JDeveloper on DecipherMiddleware

DECIPHER: Dynamic XSLTs in BPEL (SOA 12c)

Sat, 12 Mar 2022 07:45:00 +0000

While developing integrations in BPEL 12c, XSLT is most commonly used to transform different XML message structures. We generally come across scenarios wherein based on specific input fields, our transformation logic changes. What we generally do is have all conditions within the same XSLT file. This makes our XSLT look a lot bigger and difficult to maintain. A better way would be to have different XSLTs and move deciding factor out of XSLT. Once we create different XSLTs for specific use cases having the same output format, now the question will come how to configure these XSLTs to be picked at runtime? This blog is curated with answers to such and many more questions.

Let’s take the example of account creation. There is a source application sending account information in an XML document which we need to update in a backend database. Now source system can send different types of address information like home address, business address, or shipping address. We get this information in the addressType input field. In the backend database, for each type of address, there are different fields in the backend database. There could various ways to handle this.

Create one single XSLT to handle all the scenarios using XSLT functions like if, choose-when , etc. One single XSLT file for all the scenarios, BPEL code will be easy to read. But this will lead to a huge XSLT file and will be a bit tricky to maintain. In the future, if we want to add new conditions for only secondary addresses, then regression testing might be required to ensure we don’t hamper the other functionality.

Another way could be to have separate XSLTs for each scenario. As per the example, we have 3 scenarios. The address can be of type home, business, or shipping address.

We can have 3 XSLTs created for each scenario. Now maintainability of Transformation XSLT code will be a lot easier. These can now be configured using an if-else block within the BPEL process to decide which XSLT to pick. The BPEL process will look now similar to below.

Now suppose tomorrow we have a new condition added, then we need to add another block of “elseif” to accommodate this. This will make your BPEL code look bigger.

In SOA 12c we have below two functions that can be used to shorten the BPEL flow and use the XSLT dynamically.

ora:processXSLT
ora:doXSLTransformForDoc

xmlns:ora =“http://schemas.oracle.com/xpath/extension"

Both of the above functions support the location of the XSLT file and input XML. The above functions can be used in conjunction with DVM to fetch the location of XSLT and assign it to the input of the function.
For the same example, let’s consider below DVM file as an example.

We can use the above DVM file to extract the location of XSLT that can be used. Suppose we store the conditional value in a variable called $addType(having one of the values in the home, business, or shipping). We can use DVM lookup to fetch the resulting XSLT file location that can be provided as input to the above-mentioned functions in an Assign activity. In case none of the conditions matches the default.xsl file can be used.

dvm:lookupValue(“dvms/dynamicXSLT.dvm”, “addressType”,$addType, “xsltLocation”, “transformations/default.xsl”)

Let us assume the output value of the above expression is stored in variable $dynamicXSLT and input XML is stored in $input. The expression will be:

ora:processXSLT($dynamicXSLT, $input)
ora:doXSLTransformForDoc($dynamicXSLT, $input)

Both the above functions do a similar task. But there is one major difference. Suppose your XSLT requires extra complex parameters to be passed as input. In such scenarios ora:doXSLTransformForDoc comes real handy. In this function, we can pass key-value pairs of parameters that can be used within the XSLT.

For example, if our XSLT requires a parameter contact(as defined in XSLT) and the value is stored in the $Contact variable in the BPEL process. Now our function will look like.

ora:doXSLTransformForDoc($dynamicXSLT, $input, ‘contact’, $contact)

References: 🔗

https://docs.oracle.com/middleware/12211/soasuite/develop/GUID-B37B91AF-0036-47EC-AB9F-FCBCD2BA55E2.htm#SOASE2117

Please share your valuable feedback 😊😊😊

Demystifying file read as attachment in SOA 12c

Sat, 27 Nov 2021 21:12:00 +0000

In cases when we just want to move a file(without transformation) from one SFTP/FTP/file location to the other SFTP/FTP/file location, we can read a file with or without schema and then perform the write operation to the target location. If we provide an exact file schema for conversion to XML, it takes a lot of heap memory to transform from a csv or ffd to an XML document. In cases when files are not simple text files or schema is not available, one way to do so is to read the file as an opaque object and write it to a target location. In doing so, we still use a heap memory of the WebLogic server. If we are dealing with very large files, this may impact server performance as the conversion to opaque elements will take place behind the scenes. Using opaque schema is never recommended to process huge files. One better way of handling such a scenario is to read a file as an attachment in SOA 12c. Generally, we have below question:

