Flattener Usage Examples

Here are some simple examples of the Flattener's effects.

<Library commonName="Library of Congress">
<Book ID="B1" />
<Book ID="B2">
<Category name="Fiction" />
<Category name="Mystery" />
<PublishDate year="1900" />
<Author>John Doe</Author>
</Book>
<Book ID="3" >
<Category name="Nonfiction" />
</Book>
<Video ID="V1" />
</Library>

The data shown above is the hierarchical input data for the following examples.

<dataLayer rdFlattenedElement="Book" ID="B1" />
<dataLayer rdFlattenedElement="Book" ID="B2" Author="John Doe"/>
<dataLayer rdFlattenedElement="Book" ID="B3" />

1. In this simple example, no Flattener element attributes are set and it transposes the data into the tabular layout shown above. Text node elements are treated the same way as attributes.

<dataLayer rdFlattenedElement="Book" commonName="Library of Congress" ID="B1" />
<dataLayer rdFlattenedElement="Book" commonName="Library of Congress" ID="B2" name="Mystery" year="1900" Author="John Doe" />
<dataLayer rdFlattenedElement="Book" commonName="Library of Congress" ID="B3" name="Nonfiction" />

2. Using the same input data, the example above shows the flattened data created by specifying these Flattener element attributes:

Data Row Element Names = Book
Top Level XPath = //Library

<dataLayer rdFlattenedElement="Book" Library_commonName="Library of Congress" Book_ID="B1" />
<dataLayer rdFlattenedElement="Book" Library_commonName="Library of Congress" Book_ID="B2" Category_name="Mystery" PublishDate_year="1900" Book_Author="John Doe" />
<dataLayer rdFlattenedElement="Book" Library_commonName="Library of Congress" Book_ID="B3" Category_name="Nonfiction" />
<dataLayer rdFlattenedElement="Video" Library_commonName="Library of Congress" Video_ID="V1 />

3. Using the same input data, the example above shows the flattened data created by specifying these Flattener element attributes:
Data Row Element Names = Book,Video
Prepend Element Names = True
Top Level XPath = //Library

<dataLayer rdFlattenedElement="Book" ID="B2" name="Fiction" Author="dave was here" />
<dataLayer rdFlattenedElement="Book" ID="B2" name="Mystery" Author="dave was here" />
<dataLayer rdFlattenedElement="Book" ID="B2" year="1900" Author="dave was here" />
<dataLayer rdFlattenedElement="Book" ID="B3" name="Nonfiction" />

4. Using the same input data, the example above shows the flattened data created by specifying these Flattener element attributes:
Data Row Element Names = Category,PublishDate
Prepend Element Names = True
Top Level XPath = //Library