Replication XML Schema

This target is work in progress.

NOTE: Since ShapeChange v2.4.0, the functionality to create a replication schema has been merged into the SQL DDL target.

A replication (XML) schema defines the structure of datasets that are distributed by a data publisher to replicate the application schema data in his database. The replication schema uses a simple structure that is usually quite similar to the database schema created by the SQL DDL target. This simple structure is achieved by the same flattening process which is applied on the application schema. Due to the similar structure of the replication and database schemas, a data publisher can easily publish changes to his database, allowing authorized parties to replicate the content of the publishers database.

The replication schema defines feature and object types of a (flattened) application schema. These types as well as their properties are annotated with global identifier information. Global identifiers allow the consumer of a replication dataset to automatically relate the content of a replication XML document (i.e., an XML instance that is valid against the replication schema) to the types and properties of the original application schema.

Pre-Processing: Flattening

A number of flattening rules must be executed to simplify an application schema before a replication schema can be created:

• rule-trf-cls-flatten-inheritance – inheritance structures must completely be removed
  
• rule-trf-prop-flatten-types – complex types must be flattened, unless the type is a feature or object type or a type mapping is defined for it
  

NOTE: In order to be similar / almost equal to the schema that is used for deriving SQL DDL, additional rules like rule-trf-prop-flatten-multiplicity and rule-trf-all-flatten-name are usually executed as well.

NOTE: The flattening rules and parameters are documented in detail on the Flattener transformation page.

Replication Schema Derivation

The replication schema is derived as follows:

• One replication schema file is created for each conceptual schema that has been selected for processing:
  • The file encoding is UTF-8.
  • The file name is automatically computed from the name of the conceptual schema package.
  • The XML namespace prefix defined for the conceptual schema is used for the replication schema as well.
  • The target namespace defined for the conceptual schema is used for the replication schema as well. However, it can be modified by appending a suffix. The value of this suffix can be defined via the configuration (see parameter targetNamespaceSuffix).
• Feature and object types are converted to global elements and complex types.
• Mixins, unions, datatypes and codelists are ignored. The former three should be flattened before executing this target.
• Enumerations are converted to global simple types, like for GML application schemas.
  • NOTE: enumerations may reside in another schema/namespace and are usually not flattened. The target can create imports of replication schemas (derived from other application schemas), if these schemas are contained in the input model.
• Properties of feature and object types are converted to elements:
  • In the order defined by the conceptual schema. This order is primarily determined by the sequence numbers defined in the conceptual schema, but to some extent also depends on the flattening applied to the schema.
  • Derived properties can be ignored by enabling the according encoding rule (see rule-rep-prop-exclude-derived).
  • The property name defines the name of the element. However, in case of a property with feature or object value type, a suffix can be appended to the name (see parameters suffixForPropertiesWithFeatureValueType and suffixForPropertiesWithObjectValueType).
  • minOccurs and maxOccurs are set according to the multiplicity of the property. However, if required minOccurs can be set to zero for all elements that represent properties from the conceptual schema (via rule-rep-prop-optional).
  • The type of the element is:
    • as defined by the MapEntry if one exists for the value type (for example, if ‘CharacterString’ is the value type of a property then it is usually mapped to ‘string’)
    • string if the value type of the property is a feature type, object type, or codelist of the conceptual schema
    • the simple type created for an enumeration of the conceptual schema, if the value type is that enumeration
  • Length restrictions can be added to elements with type string (via rule-rep-prop-maxLength-from-size).
• An element (with type ‘string) to encode the identifier of a feature or object type can automatically be added at the top of the list of encoded properties (via rule-rep-cls-generate-objectidentifier).
• Global identifiers (if loaded from the input model – see Loading Global Identifiers for further details) are added via appinfo annotations to each element representing a feature or object type or a property.

Configuration

Class

The class for the target implementation is de.interactive_instruments.ShapeChange.Target.ReplicationSchema.ReplicationXmlSchema

Loading Global Identifiers

By default ShapeChange does not load global identifiers of model elements. Set the input parameter loadGlobalIdentifiers to true in order to load these identifiers (see sample configuration).

Encoding Rules

The following optional rules are supported by this target.

rule-rep-cls-generate-objectidentifier

Behavior

If this rule is enabled, an object identifier will be added to feature and object types. The element will be created as first content element inside of a data entity, with XML Schema type xs:string. The element will be required and not nillable. The name of the element can be configured via parameter “objectIdentifierFieldName”.

Parameters

rule-rep-prop-exclude-derived

Behavior

If this rule is enabled derived properties will be ignored.

Parameters

none

rule-rep-prop-maxLength-from-size

Behavior

If this rule is enabled then properties with specific value types receive a length restriction.