What is reading a file as an attachment means? 🔗

In this case, we are not loading the contents of the file in the memory of the Weblogic server i.e in BPEL flow we will not see the contents of the file loaded instead, a href to the actual file is seen. In this case, the Weblogic server leverages SOA-INFRA tables to load file data in the table and in return gives href to the flow. This href actually links to data stored in the SOA-INFRA table and can be used to write files to the different locations (in the same or different FTP servers).

To understand better, let’s take an example of flow which polls the FTP directory every 10 minutes and read as an attachment. Then, how we can find the payload from SOA-INFRA tables.

Below are the steps to configure the file/FTP adapter in BPEL(SOA 12c).

Configuration Steps: 🔗

1. Create a SOA project in Jdevloper 12c.

2. Drag and drop FTP adapter from component pallet. Enter the service name. Click Next.

3. Select Define from operation and schema (specified later). Click Next.

4. Specify the source FTP JNDI name as configured in the Weblogic server. Click next.

5. Select operation type as Get File. Check the Read File As Attachment. If we know the character set, encoding, and Content-Type of the file, then specify else leave it blank. Click Next.

6. Specify the input directory from where we want to pick the file from. Check Archive processed files , and specify a directory for archive files if we want to archive the data after processing. Check Delete files after successful retrieval if we want to delete the file after processing. Click Next.

7. Provide the file name pattern or regex file name pattern and click Next.

8. Specify the polling frequency and click Next. Click on Finish to complete the adapter configuration.

9. Add a BPEL component with no service, i.e. define service later.

10. Join the wire from the FTP adapter to the BPEL component.

11. Open the BPEL component, and configure receive activity as shown below.

12. Click OK. Save and deploy the code on the Weblogic server.

Analyzing the read file as an attachment 🔗

Let’s test the service and see the behaviour of file being read as an attachment.

1. Place the file in the FTP location and wait for it to get it picked.

2. Once the file is picked, log in to the em console. We will see an instance created.

3. Open the flow, here we will see only the href.

Now after seeing this, we might think about where did our data go. As we see only href. But where is our actual data?

Our data is safe within soa-infra database.

4. To query the file data and file attributes, connect to the SOA-INFRA database of the SOA instance.

5. Run the below query

select * from attachment where dbkey='href-value';

File data is stored in blob format within the attachment table.

References: 🔗

https://docs.oracle.com/middleware/1213/adapters/develop-soa-adapters/GUID-088EFFE9-AE8B-4A35-B9DB-0A0DDA1BBBE7.htm#TKADP590

Please share your valuable feedback 😊😊😊

[OSB 12c][Tutorial] OSB 12c SOAP webservice for temperature conversion i.e. Celsius to Fahrenheit and vice versa

Thu, 08 Apr 2021 19:22:00 +0000

This tutorial is intended for the audience who are completely new to OSB and want to try a simple hello world kind of application. Instead of sending and receiving Hello World!. We will be using simple temperature conversion i.e. from Celsius to Fahrenheit and vice versa. We will be using simple Xquery to do all conversion and logic.

High Level: 🔗

In this case, our OSB component will contain 2 parts proxy service and pipeline. Proxy service will expose SOAP endpoint to the client application and pipeline will perform various operations on input payload. Since this is just a Hello World application, we will not be using business services. XQuery will be used to implement mathematical logic and conditional logic. Service will take temperature as input and will perform either Fahrenheit to Celsius (FtoC) or Celsius to Fahrenheit (CtoF) temperature conversion. If the conversion type is invalid, then the service will return a failure status.

Mathematical Calculations: 🔗

Let temperature in Fahrenheit be X℉ and temperature in Celsius be Y℃.

Fahrenheit to Celsius (FtoC)

X = (9/5*Y) + 32

Celsius to Fahrenheit (CtoF)

Y = (X-32)*5/9

Steps: 🔗

Note: Jdeveloper 12c(12.2.1.4) is used for creating OSB artifacts.

