I have created a simple transformation to transform from DDIC structures to XML. The structures mimic the XML hierarchy so the conversion is almost 1 to 1.
The problem I'm having is that although some fields have no value, an element is created for them, even when using the initial_components = 'SUPPRESS' option.
This is a simplified version of the real code that has the same behaviour: In this case, DDIC structure YSTESTS has 2 fields: CHARS type CHAR10, and STR type STRING.
ABAP:
REPORT y_tests2.
DATA:
gv_initcomp TYPE string,
xstr TYPE xstring,
struct TYPE ystests.
PARAMETERS:
p_blanks TYPE c AS CHECKBOX DEFAULT 'X'.
START-OF-SELECTION.
IF p_blanks = 'X'.
gv_initcomp = 'INCLUDE'.
ELSE.
gv_initcomp = 'SUPPRESS'.
ENDIF.
* ABAP > XML
TRY.
CALL TRANSFORMATION y_tests
SOURCE data = struct
RESULT XML xstr
OPTIONS initial_components = gv_initcomp.
CATCH cx_transformation_error.
MESSAGE 'Error en transformación' TYPE 'A'.
ENDTRY.
CALL FUNCTION 'SCOL_TRACE_SHOW_XML'
EXPORTING
xdoc = xstr.
ST:
<?sap.transform simple?>
<tt:transform xmlns:tt="http://www.sap.com/transformation-templates" xmlns:ddic="http://www.sap.com/abapxml/types/dictionary" xmlns:def="http://www.sap.com/abapxml/types/defined">
<tt:root name="DATA" type="ddic:YSTESTS"></tt:root>
<tt:template>
<data tt:ref="DATA">
<chars tt:value-ref="CHARS"></chars>
<str tt:value-ref="STR"></str>
</data>
</tt:template>
</tt:transform>
The XML output is like this, even when deselecting the P_BLANKS checkbox:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<data>
<chars></chars>
<str></str>
</data>
The only solution I've found so far is to post-process the resulting XML using the iXML interfaces (DOM processing) to iterate over all the nodes and remove the empty elements, but I sure hope there is a simpler and cleaner way to achieve this.
Am I right?
Many thanks
Bluesky