The types are identified by map entries: a map entry must identify the value type in its ‘type’ attribute and have a ‘param’ attribute with value ‘maxLengthFromSize’.

Whenever a property has an according value type its maxLength is determined by the setting of the ‘size’ tagged value on the property or the global target parameter ‘size’. The tagged value takes precedence over the target parameter. If neither tagged value nor target parameter are set, no maxLength restriction is created.

Parameters

rule-rep-prop-optional

Behavior

If this rule is enabled all elements that represent properties from the conceptual schema will have minOccurs=0. This does not apply to elements that were generated by the target, for example object identifier elements.

Parameters

none

Parameters

The parameters supported by this target are described in the following sections.

defaultEncodingRule

Alias: none

Type: String

Default Value: none

Behavior:

The identifier of the default encoding rule governing the derivation of the replication schema.

Applies to Rule(s):

• none – default behavior

objectIdentifierFieldName

Alias: none

Type: String

Default Value: “id”

Behavior:

Name of the field that contains the identifier of the object for which a data entity contains information.

Applies to Rule(s):

• rule-rep-cls-generate-objectidentifier

outputDirectory

Alias: none

Type: String

Default Value: the current run directory

Behavior:

The path to the folder in which the resulting replication schema file will be created.

Applies to Rule(s):

• none – default behavior

size

Alias: none

Type: positive integer

Default Value: none

Behavior:

Size for elements representing textual properties with limited length, to be used in case that the property represented by the element does not have a ‘size’ tagged value; by default an element with textual type does not have a size/length restriction.

Applies to Rule(s):

• rule-rep-prop-maxLength-from-size

suffixForPropertiesWithFeatureValueType

Alias: none

Type: String

Default Value: the empty string

Behavior:

Supports setting a suffix that will be appended to the name of properties that reference feature types.

Applies to Rule(s):

• none – default behavior

suffixForPropertiesWithObjectValueType

Alias: none

Type: String

Default Value: the empty string

Behavior:

Supports setting a suffix that will be appended to the name of properties that reference object types.

Applies to Rule(s):

• none – default behavior

targetNamespaceSuffix

Alias: none

Type: Boolean

Default Value: false

Behavior:

Supports setting a suffix that will be appended to the target namespace of the replication schema that is produced by the target.

Applies to Rule(s):

• none – default behavior

Map Entries

<mapEntries> contain individual <MapEntry> elements, which for this target contain information for mapping specific types (classes) from the UML model to the (Replication) XML Schema.

Examples:

<mapEntries>
  <MapEntry param="maxLengthFromSize" rule="*" targetType="string" type="CharacterString"/>
  <MapEntry param="maxLengthFromSize" rule="*" targetType="string" type="URI"/>
  <MapEntry rule="*" targetType="boolean" type="Boolean"/>
  <MapEntry rule="*" targetType="integer" type="Integer"/>
  <MapEntry rule="*" targetType="string" type="GM_Point"/>
</mapEntries>

The file StandardMapEntries_ReplicationSchema.xml defines mappings for a number of types of the ISO Harmonized Model when deriving a replication schema. It can be included in ShapeChange configuration files (via XInclude). Additional XInclude files, or individual <MapEntry> elements added to the <mapEntries> section of the configuration file, may be used to define mappings for further UML types.

Sample Configuration

<input id="INPUT">
  ...
  <parameter name="addTaggedValues" value="size"/>
  <parameter name="loadGlobalIdentifiers" value="true"/>
  ...
</input>
...
<Target class="de.interactive_instruments.ShapeChange.Target.ReplicationSchema.ReplicationXmlSchema"
  inputs="F_name" mode="enabled">
  <targetParameter name="defaultEncodingRule" value="replicationSchema"/>
  <targetParameter name="outputDirectory" value="testResults/repSchema/repXsd"/>
  <targetParameter name="size" value="1024"/>
  <targetParameter name="targetNamespaceSuffix" value="/rep"/>
  <targetParameter name="objectIdentifierFieldName" value="myid"/>
  <targetParameter name="suffixForPropertiesWithFeatureOrObjectValueType" value="_fk"/>
  <rules>
    <EncodingRule name="replicationSchema">
      <rule name="rule-rep-prop-optional"/>
      <rule name="rule-rep-prop-exclude-derived"/>
      <rule name="rule-rep-cls-generate-objectidentifier"/>
      <rule name="rule-rep-prop-maxLength-from-size"/>
    </EncodingRule>
  </rules>
  <xi:include href="src/main/resources/config/StandardMapEntries_ReplicationSchema.xml"/>
</Target>