1. Click on File. Click on New and then on Application.

2. Click on Service Bus Application with Service Bus Project. Click on OK.

3. Specify the Application Name and click on Next.

4. Specify the Project Name and click on Finish. Service Bus Application and Project will be created.

5. Right-click on the project, click on New and then Click on XML Schema.

6. Specify the File Name, Directory, and Target Namespace for the XML schema. Click on OK. A new schema file will be created.

7. Replace content in the file with the below schema data.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252" ?>
<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://www.example.org" targetNamespace="http://www.example.org" elementFormDefault="qualified">
 <xsd:element name="Request">
 <xsd:complexType>
 <xsd:sequence>
 <xsd:element name="temperature" type="xsd:double"/>
 <xsd:element name="unit" type="xsd:string"/>
 <xsd:element name="conversionType" type="xsd:string"/>
 </xsd:sequence>
 </xsd:complexType>
 </xsd:element>
 <xsd:element name="Response">
 <xsd:complexType>
 <xsd:sequence>
 <xsd:element name="status" type="xsd:string"/>
 <xsd:element name="statusDescription" type="xsd:string"/>
 <xsd:element name="temperature" type="xsd:double"/>
 <xsd:element name="unit" type="xsd:string"/>
 </xsd:sequence>
 </xsd:complexType>
 </xsd:element>
</xsd:schema>

8. Drag and drop pipeline from the component palette to Pipelines/Split Joins area. “Create Pipeline Service " window will appear.

6. Specify the name for the pipeline and click on Next.

9. Select the WSDL radio button and click on create WSDL button.

10. Use the schema created instep 7 and create WSDL using Create WSDL dialog box. Click on OK.

11. The details will be populated. Check the Expose as a Proxy Service. Specify the name of the proxy service and set Proxy Transport as HTTP. Click on Finish.

12. Double Click on the pipeline.

The pipeline window will open as below.

13. Drag pipeline pair from component pallet and drop below the entry point of the pipeline.

Pipeline pair will be added as below and 2 stages will be created, one each under request and response pipelines respectively.

14. To implement transformation, we will be using XQuery. Create a new XQuery file with the name transformation_xquery.xqy under the Transformations folder.

xquery version "1.0" encoding "utf-8";
(:: OracleAnnotationVersion "1.0" ::)
declare namespace ns1="http://www.example.org";
(:: import schema at "../temperature.xsd" ::)
declare variable $Request as element() (:: schema-element(ns1:Request) ::) external;
declare function local:func($Request as element() (:: schema-element(ns1:Request) ::)) as element() (:: schema-element(ns1:Response) ::) {
if($Request/ns1:conversionType ='CtoF') then(
<ns1:Response>
<ns1:status>SUCCESS</ns1:status>
<ns1:statusDescription>Converted to Fahrenheit unit!</ns1:statusDescription>
<ns1:temperature>{(xs:double($Request/ns1:temperature) * 9.0 div 5.0)+32}</ns1:temperature>
<ns1:unit>F</ns1:unit>
</ns1:Response>
)
else(
if($Request/ns1:conversionType ='FtoC') then(
<ns1:Response>
<ns1:status>SUCCESS</ns1:status>
<ns1:statusDescription>Converted to Celsius unit!</ns1:statusDescription>
<ns1:temperature>{((xs:double($Request/ns1:temperature)-32)*5.0 div 9.0)}</ns1:temperature>
<ns1:unit>C</ns1:unit>
</ns1:Response>
)
else(
<ns1:Response>
<ns1:status>FAILURE</ns1:status>
<ns1:statusDescription>INVALID conversion type</ns1:statusDescription>
<ns1:temperature>{$Request/ns1:temperature}</ns1:temperature>
<ns1:unit>{$Request/ns1:unit}</ns1:unit>
</ns1:Response>
)
)
};
local:func($Request)

15. Add Replace activity to response pipeline under Stage 1.

16. Under replace properties, set location as the body. Location expression as “.”. For value select XQuery resource. A window will open. Update the values as shown below. Click on OK.

