How to handle this XML in BizTalk

Question

I am being passed a large chunk of XML for processing in BizTalk. The xml is mainly in the form:

<FieldItem>
    <Name>EmploymentStatus</Name>
    <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">1</Value>
</FieldItem>

However, occasionally a name value pair becomes more complex, looking something like this:

 <FieldItem>
        <Name>EducationAndQualifications</Name>
        <Value xsi:type="RepeatingFieldArray">
            <Fields>
                <RepeatingField>
                    <Items>
                        <FieldItem>
                            <Name>Qualification</Name>
                            <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">umbraco</Value>
                        </FieldItem>
                        <FieldItem>
                            <Name>Establishment</Name>
                            <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">IBM</Value>
                        </FieldItem>
                        <FieldItem>
                            <Name>DateAchieved</Name>
                            <Value xsi:type="xsd:string">June 2011</Value>
                        </FieldItem>
                    </Items>
                </RepeatingField>
            </Fields>
        </Value>
    </FieldItem>

I have tried generating a schema via BizTalks Generated Items Wizard but it can't cope with the types changing and then the additional repeating fields which may or may not be there.

So I am looking for advice/guidance on the best way forward on this. Is it possible to create a schema that BizTalk will like to deal with this? Or, the solution I'm favouring at the moment, should I create a custom pipeline component that splits this out into separate messages?

Thanks for your time.

UPDATE

If I create the following schema:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16" ?> 
<xsd:schema xmlns:b="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" attributeFormDefault="unqualified" elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xsd:element name="FormData">
    <xsd:complexType>
        <xsd:sequence>
          <xsd:element name="FormName" type="xsd:string" /> 
          <xsd:element name="FormInstanceId" type="xsd:string" /> 
          <xsd:element name="Status" type="xsd:string" /> 
          <xsd:element name="Data">
              <xsd:complexType>
                  <xsd:sequence>
                      <xsd:element maxOccurs="unbounded" name="FieldItem">
                          <xsd:complexType>
                              <xsd:sequence>
                                  <xsd:element name="Name" type="xsd:string" /> 
                                  <xsd:element minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" name="Value" nillable="true" type="xsd:anyType" /> 
                              </xsd:sequence>
                          </xsd:complexType>
                      </xsd:element>
                  </xsd:sequence>
              </xsd:complexType>
          </xsd:element>
      </xsd:sequence>
  </xsd:complexType>

I get the following error:

This is an invalid xsi:type 'RepeatingFieldArray'

So I am still leaning towards writing some code to sort this all out ....

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 28 '12 at 14:22

I have decided to go down the custom pipeline component route extracting the repeating data into a generic schema which also matches the general repeating key/value pairs. I have added additional fields so that each message can be identified by it's section. See below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16" ?> 
    <xs:schema xmlns:b="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ns0="https://BizTalk.Interfaces.INT034.Schemas.PropertySchema" attributeFormDefault="unqualified" elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <xs:annotation>
    <xs:appinfo>
    <b:imports xmlns:b="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003">
      <b:namespace prefix="ns0" uri="https://BizTalk.Interfaces.INT034.Schemas.PropertySchema" location=".\PropertySchema.xsd" /> 
      </b:imports>
      </xs:appinfo>
      </xs:annotation>
    <xs:element name="Root">
    <xs:annotation>
    <xs:appinfo>
    <b:properties>
      <b:property name="ns0:Interface" xpath="/*[local-name()='Root' and namespace-uri()='']/*[local-name()='Interface' and namespace-uri()='']" /> 
      </b:properties>
      </xs:appinfo>
      </xs:annotation>
    <xs:complexType>
    <xs:sequence>
      <xs:element name="Interface" type="xs:string" /> 
      <xs:element name="Type" type="xs:string" /> 
      <xs:element name="FormName" type="xs:string" /> 
      <xs:element name="FormInstanceId" type="xs:string" /> 
      <xs:element name="Status" type="xs:string" /> 
    <xs:element name="Data">
    <xs:complexType>
    <xs:sequence>
    <xs:element maxOccurs="unbounded" name="FieldItem">
    <xs:complexType>
    <xs:sequence>
      <xs:element name="Name" type="xs:string" /> 
      <xs:element name="Value" type="xs:string" /> 
      </xs:sequence>
      </xs:complexType>
      </xs:element>
      </xs:sequence>
      </xs:complexType>
      </xs:element>
      </xs:sequence>
      </xs:complexType>
      </xs:element>
      </xs:schema>

How to handle this XML in BizTalk

1 Answers1