If your company uses EDI you probably understand the need to maintain consistent and accurate ‘transactional’ records. But EDI is a limited number of fields and the company comptroller probably has it all under his or her thumb and allocates resources to its maintenance because it makes money (or more importantly loses money when done badly).
Data Exchange Tip #7: Mac-Based XML Solutions—Using oXygen
XML on Mac is a rare bird, or if not rare, seriously undercooked. There isn’t the same amount of options as on a PC, and certainly not an ONIX-based editor such as with ONIXEdit. There are a couple of free XML editors available, however Smultron is no longer updating and Serna Free XML Editor is not available for commercial use, instead deferring to Serna Enterprise for businesses. However, Serna Free is a good tool for getting used to XML.
Data Exchange Tip #6: A DIY Guide to Schema Validation on a PC—XML Notepad 2007
For the purist, those who want their XML validation without the added benefits of what some programmer thinks would improve their ONIX file, there is a lovely generic XML software product called XML Notepad 2007. It’s free and written by a Microsoft programmer, Chris Lovett, so the freeware is from a safe source, it’s easy to set-up for a schema validation and robust with files as large as 20,000 records.
Data Exchange Tip #5: Some Basics—Tools Before Validation
An XML file is simply text—nothing very special—except that in order for XML software to read and interpret it, everything needs to be just so. XML is, loosely, a computer formatting language, and as such is a low type of computer code—if not quite as finicky as a proper programming language it has much stricter rules than HTML.
Data Exchange Tip #4: Escaping Entities—Påvøl Breaches Checkpoint Charlie
Data Exchange Tip #3: File Cleaning—Not Just for Your Nails
Data Exchange Tip #2: So What('s) Encoding Anyway?
In the first tip, I tried to establish why you, the ONIX file sender, have to test your file, and that’s simply to ensure that the file’s content — all the characters—would be recognized by the aggregator’s software. The “encoding” declaration in the first line of the file tells the recipient what to expect—and your job is to ensure that the file matches that.
Data Exchange Tip #1: Why XML?
I’m going to do a series of blog posts on some of the very basic issues in file trading—what needs to be done before you submit an ONIX file (or an E-book if your e-book is in XML). In doing this I’m hoping that publishers will comment about software they like (and don’t), problems they have—and with any luck their successes.
So, for the first post: Why XML?
