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MarcusH's avatar
MarcusH
Valued Contributor
2 years ago
Solved

Format of XML files in Application extract zip file

Does anyone know if it is possible to format the XML files that are created by the application extract. In particular I want to format the Metadata extract so that there is a single line for the memb...
Metadata
  • RobbSalzmann's avatar
    RobbSalzmann
    2 years ago

    I get what you're doing.  It makes sense.  However, Git has the ability to track this without needing to mangle the XML.  in VS you can open your xml in a diff to see the individual changes.  Its built in. 🙂

     

JackLacava's avatar
JackLacava
Icon for OneStream Employee rankOneStream Employee
2 years ago

Comparing xmls by relying on text-formatting rules is the wrong approach; you want a dedicated tool, like https://xmldiff.readthedocs.io/. There are other options, like the ones https://superuser.com/questions/79920/how-can-i-diff-two-xml-files.

  • MarcusH's avatar
    MarcusH
    Valued Contributor
    2 years ago

    Hi Jack

    Thanks for the reply. I have already written a script for comparing XML files. It's cumbersome and I was wondering if there was a better way. It's the format that OS produces the file in eg there's a setting somewhere in the API that controls the XML output. It would make Git much simpler.

    • RobbSalzmann's avatar
      RobbSalzmann
      Valued Contributor II
      2 years ago

      Unfortunately, there's no "setting" controlling XML output specific to the formatting of indicated tags.  Its the nature of the XDocument library to output human formatted XML.  As an experiment you can literally "flatten" each member tag section using a regex and add it back to the XDocument object.   Upon writing that document back to a file, you will find your previously flattened xml all nicely formatted again.

          public static void XdocumentFormatExperiment(string inputFilePath, string outputFilePath)
    {
        XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(inputFilePath);

        foreach (var member in doc.Descendants("member").ToList())
        {
            // Convert the member element and its children to a single line string
            string memberAsString = member.ToString();
            string singleLineMember = Regex.Replace(memberAsString, @"\r\n?|\n", "");
            singleLineMember = Regex.Replace(singleLineMember, @">\s*<", "><");
            Console.WriteLine(singleLineMember); // all nicely flattened on one line...

            // replace the original <member tag with the flattened one
            member.ReplaceWith(XElement.Parse(singleLineMember));
        }
         //write out the new xml doc with the flattened member tags
         // open the file and find they're all formatted again.
        doc.Save(outputFilePath);
    }