17. Under Replace Option , Select “Replace Node Contents “.

18. Open the proxy service and specify the endpoint for the service or project.

The Endpoint URI will be the relative URI and the hostname will be added before Endpoint URI for the final URL i.e.

http://<hostname>:<port>/<Endpoint-URI>

19. We need to deploy the service to SBConsole. We can either create a jar and deploy it to the service bus console else we can directly deploy it from Jdeveloper if a server is configured in Jdevloper.

20. Login to the Service Bus console. Open the proxy service. Click on the Green button to launch the test console.

21. Specify the values for the XML elements and Click on Execute.

The service performs the temperature conversion based on inputs and returns the results as below.

We can test and play with different sets of values to check if the code is working fine and even enhance it further.

Please share your valuable feedback in the comments section below 😊

Create Delimited String from XML Nodes and Vice Versa in SOA 12c

Fri, 25 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A delimited string is a string representation of data separated by a delimiter(e.g. “,”). A simple representation of the delimited string will look like.

Delimited String Examples 🔗

Sample-1-- Delimiter as ","
Value1,Value2,Value3
Sample-2-- Delimiter as "|"
Value1|Value2|Value3

If we want to represent the above set of delimited values in the form of an XML document under some root and parent tag. The representation will look like this.

XML Example 🔗

<root xmlns="http://test.com/sample/xml">
 <Values>
 <value>Value1</value>
 <value>Value2</value>
 <value>Value3</value>
 </Values>
</root>

Sometimes we may need to convert values coming in delimited string to an xml document or vice versa. Since delimited string is similar to csv format. We can create a nxsd schema and then perform translate i.e. native to xml or xml to native within our SOA application. But in the scenarios wherein we just want to convert one delimited string to xml or recurring xml nodes to one delimited string, there we can make use of oracle xpath extension functions:

xmlns:oraext=“http://www.oracle.com/XSL/Transform/java/oracle.tip.pc.services.functions.ExtFunc"

Note: Both functions can be used in XSLT or BPEL assign activity. The above two mentioned examples will be used for explaining these 2 functions.

oraext:create-nodeset-from-delimited-string() 🔗

This function is used to create XML node set from delimited string. Basic syntax of the function is as below.

oraext:create-nodeset-from-delimited-string ($qName, $delimitedString, $delimiter)

$qName: Qualified name of the node for each value to be created along with namespace. For e.g. ‘{http://test.com/sample/xml}value’

$delimitedString: String containing values delimited by a delimiter. Examples as above.

$delimiter: String representation of delimiter. For e.g. ‘,’

Sample XSLT code: 🔗

<xsl:template match="/">
 <ns1:root>
 <ns1:Values>
 <xsl:copy-of select="oraext:create-nodeset-from-delimited-string('{http://test.com/sample/xml}value','Value1,Value2,Value3' , ',' )"/>
 </ns1:Values>
 </ns1:root>
</xsl:template>

Note: Excluding, the XSL header for a better view. Please make sure all namespaces are properly imported in the XSL header. The above code snippet will give output as above example.

oraext:create-delimited-string() 🔗

This function is used to convert nodes to delimited string. Below is the syntax of the function.

oraext:create-delimited-string ($nodeSetValue, $delimiter)

$nodeSetValue: repetitive nodes or combination of nodes for which delimited string needs to be created. For e.g.

XML Sample 🔗

<value>Value1</value>
<value>Value2</value>
<value>Value3</value>

$delimiter: String representation of delimiter. For e.g. ‘,’

Sample code using the above sample

<!--',' as delimiter-->
<xsl:value-of select="oraext:create-delimited-string ($nodeSet/ns1:Values/ns1:value, ',')"/>
<!--'|' as delimiter-->
<xsl:value-of select="oraext:create-delimited-string ($nodeSet/ns1:Values/ns1:value, '|')"/>

xmlns:ns1=“http://test.com/sample/xml"

Here $nodeSet contains the XML data as represented in above example. Above XSL snippets will yield results as shown in delimited string samples.

Import and Export MDS artifacts in SOA 12c

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 13:51:00 +0000

Oracle SOA-MDS (Metadata Store) repository can be used to access artifacts that can be shared among various SOA composites. For example, we have one common schema for a business fault that is consumed by various applications. Instead of having a localized copy of that schema file in each SOA composite, we can have it in a centralized repository (SOA-MDS). Another benefit of using SOA-MDS is that we can change the file at runtime and need not redeploy the complete code.

