Requirements

The general requirement for this utility is to convert one or more XML instance documents, each representing a single logical document, into a single flat file. Here's a summary of the required functionality.

• Inputs: A directory containing one or more XML instance documents, each in a single file. All have the same grammar. The second input is a file description document (as discussed in Chapter 6) that describes the XML documents and the flat file to be produced.

• Processing: Each input Element corresponding to a record (as described in the file description document) is written to a record in the flat output file. Each of its child Elements corresponding to fields are written to the appropriate fields in the record. Data types are converted according to the field descriptions in the file description document.

• Output: A flat file with fixed length fields and variable or fixed length records.