Hello Integration Server Users
I would like to highlight a problem with XML Document Type that is a fairly new feature in the Integration Server. While this can handle nested model groups, any attributes and any elements, the feature has some severe limitations. First and foremost is the inability to reference a created XML Document Type in an event, effectively making this publishable.
As most users will know publishing an IS document type to Broker/UM is a fundamental capability and a paradigm that is used everywhere to achieve various integration scenarios. This capability is completely absent with XML Document Types.
So to address this major shortcoming I have raised a Brainstorm Request 06971. I hope you will support this feature request.
Thankyou.
Yunus Aswat.
Hi,
Can you share your XML Doc Type screen shot or the source file (xsd) to check the depth of the nested document structure.
Here is what I did, I created an XML Doc Type from an XSD and referenced the same in an IS Doc Type, made the IS Doc Type publishable and successfuly published to UM.
Provide more details if my understanding is not inline with you.
Hello Mahesh
Yes I did reference the XML Document Type in a publishable IS Doc Type as you describe. I also published an IS Doc Type to UM successfully, but that was a different one where no attributes were defined. However, here is the problem. Did your schema have attributes in there? If not create a schema with attributes, pull it into the IS as a XML Document Type and have it referenced in publishable IS Doc Type and publish.
When I published the event, this is the error I got:
[ISS.0153.9009] Unable to send message to webMethods Messaging alias IS_UM_CONNECTION: com.wm.app.b2b.server.dispatcher.exceptions.InvalidDocumentException: [ISS.0098.9007] Data does not conform to the Publishable Document Type com.gistworld.customsclearance.thyme.events:DeliveryNoteEvent errors: INVALID
List of errors:
[0] pathName=/DeliveryNote/{1}DeliveryNote#http://dev.gistworld.com/schema/dws/sdn/*attributes errorCode=VV-002 errorMessage=[ISC.0082.9026] Undefined Object found
I’ve attached a screnshot of the publishable IS Doc Type.
When I raised a service incident with SAG Support, they said the following:
[b]Unfortunately the service pub.publish:publish cannot work with document types that are either of type “XML Document Type “ or that referenced an document of type “XML Document Type“.
XML document types cannot be made publishable It was designed that way .
The following is listed/stated in our documentation – See section “Limitations of XML Document Type Usage”, page 569 of the “webMethods Service Development Help” documentation:
See: https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/ecosystem/documentation/webmethods/wmsuites/wmsuite10-1/Designer/10-1_Service_Development_Help.pdf
It states:
Although XML document types and IS document types can be used in nearly identical ways, there are some limitations in the usage of XML document type:
- XML document types cannot be made publishable. That is, an XML document type cannot become a publishable document type.
- XML document type cannot be used in web services, which includes the signatures of services used as operations, headers, faults, and the pub.soap.handler* services.
- XML document types cannot be used as the top-level element in a service signature. That is, on the Input/Output tab, you cannot specify an XML document type for the Input ?eld or Output ?eld.
- XML document types should not be created from an XML schema de?nition in an Event Type Store.
- XML document types should not be created from e-forms.
One suggestion we have for you is to open a Feature Request, if you feel we have some limitations in the product that should be addressed.
https://empower.softwareag.com/Products/FeatureRequestsInBrainstorm/default.asp[/b]
Might I add that there is a subtle difference between what support says and what the documentation says.
Regards,
Yunus.
Thanks for providing more details and I will try these and let you know my comments if any.
If you have want to leverage the benefits mentioned in the “Why Use XML Document Types Instead of IS DocumentTypes?” then your apporach is correct but current product design does not support for publishing the document with attritubtes.
However, if you still create an IS document type using xsd and publish it to UM, do you have any concerns with this apporach?
Hello Mahesh
Yes I still do have concerns about creating an IS document type using xsd. Here are the reasons:
1. IS document types do not support nested model groups.
2. IS document types do not have sufficient any element handling.
3. IS document types do not support anyAttributes.
I have encountered all three with recent schemas from customers. I don’t have any control over those schemas and because they are used by customers widely with their other trading partners I cannot get the schemas changed.
The fact is Integration Server schema support has not kept up-to-date for more than 15 years. It is unreasonable to ask one’s trading partners to change schemas to suit what the Integration Server is capable of handling when other third party software is perfectly capable of handling the above-mentioned schema features for many years.
Also Software AG Support’s suggestion of creating a canonical and mapping to/from the XML Document Type structure is not practical because of the following reasons:
1. Every time I need to publish to UM I need to map from one format to another. For a developer to go through this overhead makes development time much longer and introduces unnecessary bugs.
2. I would have to find an alternative way of structuring the canonical to eliminate nested model groups. I would have to find an alternative way to model anyAttribute. I would have to find an alternative way to model any elements. In effect I would have to re-model an external schema and some of these schemas have hundreds of fields. An unnecessary overhead for a developer.
The fact is XML document types serve no useful purpose apart from parsing xml documents. The point of new features is to make development easier and more efficient not to make it harder. I won’t even get started on XSD Schema 1.1 support, a standard that has been there since 2005 and the Integration Server isn’t capable of handling that.
[b]I’d appreciate users to support both my feature requests on Brainstorm:
- 06971 - Address XML Document Type limitation
- 04269 - Support schema version 1.1 in Integration Server[/b]
Thanks for your time Mahesh, much appreciated.
Yunus Aswat.