While developing SOA composites, we use SOA design-time repository, later these changes can be synced to the SOA servers. In this article, we will discuss 2 ways to sync the artifacts available in the SOA design-time repository and the SOA servers.

Establishing the connection to SOA-MDS in Jdeveloper.
Using SOA em console or Fusion Middleware control console.

Moving a file between SOA composite to SOA design-time MDS repository 🔗

Let’s assume, we created a businessFault.xsd which will be used by various SOA composites or projects.

Before moving this file to the SOA server MDS location, we need to first push it to the SOA design-time repository.

To do so, right-click on businessFault.xsd and click on Share using SOA Design-Time MDS Repository.

Make sure, that file is not opened in Jdeveloper else you will get the below error.

A wizard will open as below. Click next to proceed.

Select the folder in which you want to place the file. For e.g. ‘/apps/Common’. Click Next.

If the document exists with the same name and we want to overwrite, then check the Overwrite if document exists in the target MDS repository. Click Next

If there are any references for the document, then those will be displayed along with updates that will happen. In this scenario, the file is not being used currently and the list is empty. Review the changes and click on Finish.

We will get a success message.

1. Establishing the connection to SOA-MDS in Jdeveloper. 🔗

Click on File. Click on New. Under all items select SOA-MDS connection. Click Ok

Specify the Connection Name (MDSConnection1). Select the type of connection to MDS, either File-based or DB based.
In this example, we will be using File Based MDS. Specify the path to the MDS File location and click on OK.

If you want to configure DB based MDS, then you need to either have the MDS DB connection or create a new DB connection to SOA-MDS.

Now the New MDS connection will be created and can be viewed under the resources palette.

Right-click on the SOA_DesignTimeRepository and then select transfer.

Select the files which you want to transfer and specify the target MDS connection. Click on transfer.

The file will be copied to the target MDS location i.e. SOA-MDS location. The file will be on the SOA server.

Similarly, to transfer files from SOA server MDS repository to SOA_DesignTimeRepository. Right-click MDSConnection1 and select transfer. Specify the files and click transfer. Here in this case target Connection will be SOA_DesignTimeRepository.

2. Using SOA em console or Fusion Middleware control console. 🔗

We can download the complete MDS repository in the .jar/.zip file and import it into our Jdeveloper and vice versa.

To Download or upload MDS repository .jar/.zip file from em console, Login to em console using the URL http://HOST[: PORT]/em. Click on Target Navigation and click on soa-infra.

Click on SOA Infrastructure. A Dropdown menu will appear. Click on Administration and then click on MDS Configuration

On this page, we can import or export the MDS repository in the .jar file. To export click on export. A zip file with the name “soa-infra_metadata.zip” will be downloaded. Similarly, to import the jar or zip file click on import.

To import this file in Jdeveloper, right-click on SOA_DesignTimeRepository and click on import from Jar. In case you want to export the file click on Export the Jar and specify the file name.

Specify the location of the .jar/zip file containing MDS files. Click on import.

Note: It is always better to use the first approach in case files and composites are deployed more on the server.

Read file inside BPEL using Xpath function

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 18:01:00 +0000

To read a file in SOA composite, we can use the following options

1. Using file adapter
2. Using java embedding
3. Using xpath function i.e. ora:readFile()

We generally use file adapter to read, write or poll files from different file locations. But, in case if don’t want to create a file adapter and don’t want to go for java embedding. We can make use of BPEL xpath extension functions. In this article, we will discuss about reading a file using xpath function ora:readFile().

Xpath expression: 🔗

ora:readFile('fileName',['schemaLocation'],['rootElement'])

xmlns:ora = **http://schemas.oracle.com/xpath/extension

‘fileName’ : Refers to absolute path of file along with extension. This is mandatory field.

‘schemaLocation’ : Refers to location of nxsd schema for the file to be read. This is an optional field. If you don’t provide the schema location, then data from the file will be read and converted to base64 encoded string

‘rootElement’ : Refers to root element in nxsd schema. This is optional field but required if we provide schema location.

