Why XML?
XML is widely used across various industries due to its versatility and ability to structure complex data. Some key industries that use XML:
- Finance: XML is used for financial data interchange, such as in SWIFT messages for international banking transactions and in various financial reporting standards.
- Healthcare: XML is used in healthcare for data exchange standards like HL7, which facilitates the sharing of clinical and administrative data between healthcare providers.
- Supply Chain: XML is used in supply chain management for data interchange, such as in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards.
- Government: Multiple government entities use XML for various data management and reporting tasks.
- Legal: XML is used in the legal industry to organize and manage documents, making it easier to find and manage information.
To provide continuous support to our customers in these industries, Microsoft has always provided strong capabilities for integration with XML workloads. For instance, XML was a first-class citizen in BizTalk Server. Now, despite the pervasiveness of the JSON format, we continue working to make Azure Logic Apps the best alternative for our BizTalk Server customers and customers using XML based workloads.
The XML Operations connector
We have recently added two actions for the XML Operations connector: Parse with schema and Compose with schema. With this addition, Logic Apps customers can now interact with the token picker during design time. The tokens are generated from the XML schema provided by the customer. As a result, the XML document and its contained properties will be easily accessible, created and manipulated in the workflow.
XML parse with schema
The XML parse with schema allow customers to parse XML data using an XSD file (an XML schema file). XSD files need to be uploaded to the Logic App schemas artifacts or an Integration account. Once they have been uploaded, you need to enter the enter your XML content, the source of the schema and the name of the schema file. The XML content may either be provided in-line or selected from previous operations in the workflow using the token picker.
Based on the provided XML schema, tokens such as the following will be available to subsequent operations upon saving the workflow:
In the output, the Body field contains a wrapper ‘json’ property, so that additional properties may be provided besides the translated XML content, such as any parsing warning messages. To ignore the additional properties, you may pick the ‘json’ property instead.
You may also select the token for each individual properties of the XML document, as these tokens are generated from the provided XML schema.
XML compose with schema
The XML compose with schema allows customers to generate XML data, using an XSD file. XSD files need to be uploaded to the Logic App schemas artifacts or an Integration account. Once they have been uploaded, you should select the XSD file along with entering the JSON root element or elements of your input XML schema. The JSON input elements will be dynamically generated based on the selected XML schema.
You can also switch to Array and pass an entire array for Customers and another for Orders:
Please watch the following video for a complete demonstration of this new feature.
In collaboration with @David_Burg.