Skipping XML Elements During Deserialization 

The following command allows you to skip XML elements during deserialization.

 

<tt:skip [name="name"] [count="cnt"]/>

 

The tt:skip command can be positioned anywhere within a template.

 

Serialization

During serialization, tt:skip has no effect.

 

Deserialization

During deserialization, tt:skip has the following effect.

 

• Without additions, the following XML content of the inbound stream is consumed up to the end of the current element or non-literal attribute, but no other ST commands are executed.
• With the attribute name and the attribute count as many consecutive elements of the name name are not deserialized as specified by a number cnt.
• With the attribute name and without the attribute count or with the attribute count="*"  any number of consecutive elements of the name name are not deserialized.
• Without the attribute name and with the attribute count as many consecutive elements after the current element are not deserialized as specified in cnt. For cnt you can specify a number or *, where * stands for any number of elements.

 

During deserialization, when comparing the template, the tt:skip command is compared to the structure of the inbound stream as if in its place the skipped elements were specified. This means that a tt:skip command with the attribute name is correct only if at this position of the XML inbound stream the corresponding number of elements of the specified name exist; and the element of a template executed after a tt:skip command must correspond to the element in the XML document that follows after the skipped elements.

 

Example

In the simple transformation below, the template is divided into a part for serialization and a part for deserialization. During deserialization, the first two X1 elements, all X2 elements after the first X2 element and the Y element including all its subelements are skipped.

 

<tt:transform xmlns:tt="http://www.sap.com/transformation-templates">

  <tt:root name="ROOT"/>

  <tt:template>
      <struc tt:ref="ROOT">
      <tt:serialize>
          <X1><tt:value ref="COL0" /></X1>
          <X1><tt:value ref="COL1" /></X1>
          <X1><tt:value ref="COL2" /></X1>
          <X2><tt:value ref="COL3" /></X2>
          <X2><tt:value ref="COL4" /></X2>
          <X2><tt:value ref="COL5" /></X2>
          <Y>
            <X3><tt:value ref="COL6" /></X3>
            <X3><tt:value ref="COL7" /></X3>
            <X3><tt:value ref="COL8" /></X3>
          </Y>
          <X4><tt:value ref="COL9" /></X4>
      </tt:serialize>
      <tt:deserialize>
        <tt:skip name="X1" count="2" />
        <X1><tt:value ref="COMPA" /></X1>
        <X2><tt:value ref="COMPB" /></X2>
        <tt:skip name="X2" count="*" />
        <tt:skip name="Y" count="1" />
        <X4><tt:value ref="COMPC" /></X4>
        <tt:skip />
      </tt:deserialize>
    </struc>
  </tt:template>

</tt:transform>

 

The following ABAP program can call the transformation:

 

DATA xml_string TYPE string.

DATA: BEGIN OF struc,
        col0 TYPE i VALUE 0,
        col1 TYPE i VALUE 1,
        col2 TYPE i VALUE 2,
        col3 TYPE i VALUE 3,
        col4 TYPE i VALUE 4,
        col5 TYPE i VALUE 5,
        col6 TYPE i VALUE 6,
        col7 TYPE i VALUE 7,
        col8 TYPE i VALUE 8,
        col9 TYPE i VALUE 9,
      END OF struc.

DATA: BEGIN OF result,
        compa TYPE i,
        compb TYPE i,
        compc TYPE i,
      END OF result.

CALL TRANSFORMATION ...
  SOURCE root = struc
  RESULT XML xml_string.

CALL TRANSFORMATION ...
  SOURCE XML xml_string
  RESULT root = result.

 

After the deserialization, the components of resultreceive the values of the third, forth and tenth component of struc.