XML Authority will allow you to import ODBC table schemas, representing the rows as an XML element type and its columns as elements or attributes.
To import information from a ODBC table, select the ODBC Table option from the Import submenu of the File menu or choose 'ODBC source' from the Welcome window. The dialog box shown below in Figure A will appear.
To select an ODBC source, enter its name (ask your database administrator if you need to find it, or check the ODBC control panel if you're running the database locally) and, if necessary, a username and password.
Figure A - Importing an ODBC table - selecting the source
You can tell XML Authority how it should represent the properties of the ODBC table and also how deeply it should traverse the table structure by clicking the Options... button and changing the settings shown in Figure B.
Figure B - Setting the import options for a ODBC source
Once you've selected the data source and set the options, you have to select a table within the data source. XML Authority will display a list of all of the tables available for import, as shown in Figure C.
Figure C - Choosing the table to import
Once you've selected a table, XML Authority will analyze the table and its data structures and build an XML schema representation, including data types, as shown in Figure D.
Figure D - Results generated by an ODBC table import
XML Authority will import additional data typing properties from the ODBC source. The length of strings will be recorded as a dsize attribute, the names of primary keys will be stored in a pkey attribute, and the names of foreign keys will be stored in an fkey attribute. This information is not directly editable in XML Authority except through the Source window. For more information on how to access this information in your applications, see Best Practices - Processing Data Types.
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