Hey all,

As many of you, we too find ourselves with an increasing need for generating xml files from BaaN. More and more interfaces will expect an xml file.

As far as I am aware, in Baan you can only use the xml....() functions to programmatically and hard coded write the output from the Baan tables to xml files. This has 2 major disadvantages:
1) Any requirement for any xml file needs to be fully programmed by a developer. Furthermore, any small change/addition to an existing xml file, needs to be adjusted in the program script. Again by a developer.
2) Each xml file requires a lot of work = time = money.

It is therefore that I would like to get to a generic solution for defining xml file tags and layouts from within BaaN.

My conceptual idea in a nutshell:
1) Set up some new tables + input sessions in which each tag, with their name, attribute, field value, etc will be defined.
2) Possibly even adding tables to define the main tables per xml, with their selection fields (ranges). Alternatively this can be left out and per xml a small session has to be written with the main table, selection and data retrieval queries.
3) Have one generic dll which generates an xml file (with the standard Baan xml...() functions variably, based on its definition in the tables mentioned in step 1).

As I am sure that many of you face the same challenges, I'm throwing this into the board. My main questions:

1) Does any of you know of existing, proper solutions for this?
2) Has any of you developed a similar solution in the past? No need to invent the same thing twice...

Thanks in advance for your input!


Kind regards,
Eli Nager

I see that nobody bit on my post the first time I posted it, so I will post it again hoping that somebody may give me some useful input.

I am actually surprised that nobody gave me any input; I assume that many companies need to create XML files with data from within BaaN. I would like to hear from others how they handle this.

Thanks again in advance!