Difference between XML & Flat files

[Former Member]

Hi MDM Guru's

What is the major difference between XML files & Flat files. which has advantage of each??

We use flat files to syndicated data, now i want to use XML files. Could you guys guide me please?

Thanks in advance

cheers

Srihari Reddy

[Former Member]

Hi Srihari,

MDM syndicator supports output files as Flat files and as XML.

Comparing both:

Advantages:

XML

- XML is one of the widely used formats of data exchange.

- It is understood by most of the interfacing system .

- It is capable of handling large data and meta data

- It can handle complex structures.

- The biggest advantage being ,we can use the XML structure(XSD) for importing the XML source files.It is basically used when we have to integrate with standard systems like ECC ERP which have a std defined XSD structure for data flow through and from it.

- XML structures are capable to handle large data set and many fields structure

Flat

- Flat file is mostly used when data has to be exchanged between legacy systems where delimited text file are the most common mode of data transfer.

- In MDM we syndicate data in the Flat file when there are comparatively lesser number of fields to be outputed.As in MDM Destination field items need to be manully created for Syndicating in Flat file format.

-Flat files are easier to analyse.

Disadvantages

XML

- Mapping has to be correctly done when syndiacting in XML formats.Care must be taken especially when mapping Qualified fields.The Qualified nodes need to be mapped to allow mapping of teh qualified fields

- Care need to be taken for making nodes repeatable for the ones required.

- The biggest disadvantage comes in when dealing with Remote system,As two separate fields gets created Value and remote system in the source side which do not have nay std Field in the destination to map with if you are using a std XML schema.

Flat

- Flat file syndication involves a lot of manual intervention in terms of Fields creation for mapping.setting their properties individually etc.

- No particular structure can be maintained as all fields are maintained one after .Unlike in XML where we have Segments and fields inside segments.

- Cannot be used for large data imports.

You can go through the below link to understand XML syndication better:

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/e04fbbb3-6fad-2a10-3699-fbb40e51...

Hope It Helped

Thanks & Regards

Simona Pinto

[Former Member]

Hi Guys,

Thanks to all for sharing your knowledge & Quick Responses.

Cheers

Srihari Reddy

[Former Member]

Hi,

XML files are used to understand the complex data in easier way when compared to flat files.

Suppose when we syndicating the subrecords of qualified data , we use generally XML files instead of

flat files as XML files can present data in an ordered and easier way.

Thanks

Narendra

[Former Member]

Hi Srihari,

Flat files and XML files are the two possibe formats for syndicating the file.

While flat files are simple text files with a simple structure, XML files may or may not be simple.

If the repository design is highly complex then it is better to syndicate ithe file in XML format provided the receipient system recognizes the format.

But there can be cases like when the destination system is Bi 3.5 which may only understand flat files and hence the only possible syndication format is flat.

For syndicating in XML files please refer to the below link.

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/792f57b7-0a01-0010-f3b6-88126913...

Hope it helps.

Thanks,

Minaz

[Former Member]

Hi Srihari,

Through MDM Syndicator, you can syndicate data either in flat file or in XML file depending upon the requirement.

Flat file is generally a delimited file; with some specific delimiter (like tab. semi-colon, comma...). You can specify the delimiter in map properties tab in Syndicator. Whereas in case of XML file, you need to specify the schema which will define the structure of the XML file.

In case of XML file, you cannot change the structure of the destination file from MDM syndicator. For this, you will have to change the schema in XSD file.

Regards,

Varun