Hi Donal
Does anyone know of any tool out there that can
automatically generate the required XSLT if it is
given a sample input file and output file?
As others have pointed out, this is impossible in the general
case, since examples rarely constitute definitions.
In the meta-modelling world, input and output are regarded
as instances of their corresponding meta-models - which can
loosely be regarded in XML terminology as schema. These
meta-models are often drawn graphically using a very small
sub-set of UML that is surprisingly difficult to translate
accurately to XSD.
The QVT (Queries / Views and Transformations) work at the OMG
(home of UML) seeks to define a new transformation language
between the input and output meta-models, thereby defining
the conversions for all possible inputs and outputs.
I proposed UMLX, a graphical syntax for defining these
transformations and have produced a very incomplete prototype
that generates XSLT to implement the transformations. I suspect
that some of the more official QVT candidates may also use
XSLT behind the scenes.
I regard XSLT as the assembler language for XML processing,
much better than what preceeded it, but ultimately rather
inadequate. QVT offers the prospect of a high level language,
one in which your program inherently complies with its model,
rather than one where XPath expressions are resolved by
enlightened experiment.
Preliminary QVT prototypes are just becoming available. It will
probably be at least a year before there are versions that
comply with a broad consensus on the language definition.
Regards
Ed Willink
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