Using XML with Legacy Business Applications

Describing the File Formats

As discussed in Chapter 6, we're going to use our own XML-based language to describe the formats of our non-XML files. Although the different formats will have many characteristics in common, we'll have a different language for each. In addition, because some characteristics, such as those dealing with XML output, are not relevant for both to and from XML conversions, we'll have a separate language (and schema) for each direction. In this section I describe the organization, Elements, Attributes, and usage of the file description document. In the design section we'll review the schemas for the file description documents as well as the sample invoice and purchase order.

The CSV file description documents have three ...