Spark v1.90.8.72

Name

xmlds - Tags used in a Spark XML Data Source

Description

Since the SDF format is very unstable -- multiple styles have appeared in the years and a header does not exist to say what kind it is -- a new Data Source module has been invented to read user definitions from an XML file. It is a layer to libxml which takes care of all the necessary stuff.

Prerequisite is that you know some HTML/XML/XHTML.

Begin the XML file with the <datasource> tag. (Needed to recognize a file.)

User object

The <user> tag specifies a user:

<user nname="Engelhardt" vname="Jan" xuid="12345" sgroup="11" />

  • nname -- surname (prenom)
  • vname -- first name. This and surname is used to build up a login name in Spark UI.
  • xuid -- a unique identification number, to distinguish users with the same name. The XUID can be any string you seem fit, as long as it is unique for this user. The birth date (or an encrypted / hashed version thereof) is often used.
  • sgroup -- Class (school, colleges), or just a transparent sub-group. The subgroup is mostly ignored, all the users in the input data will belong to one system group. It is only used for password printing in user interfaces.

Comments are allowed as XML/HTML allows them. They are filtered out when parsing with libxml. Unknown tags or fields will also be ignored.


December 24 2003 http://vitalnix.sf.net/