Example: 🔗

Sample CSV file with absolute file path: C:\Users\test\SOA\test1.csv

S.No,Field1,Field2,Field3 
1,t1,t2,t3 
2,s1,s2,s3

Sample NXSD Schema:

<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:nxsd="http://xmlns.oracle.com/pcbpel/nxsd" xmlns:tns="http://TargetNamespace.com/ServiceName" targetNamespace="http://TargetNamespace.com/ServiceName" elementFormDefault="qualified" attributeFormDefault="unqualified" nxsd:version="NXSD" nxsd:stream="chars" nxsd:encoding="UTF-8" nxsd:hasHeader="true" nxsd:headerLines="1" nxsd:headerLinesTerminatedBy="${eol}">
 <xsd:element name="Root-Element">
 <xsd:complexType>
 <xsd:sequence>
 <xsd:element name="row" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="unbounded">
 <xsd:complexType>
 <xsd:sequence>
 <xsd:element name="S.No" type="xsd:string" nxsd:style="terminated" nxsd:terminatedBy="," nxsd:quotedBy="&quot;"/>
 <xsd:element name="Field1" type="xsd:string" nxsd:style="terminated" nxsd:terminatedBy="," nxsd:quotedBy="&quot;"/>
 <xsd:element name="Field2" type="xsd:string" nxsd:style="terminated" nxsd:terminatedBy="," nxsd:quotedBy="&quot;"/>
 <xsd:element name="Field3" type="xsd:string" nxsd:style="terminated" nxsd:terminatedBy="${eol}" nxsd:quotedBy="&quot;"/>
 </xsd:sequence>
 </xsd:complexType>
 </xsd:element>
 </xsd:sequence>
 </xsd:complexType>
 </xsd:element>
</xsd:schema>

XPath statement without schema, which will give output as base64 schema.

 ora:readFile('file:///C:/Users/test/SOA/test1.csv')

Output:

Uy5ObyxGaWVsZDEsRmllbGQyLEZpZWxkMw0KMSx0MSx0Mix0Mw0KMixzMSxzMixzMw0K

Xpath statement with schema, which will give output as xml

ora:readFile('file:///C:/Users/test/SOA/test1.csv','Schemas/nxsd_schema1.xsd','Root-Element')

Output:

<Root-Element xmlns="http://TargetNamespace.com/ServiceName">
 <row>
 <S.No>1</S.No>
 <Field1>t1</Field1>
 <Field2>t2</Field2>
 <Field3>t3</Field3>
 </row>
 <row>
 <S.No>2</S.No>
 <Field1>s1</Field1>
 <Field2>s2</Field2>
 <Field3>s3</Field3>
 </row>
</Root-Element>

Using either of the above statements we can read file in assign activity directly, without using file adapter or java embedding.

XML to String and String to XML conversion

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Use Cases 🔗

Many a times, we may need to convert xml data and pass it as a string inside an XML tag.
Sometimes from source, we get data which is in string format but actually is xml encoded in string format.

To do so in Oracle BPEL 12c or OSB 12c we can use built in functions.

XML data to String 🔗

Sample input 🔗

<inRoot>
 <t1>Hello</t1>
 <t2>World</t2>
 <t3>One</t3>
</inRoot>

Sample output 🔗

<outRoot> <t1>&lt;inRoot&gt;&lt;t1&gt;Hello&lt;/t1&gt;&lt;t2&gt;World&lt;/t2&gt;&lt;t3&gt;One&lt;/t3&gt;&lt;/inRoot&gt;</t1>
</outRoot>

XSLT 🔗

This can be accomplished by using the function oraext:get-content-as-string(element as node-set). This function is really helpful when we are working on BPEL as we can use this function in ASSIGN activity or in TRANSFORM activity using XSLT.

xmlns:oraext=“http://www.oracle.com/XSL/Transform/java/oracle.tip.pc.services.functions.ExtFunc"

element as node-set: xml data(can be variable, xpath, or a function that returns xml data)

Example: 🔗

<outRoot>
 <t1><xsl:value-of select="oraext:get-content-as-string(/ns0:inRoot)"/></t1>
</outRoot>

XQuery 🔗

Xquery too have a function to convert xml to string i.e. fn-bea:serialize($arg as item()*) as xs:string. This function is really helpful when we are dealing with OSB.

xmlns:fn-bea=“http://www.bea.com/xquery/xquery-functions"

$arg: Variable containing XML data.

