Community
Application Development and Automation Blog Posts
Learn and share on deeper, cross technology development topics such as integration and connectivity, automation, cloud extensibility, developing at scale, and security.
cancel
Turn on suggestions
Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type.
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Read only

XSLT Transformations: XML 2 ABAP, a working example with deep structures

Joris
Explorer
‎2018 Sep 10 3:20 PM
56,608
I consistently run into trouble when using XSLT Transformation to import XML data into (deep) ABAP Structures. Partly because I do not use it often I guess. So to make sure that next time I will quickly find a how-to that works for me I created this blog 😉

Other options are; to use Simple Transformation or the standard Identity Transformation (XSLT via existing transformation 'ID').

The goal now is to import the following XML into a deep ABAP structure using XSLT

The XML


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<File>

	<Head>

		<Name>K. Richards</Name>

	</Head>

	<Items>

		<ITM QTY="23" EAN="123123123123" CAT="BL"/>

		<ITM QTY="100" EAN="123123123123" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="240" EAN="123123123123" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="989" EAN="123123123123" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="1000" EAN="123123123123" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="5" EAN="123123123123" CAT="BL"/>

		<ITM QTY="50" SOH="4000299949" EAN="123123123123" SOI="000010" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="140" EAN="123123123123" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="420" EAN="123123123123" CAT="QI"/>

		<ITM QTY="30" EAN="123123123123" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="20" EAN="123123123123" CAT="QI"/>

		<ITM QTY="475" SOH="4000299949" EAN="123123123123" SOI="000040" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="300" EAN="123123123123" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="994" EAN="123123123123" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="24" EAN="123123123123" CAT="BL"/>

		<ITM QTY="3" EAN="123123123123" CAT="BL"/>

		<ITM QTY="441" EAN="123123123123" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="240" EAN="123123123123" CAT="QI"/>

		<ITM QTY="5" EAN="123123123123" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="102" EAN="123123123123" CAT="BL"/>

		<ITM QTY="2" EAN="123123123123" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="360" EAN="123123123123" CAT="QI"/>

		<ITM QTY="403" EAN="123123123123" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="425" SOH="123123123123" EAN="6941023243415" SOI="000030" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="100" EAN="123123123123" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="220" EAN="123123123123" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="1000" EAN="123123123123" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="25" SOH="4000299949" EAN="123123123123" SOI="000020" CAT="BL"/>

		<ITM QTY="425" SOH="4000299949" EAN="123123123123" SOI="000020" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="340" EAN="123123123123" CAT=""/>

		<ITM QTY="1" EAN="123123123123" CAT="BL"/>

	</Items>

</File>

 

 

The XSLT


The import can be achieved with the below XSL Transformation (Transaction STRANS)
<xsl:transform xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:sap="http://www.sap.com/sapxsl" version="1.0">

  <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

  <xsl:template match="/">

    <asx:abap xmlns:asx="http://www.sap.com/abapxml" version="1.0">

      <asx:values>

        <FILE> <!--FILE Needs to match name of RESULT variable in CALL TRANSFORMATION call-->

          <xsl:for-each select="/File">

            <!-- <DUMMY1> = Dummy, not in ABAP structure-->

            <DUMMY1>

              <HEAD>

                <NAME>

                  <xsl:value-of select="Head/Name"/>

                </NAME>

              </HEAD>

              <ITEMS>

                <xsl:for-each select="Items/ITM">

                  <DUMMY2>

                    <!-- <DUMMY2> = Dummy, not in ABAP structure-->

                    <QTY>

                      <!-- @ = Attribute of element rather than element-->

                      <xsl:value-of select="@QTY"/>

                    </QTY>

                    <SOH>

                      <xsl:value-of select="@SOH"/>

                    </SOH>

                    <EAN>

                      <xsl:value-of select="@EAN"/>

                    </EAN>

                    <SOI>

                      <xsl:value-of select="@SOI"/>

                    </SOI>

                    <CAT>

                      <xsl:value-of select="@CAT"/>

                    </CAT>

                  </DUMMY2>

                </xsl:for-each>

              </ITEMS>

            </DUMMY1>

          </xsl:for-each>

        </FILE>

      </asx:values>

    </asx:abap>

  </xsl:template>

</xsl:transform>

 

The ABAP


And here is the ABAP Report that calls the transformation
REPORT zjbo_xslt_2.



TYPES BEGIN OF lty_items.

TYPES qty TYPE string.

TYPES soh TYPE string.

TYPES ean TYPE string.

TYPES soi TYPE string.

TYPES cat TYPE string.

TYPES END OF lty_items.



TYPES BEGIN OF lty_head.

TYPES name TYPE string.

TYPES END OF lty_head.



TYPES BEGIN OF lty_out.

TYPES head TYPE lty_head.

TYPES items TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF lty_items WITH DEFAULT KEY.

TYPES END OF lty_out.



DATA lv_xml TYPE string..

DATA lt_xml TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF string.

DATA ls_out TYPE lty_out.

DATA lt_out TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF lty_out.



PARAMETERS p_file TYPE string DEFAULT 'C:\link\to\test.xml'.



"Load xml file

cl_gui_frontend_services=>gui_upload(

  EXPORTING

    filename = p_file

    filetype = 'ASC'

  CHANGING

    data_tab = lt_xml

  EXCEPTIONS

    OTHERS   = 19 ).



lv_xml = concat_lines_of( lt_xml ).



CALL TRANSFORMATION zmy_xslt_2

  SOURCE XML lv_xml

  RESULT file = lt_out.

cl_demo_output=>new( )->write_data( lt_out[ 1 ]-head

                     )->write_data( lt_out[ 1 ]-items )->display( ).

 

Now for some pointers


Here are some important tips

  1. The RESULT variable of the CALL TRANSFORMATION must have the same name as the root target element in the XSLT (in this example; 'file' == <FILE>

  2. The target elements in the XSLT (ie the elemenst that correspond with your target ABAP structure) must be in CAPITALS; Like <HEAD>, <NAME>, ...

  3. The Source element references must be in same case as in the XML. Like "/Items/ITM"

  4. The output of the CALL TRANSFORMATION must be a table type (structure is not allowed, other outputs like XML and ref to data is also possible, for that see SAP Help). Like in our example; lt_out is a table type.

  5. Each substructure or table line in the output needs to be explicitly defined with a dummy structure name. These dummy structure names do not exist in the ABAP target, but need to be defined. The name used is irrelevant. See <DUMMY1> and <DUMMY2> in XSLT


 

UPDATE July 2019:
sandra.rossi wrote a follow up using ST Transformation instead of XSLT; https://blogs.sap.com/2019/07/02/st-transformations-xml-2-abap-a-working-example/

Joris Bots
7 Comments