• Chapter 1: Getting Started with Stylus Studio®
• Chapter 2: Editing and Querying XML
• Chapter 3: Converting Non-XML Files to XML
  • Overview of Convert to XML
  • Choosing an Input File
  • The Convert to XML Editor
    • Document Pane
      • Example - .txt Files
      • Display of Delimiting and Control Characters
      • Field Names
      • Document Pane Display Features
      • Moving Around the Document
    • Properties Window
    • Schema Pane
  • Parts of an Input File
  • Working with Regions
  • Working with Fields
  • Controlling XML Output
  • Creating an Adapter
  • Using Adapters in Stylus Studio
  • More About Converting EDI
  • Invoking an Adapter Programmatically
  • User-Defined Adapter Properties Reference
• Chapter 4: Working with XSLT
• Chapter 5: Creating XSLT Using the XSLT Mapper
• Chapter 6: Debugging Stylesheets
• Chapter 7: Defining XML Schemas
• Chapter 8: Defining Document Type Definitions
• Chapter 9: Writing XPath Expressions
• Chapter 10: Working with XQuery in Stylus Studio
• Chapter 11: Composing Web Service Calls
• Chapter 12: Accessing Relational Data as XML
• Chapter 13: Integrating with Third-Party File Systems
• Chapter 14: Extending Stylus Studio
• Chapter 15: Stylus Studio GUI Reference

Home > Online Product Documentation > Table of Contents > Document Pane

Document Pane

The document pane displays the input file's layout, including spaces, field separators, and control characters. The input file's appearance in the document pane is determined, in part, by its format.

This section covers the following topics:

Example - .txt Files

Stylus Studio uses slightly different displays for character-separated and fixed-width .txt files. Consider this file, which uses commas as the field separator:

Make,Model,Year,Mileage
               
BMW,R1150RS,2004,14274
               
Kawasaki,GPz1100,1996,60234
               
Ducati,ST2,1997,24000
               
Moto Guzzi,LeMans,2001,12393
               
BMW,R1150R,2002,17439
               
Ducati,Monster,2000,15682
               
Aprilia,Futura,2001,17320
               

            

Figure 165 shows how this character-separated input file appears in the Convert to XML Editor's document pane. By default, Stylus Studio aligns columns and fills the empty cells of the shorter rows with a light blue to aid readability:

Figure 165. Character-Separated File in the Convert to XML Document Pane

You can remove these spaces from the display and view the file in its native format by clicking the Align Fields button ( ) on the tool bar, or by selecting Convert to XML > Align Fields on the menu. This results in the layout shown in Figure 166.

Figure 166. Character-Separated File without Aligned Fields

Fixed-width files are displayed in a slightly different fashion. Consider this fixed-width input file:

Deep-sea octopus      Bathypolypus arcticus http://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/barctic.html        
               
Blue-ringed octopus   Hapalochlaena lunulatahttp://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/lunulata.html       
               
Caribbean reef octopusOctopus briareus      http://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/obriar.html         
               
Giant octopus         Octopus dofleini      http://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/giant.html          
               
Common octopus        Octopus vulgaris      http://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/Octopusvulgaris.html
               
Red octopus           Octopus rubescens     http://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/redocto.html        
               
Octopus Salutii       Octopus salutii       http://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/Osalutii.html       
               
Octopus Macropus      Octopus macropus      http://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/Omacropus.html 
               

            

In a fixed-width file, the empty cells represent actual values (spaces) in the input file. In the second row of this input file, for example, there are three spaces between the first and second columns:

Figure 167. Fixed-Width File in the Convert to XML Document Pane

Display of Delimiting and Control Characters

Stylus Studio displays delimiting and control characters in a way that distinguishes them from plain text values.

You can hide control characters by clicking the Toggle Control Characters button ( ) on the tool bar, or by selecting ConvertToXML > Toggle Control Characters from the menu.

Field Names

User-defined field names - values that Stylus Studio uses to create the element names in converted XML - are displayed in green, as shown here:

Figure 168. User-defined Field Names are Shown in Green

You can edit these names

If the field names are taken from a row within the file itself, Stylus Studio displays a blue arrow in the document pane margin to indicate this.

Figure 169. Blue Arrow Indicates Field Names Taken from the File

See Naming Fields to learn more about naming fields for XML output by Convert to XML converters.

Document Pane Display Features

In addition to aligning fields in character-delimited files, the Convert to XML Editor's document pane has several other features that aid readability.

Ruler

You can display a ruler that identifies each column:

Figure 170. Ruler Helps Identify Columns

To display the ruler, click the Toggle Ruler button ( ) on the tool bar, or select ConvertToXML > Toggle Ruler from the menu.

Displaying Pattern Matches

You can define match patterns using regular expressions to control which rows are converted to XML and, optionally, the name to use for these rows. You can highlight rows that match the patterns that you have defined, as shown here:

Figure 171. Matching Rows Are Displayed in Yellow

To highlight matching rows, click the Highlight Matching Rows button ( ) on the tool bar, or select ConvertToXML > Highlight Matching Rows from the menu.

Matching rows are displayed in a light yellow, with a green check in the pane's margin. A red X identifies rows that do not match the pattern. Gray squares identify rows that match a pattern other than the pattern defined for the row that currently has focus. See Specifying Multiple Match Patterns for more information on this feature.

See Pattern Matching to learn more about using regular expressions to define match patterns.

Grid Lines

The document pane displays both vertical and horizontal lines by default; you can hide/show them independently. In the example shown in Figure 172, horizontal lines are hidden from the display:

Figure 172. You Can Hide Horizontal and Vertical Grid Lines

To hide horizontal and vertical grid lines, click the Toggle Horizontal Grid Lines ( ) and/or Toggle Vertical Grid Lines ( ) buttons on the tool bar, or select ConvertToXML > Toggle Horizontal Grid Lines and/or Toggle Vertical Grid Lines from the menu.

Fonts

By default, the input document is displayed using the Courier New font in 12pt. You can change the display font to suit your personal preference using the Edit > Change Font and Edit > Font Size menus.

Moving Around the Document

You can move the cursor around the document

Figure 173. Use the Go To Dialog Box to Navigate the Document

Using Go To

You use the Go To dialog box to jump to a specific location in the file you are using to create your converter. You can use it to move the cursor to a specific

When you first display the Go To dialog box, values in the Go To fields reflect the cursor's current location within the file. The values in the Maximum fields display the maximum values for each category (file size, number of regions, and so on) for the portion of the file read into the Convert to XML Editor by Stylus Studio.

To display the Go To dialog box, select Edit > Go To from the menu.