Hi Dave,
The way I interpreted your question is not "how to do the transform"
but "how to specify",
and regardless of the complexity, answer that question in general.
If that really is what the question was asking...
I would definitely be interested to see the answers
I have not yet figured out a good standardized way myself.
I have often come to a conclusion that writing the spec was as hard
as just doing the transform,
so "spec it out using XSLT" should not be regarded as funny as it
sounds at first
There are so many factors to take into account: complexity of the
models, complexity of the project as a whole, size of the project as a whole,
who is doing the analysis (technical or less technical), is the
specification part of a series of workshops, or just a loner writing
out the spec,
who needs to validate the spec, will the spec serve the testing
environment, ....
In general there are three mapping approaches I use, the method at
hand chosen based on the parameters set in the previous paragraph
- Word document, lots of text, structure of the word document usually
following the structure of the source XML. Very ad hoc. Not my
favorite. Used most for communication with non technical Subject
Matter Experts or management.
- Excel document: lots of columns if context needs to be expressed
more or less visually (subject matter experts or management). Less
columns if context can be expressed using XPath expressions
(technical audience). Used in most of my projects, still very ad hoc.
The more complex the mapping (small structural alikeness) the more
descriptive this would become
- Unit tests driven (mapping by example?): my favorite. Mappings
expressed using small snippets of document as examples. Not every
project has the resources or time to do that. But it is obvious that
there is a wider use in testing for the specification.
Whether there is one step or multiple steps is in my opinion not part
of the specification, it is part of the development process
I hope this makes sense,
Cheers
Geert
At 09:42 9/09/2013, you wrote:
Given schema A as input XML. Schema B as XML output.
Assume no hierarchical simple relationship.
Assume mapping of values needed from input values to output values.
Assume literals are needed.
How do (might) you specify the required transform?
How do (might) you validate that instance A has been correctly
transformed to instance B, assuming input and output are both valid
to the schemas.
Not something I've seen mentioned on this list?
regards
--
Dave Pawson
XSLT XSL-FO FAQ.
http://www.dpawson.co.uk