Example: 🔗

$input contains xml data that needs to be converted and assigned to one tag in output payload.

<outRoot>
 <t1>{fn-bea:serialize($input)}</t1>
</outRoot>

String to XML 🔗

Sample input 🔗

'&lt;inRoot&gt;&lt;t1&gt;Hello&lt;/t1&gt;&lt;t2&gt;World&lt;/t2&gt;&lt;t3&gt;One&lt;/t3&gt;&lt;/inRoot&gt;'

Sample output 🔗

<inRoot>
 <t1>Hello</t1>
 <t2>World</t2>
 <t3>One</t3>
</inRoot>

As we can see in above example that < and > are replaced with < and >. In xml < and > are invalid characters and escaper characters are used in place of these.

XSLT 🔗

In xslt, we can use built in function oraext:parseXML(stringData).This function is really helpful when we are working on BPEL as we can use this function in ASSIGN activity or in TRANSFORM activity using XSLT.

xmlns:oraext=“http://www.oracle.com/XSL/Transform/java/oracle.tip.pc.services.functions.ExtFunc"

stringData: string value of xml data.

Example: 🔗

<xsl:copy-of select="oraext:parseXML('&lt;inRoot&gt;&lt;t1&gt;Hello&lt;/t1&gt;&lt;t2&gt;World&lt;/t2&gt;&lt;t3&gt;One&lt;/t3&gt;&lt;/inRoot&gt;')"/>

Note: we have used copy-of instead of value-of as we need all the xml nodes to be copied to the target file. If we want to extract the data from xml without xml tags then we can use value-of.

XQuery 🔗

In xquery, we can use fn-bea:inlinedXML($arg as xs:string) as node()*. This function is really helpful when we are dealing with OSB.

xmlns:fn-bea=“http://www.bea.com/xquery/xquery-functions"

$arg: variable containing xml data in string format.

Example: 🔗

fn-bea:inlinedXML('&lt;inRoot&gt;&lt;t1&gt;Hello&lt;/t1&gt;&lt;t2&gt;World&lt;/t2&gt;&lt;t3&gt;One&lt;/t3&gt;&lt;/inRoot&gt;')

Remove Empty tags using XSLT

Sun, 13 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

While performing xslt transform on source XML, we may need not to include empty tags in the output xml payload.

Sample scenarios: 🔗

Target system doesn’t want empty tags to come.
Size of xml payload has become huge due to unwanted empty tags.

Source XML 🔗

<inRoot>
 <t1>Hello</t1>
 <t2></t2>
 <t3>World</t3>
</inRoot>

Output XML 🔗

<outRoot>
 <a1>Hello</a1>
 <a3>World</a3>
</outRoot>

The optimal way to achieve above result is to use conditional if statement in xslt i.e. xsl:if

Sample XSLT 🔗

<xsl:if test="/inRoot/t2!=''">
 <a2>
 <xsl:value-of select="ns0:C1"/>
 </a2>
</xsl:if>

If we have some whitespaces included between tags, the above if-statement may fail and in such scenarios, we may use normalize-space() function in xslt and test condition will become : “normalize-space(/inRoot/t2)!=’’”

Sometimes, we just want to remove empty elements from already transformed xml. Such cases have same input and output schemas. In such scenarios we can take leverage of identity transform using xsl templates and copy methods. See the below sample xslt identity transform to remove empty tags.

Sample XSLT: 🔗

<xsl:template match="node()|@*">
 <xsl:if test="normalize-space(.) !='' or ./@* !=''">
 <xsl:copy>
 <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
 <xsl:apply-templates/>
 </xsl:copy>
 </xsl:if>
</xsl:template>

If we are using xslt in JDev, we need to specify input and output schemas and replace xsl:template tag with the above xsl template code.

