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This topic is contained in the PDXpert help file: select Contents from the application's Help menu.

Data transformations

Purpose

Contains XSLT templates for transforming the standard PDXpert XML file format, called PLMX, to other data formats; may include optional SQL-type query and report (RDLC) code.

Where used

Report/Export Wizard, item Structure tab's Markup list.

Data fields

General tab

Name
The name of the transformation template.
Description
A summary of how the data contained in the data transformation is used.
Active: users can select
Default member of collection
Permanent member of collection
For a description of these checkboxes, see the Collections reference > Common properties & attributes help topic.

XML tab

The data transformation consists of the following sections:

  • <xsl:stylesheet></xsl> The optional XSL instructions transform the source data into the appropriate import/export/report file format.
  • <dataquery></dataquery> This is an optional database SQL query, which creates a data source for the transformation.
  • <report></report> The optional Report Definition Language (Client-side) code is an XML-based report definition created by Microsoft for SQL Server.
  • <provider></provider> The Report/Export Wizard creates a table-formatted, XML, or report output based on this code.
    • <provider>8fb9e24b-bbfb-44a0-903e-d526db8e3fd0</provider> is used to import/export CSV, XLS or similar tabular data file
    • <provider>ef098d26-2f9d-4cb1-902c-b55cc9091b00</provider> exports an XLSX file
    • <provider>e2c4e89a-db62-43ad-a718-ec08726d42b3</provider> exports an XML file
    • <provider>f61035e0-a334-4978-909b-b4d4733c7654</provider> identifies a formatted report
  • <settings/> This element allows options to be configured.
    • isImport="true/false" indicates whether transformation represents, respectively, an assembly (e.g., CAD BOM) import or a data file export/report.
    • Objects are excluded (attribute="False") from the intermediate scratchpad file to improve performance. For very large datasets, set only the values needed in the transformation's output to True.

Setup suggestions

The data transformation can be used to import or export product data formatted as XML, HTML, CSV, XLS or other text files. The complete data flow for exports: Database > [PLMX or Data Query] > data transformation XSLT > [export file or [RDLC > report]]

When you receive a new XML data transformation as a text file, open it in Windows Notepad (not in Word or other word processing application). Copy the entire contents (Ctrl+A), and paste it (Ctrl+V) into a new Data Transformation member's XML textbox. After you define the new transformation, it will be immediately available use in the Report/Export Wizard window (open from the Tools menu) or used to import a structure markup file.

Creating a new XSLT transformation requires significant technical knowledge of the PLMX format, and is much simpler when using specialized XML development tools. You can start by modifying the provided transformations, or contact us to create a new data transformation to meet your requirements.

The PLMX definition PLMX.XSD is available at http://www.plmx.org/

2046

Help topics describe the most current PDXpert PLM software release, and may differ from earlier releases.