table, and anything up until the next blank open tag will go into its own table. Any tips are extremely appreciated, I've spent the last few days delving through questions on here, MSDN help, and other resources. I've learned a lot from @Lingamurthy CS on here.

Also this is what my XML looks like BEFORE transformation if that helps explain my case

<MetersRead >

    <Meter MeterIrn="(Dummy Data)" MeterName="(Dummy Data)" IsActive="(Dummy Data)" SerialNumber="(Dummy Data)" MeterType="(Dummy Data)" Description="" InstallDate="(Dummy Data)" RemovalDate="" AccountIdent="" AccountName="" SdpIdent="(Dummy Data)" Location="(Dummy Data)" TimeZoneIndex="(Dummy Data)" Timezone="(Dummy Data)" TimeZoneOffset="(Dummy Data)" ObservesDaylightSavings="(Dummy Data)" MediaType="(Dummy Data)" >

        <Status Code="(Dummy Data)" Text="(Dummy Data)" />

    </Meter>

Access Table Format The image shows how Access import formats my tables, and you can see that it is splitting the 4 highlighted tables whereas the data is only useful if it stays together in say 1 generic "Meter" table. I tried moving fields over to one table such that when the import happens and I only append data to existing fields it would populate it how I needed, but it only fills the tables it can fully identify as the same structure from the XML.

Answer 1

You seem not to be certain exactly what you want. As best I can interpret your data and request, I think you want each <Meter> element to correspond to one row in one flat table. <MetersRead> is just a collection of the <Meter> elements, so it corresponds to that same table, not a separate one of its own, and <Status> elements are to be flattened into the data for their containing <Meter> . How any of that relates to a MeterReadings element is unclear and cannot be addressed based on the information provided.

The main thing to understand about the "blank" open tags -- ie the ones that correspond to elements, rather than attributes, of the input document -- is that they arise from the <xsl:copy> in your stylesheet's identity transform. The key to omitting them is to apply a different transform to elements that should not have corresponding elements in the output tree. You can easily transform an element without copying the element itself.

Something along these lines is probably closer to what you want:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
    xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt" exclude-result-prefixes="msxsl">
  <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>
  <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

  <!-- BY DEFAULT, elements and text nodes are copied,
       and elements' attributes and contents are transformed as child nodes
       of the output element -->
  <xsl:template match="node()">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()"/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- By default, attributes are transformed to elements -->
  <xsl:template match="@*">
    <xsl:element name="{name()}">
      <xsl:value-of select="."/>
    </xsl:element>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Certain elements have only their contents transformed -->
  <xsl:template match="MetersRead | Status">
    <!-- no xsl:copy, and attribute children, if any, are ignored -->
    <xsl:apply-templates select="node()"/>
  </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

I had to patch up your example input by closing the <MetersRead> element; the result of applying the above transformation to the result is

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Meter>
  <MeterIrn>(Dummy Data)</MeterIrn>
  <MeterName>(Dummy Data)</MeterName>
  <IsActive>(Dummy Data)</IsActive>
  <SerialNumber>(Dummy Data)</SerialNumber>
  <MeterType>(Dummy Data)</MeterType>
  <Description/>
  <InstallDate>(Dummy Data)</InstallDate>
  <RemovalDate/>
  <AccountIdent/>
  <AccountName/>
  <SdpIdent>(Dummy Data)</SdpIdent>
  <Location>(Dummy Data)</Location>
  <TimeZoneIndex>(Dummy Data)</TimeZoneIndex>
  <Timezone>(Dummy Data)</Timezone>
  <TimeZoneOffset>(Dummy Data)</TimeZoneOffset>
  <ObservesDaylightSavings>(Dummy Data)</ObservesDaylightSavings>
  <MediaType>(Dummy Data)</MediaType>
  <Code>(Dummy Data)</Code>
  <Text>(Dummy Data)</Text>
</Meter>

Note the absence of any <MetersRead> element and the flattening of the erstwhile <Status> into the host <Meter> .