Format String oraext:format-string

Sat, 05 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In our integration world, sometimes target system requires the data from source system to be formatted in some specific format which may require data from various input fields along with custom data. To do so we generally use concat() function to concatenate data from various fields and some user specific inputs.

Lets take the below example

Suppose we have a predefined format for the output string:

The abc with employeeID: 1234567 has been successfully registered in the system.

Here, name of the employee($empName=‘abc’) and employee id($empId=‘1234567’) are dynamic values. One way to accomplish this, is to use concat().

concat('The ',$empName,' with employeeID: ',$empId,' has been successfully registered in the system.')

Another way we can achieve this, is using oraext:format-string(string,string,string…)

oraext:format-string ('The {0} with employeeID: {1} has been successfully registered in the system.',$empName, $empId)

In above example, first string defines the output format containing place holders({0},{1}). These place holders will be replaced by the subsequent string values($empName=‘abc’, $empId=‘1234567’). In future, if we need to change the position of these dynamic value in output string, all we need to do is to move the position of these placeholders.

Note: Maximum of 10 arguments are supported for this function.

DateTime formatting using xp20:format-dateTime()

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

xs:dateTime Format 🔗

In XML, we generally use xs:dateTime(xs:xmlns=“http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema") data type to store date time data. The generic representation of date time, that is supported by xs:dateTime in xml:

YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss[.SSS][Z|(+|-)hh:mm]

Example: 🔗

2019-09-11T10:16:31.943+05:30

Code	Description	Example
YYYY	represents a 4-digit year	2019
MM	represents a 2-digit month	09
DD	represents 2-digit date	11
hh	represents 2-digit hours	10
mm	represents minutes in 2-digits	16
ss	represents seconds in 2-digits	31
SSS	represents milliseconds	943
T	represents time separator	T
Z	represents UTC time zone or 0 time zone offset
(+\|-)	hh:mm represents time zone offset	+5:30

Few more valid examples: 2019-09-11T21:32:52, 2019-09-11T21:32:52+02:00, 2019-09-11T19:32:52Z, 2019-09-11T19:32:52+00:00, 2019-09-11T21:32:52.11179

While working with different systems, we may come across such systems, which require date time in some different formats other than default format as supported by xs:dateTime. To over come such scenarios, function is available in OIC(Oracle Integration Cloud) and Oracle SOA

Format DateTime 🔗

xp20:format-dateTime($dateTime as string, $format as string) xmlns:xp20="http://www.oracle.com/XSL/Transform/java/oracle.tip.pc.services.functions.Xpath20"

$dateTime should contain date time value as per xs:dateTime data type as as string eg: ‘2019-09-11T10:16:31.943+05:30’

$format should contain output format to which we need to convert to. For e.g. if we want output to be ‘11/09/2019’ then value of $format should be [D01]/[M01]/[Y001].

xp20:format-dateTime('2019-09-11T10:16:31.943+05:30', '[D01]/[M01]/[Y001]')

To format current date time, we can use xp20:current-dateTime() in $dateTime

xp20:format-dateTime(xp20:current-dateTime(), '[D01]/[M01]/[Y001]')

Formatting Codes: 🔗

Below are some important codes which can be helpful in generating desired format for target application.

Sample dateTime: 2019-09-03T15:16:31.943+05:30

Code	Description	Example Output
[Y001]	4 digit year	2019
[Y01]	2 digit year	19
[M01]	2 digit month	09
[D01]	2 digit date	03
[H01]	2 digit hour in 24 hour clock	15
[h01]	2 digit hour in 12 hour clock	03
[m01]	2-digit minutes	16
[s01]	2-digit seconds	31
[f001]	3-digit milliseconds	943
[Z]	Time zone offset in the form (+\|-)hhmm	+0530
[z]	Time zone offset in the form GMT(+\|-)hh:mm	GMT+05:30
[Dwo]	Word for ordinal value of day	third
[dwo]	The day of the year, represented in ordinal words	second hundred and forty-sixth
[MNn]	Capitalized month name	September
[P]	am/pm	pm
[PX]	Uppercase am/pm	PM
[FNn]	Capitalized weekday name	Tuesday
[MNn,a-b]	Capitalized month name having atleast “a” charcters and atmost “b” characters [MNn,3-3]:	Sep