Mapping collection as a string to a target node - biztalk

Question

I am using biztalk 2009 and need help with mapping. I have input like:
<root>
<shop>
<product>
<type>1</type>
<code>ab</code>
<desc></desc>
</product>
<product>
<type>2</type>
<code>cd</code>
<desc></desc>
</product>
</shop>
<address />
<names />
</root>
I want to map the collection of products to a target element as a string of xml that looks like this:
<products><product type="1" code="ab" /><product type="2" code="cd" /></products>
I have found a solution using custom xslt but I dont want to use it as we have found it to be very fickle. Is there any functoids that could do this for me with some custom scripting? I am also a c sharp dev thanks!

Answer 1

This is completely doable out of the box with a simple map.
Here is the soure XML file:
<root>
<shop>
<product>
<type>1</type>
<code>ab</code>
<desc></desc>
</product>
<product>
<type>2</type>
<code>cd</code>
<desc></desc>
</product>
</shop>
<address />
<names />
</root>
Here is the source schema:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:b="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:element name="root">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="shop">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="unbounded" name="product">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="type" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="code" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="desc" type="xs:string" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name="address">
<xs:complexType />
</xs:element>
<xs:element name="names">
<xs:complexType />
</xs:element>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>
Here is the target schema:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:b="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:element name="products">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="unbounded" name="product">
<xs:complexType mixed="true">
<xs:attribute name="type" type="xs:string" />
<xs:attribute name="code" type="xs:string" />
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>
And here is the map:
And here is the output:
<products>
<product type="1" code="ab" />
<product type="2" code="cd" />
</products>
Armed witht his result, you can follow one of two suggestions outlined by Mark Brimble in his blog.
How to copy the entire node to element of string type in a map

Answer 2

I am sorry to say this but when mapping gets too involved and there is no obvious way to do this in the mapper I just fall back on a .net helper method inside assign message which will build the output message.
The helper method can take a biztalk message as an argument of type XLANGMessage and return a type of XMLDocument which will be converted to your target message type, providing the xml inside renders the type correctly.
For example:
public static XmlDocument HelperMethod (XLANGMessage message)
{
var sourceType = (SourceType)message[0].RetrieveAs(typeof(SourceType));
var targetType = new TargetType();
// ... Do target type population and serialization to XmlDocument here
return targetAsXmlDoc;
}
It would be trivial to do this inside .net so just take it into .net and do it. Sorry to all the mapping gurus out there!