Avoiding Nested Containers in DCT

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to capture an array of information. I would like my form to look like the picture included but the resulting DCR to take the following format:


 <options>
  <option>
   <name>...</name>
   <price>...</price>
   <nmso>...</nmso>
   <description>...</description>
  </option>
  <option>
   <name>...</name>
   <price>...</price>
   <nmso>...</nmso>
   <description>...</description>
  </option>
  ...
 </options>

So far I've beem unsuccessful at finding the right XML Mapping. I've generated formats such as:


 <options>
  <option>
   ...
  </option>
 </options>
 <options>
  <option>
   ...
  </option>
 </options>
 ...

- and -


 <option>
   ...
 </option>
 <option>
   ...
 </option>
 ...

Is this possible or do I need to have an "option" container to encapsulate the name and other information? If possible, what is required from the XML mapping (pathId and location attributes) for this to work? Ultimately I want to avoid having another container on the form.

Here is example of my code:


 <container name="options" location="options/option" max="unbounded">
  <label>Options</label>
  <item name="option_name" pathid="name">
   <label>Name</label>
   <description>The name of the optional device</description>
   <text size="65" required="t" maxlength="32" />
  </item>
  <item name="option_price" pathid="price" rowcontinue="f">
   <label>Price</label>
   <description>Enter the Price</description>
   <text size="65" required="f" maxlength="16" />
  </item>
  <item name="option_nmso" pathid="nmso" rowcontinue="f">
   <label>NMSO</label>   
   <description>Enter the NMSO number</description>
   <text size="65" required="f" maxlength="32" />
  </item>
  <item name="option_description" pathid="description">
   <label>Description</label>
   <textarea wrap="virtual" required="f" cols="65" rows="4" />
   <description>The description of the optional device</description>
  </item>
 </container>

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Comments

kaalraa

I think you are asking as to put apples from one side and get oranges on the other side.

In your DCT itself you have specified the location as "options/option" which means an element named 'options' would have a subelement 'option' everytime it gets replicated; whereas your requirement is to have 'options' once and 'option' element as an replicant.

For this 'options' need to be your root-container and 'option' to be your container comprising of the name, price, nmso and description.

Sorry... have to put another container as per my thinking.

g_sal

Thanks for your response,

I know the documentation says you can reduce nested containers in particular situations. Unfortunately it's too confusing to grasp. I was hoping that if it can be done for some scenarios, it should work in this case too.

Please refer to "Reducing Nested Containers" on page 55 of the TeamSite FormsPublisher Developer's Guide.

kaalraa

Dual Submission.

kaalraa

Thanks for your response,

I know the documentation says you can reduce nested containers in particular situations. Unfortunately it's too confusing to grasp. I was hoping that if it can be done for some scenarios, it should work in this case too.

Please refer to "Reducing Nested Containers" on page 55 of the TeamSite FormsPublisher Developer's Guide.

Please go through these 'golden' words... picked up from manual.

Using such paths in items whose parent is a container with max greater than 1 results in the creation of new nodes until the last section of the pathid.

Using such paths in items where the pathid refers to an attribute and the item has a max greater than 1, results in creating a node for each attribute.

I hope you would try to understand what i said earlier and what manual is explaining.

kriv

The manual is very confusing on this point.

In the example, the parent of the "option" container (whose location attribute is "options/option") is either "options" node or the root-container, depending on your perspective. In either case, the max *IS* 1, but new nodes are created for each replicant anyway.

It is not clear from the manual, at least as I read it, that it is referring to the parent of the individual replicant.

Furthermore, I did more testing with paths in the location attribute that include more levels. See below:
1. Using one container...
<container name="xyz" location="ContentInformation/MediaInformation/MediaDetail" max="3">
  ...
</container>
results in new nodes from the root-container for each node in the path for each replicant of MediaDetail. This is as the original post in this thread described.
2. Using two containers...
<container name="abc" location="ContentInformation/MediaInformation" max="1">
  <container name="xyz" location="MediaDetail" max="3">
    ...
  </container>
</container>
results in something like the following in the DCR:
<ContentInformation>
  <MediaDetail>
    ...
  </MediaDetail>
  <MediaDetail>
    ...
  </MediaDetail>
</ContentInformation>
Notice, the resulting XML leaves out the MediaInformation node altogether.
3. Using three containers...
<container name="abc" location="ContentInformation" max="1">
  <container name="def" location="MediaInformation" max="1">
    <container name="xyz" location="MediaDetail" max="3">
      ...
    </container>
  </container>
</container>
This is the only way that produces the correct XML in the DCR. Of course, it creates a very cluttered visual rendering in the DCT.

I believe this to be a bug at worst. At best, it is confusingly documented.
Does anyone have a workaround for this in which I can have an uncluttered rendering in the DCT, but produce the correct XML in the DCR?