Transforms: Basic Use

Transforms allow for a user to modify an xml tree using python code. Each transform varies in its functionality, and some may require that the xml tree follows a particular form. You should know what a transform does before you use it. Each transform also takes in arguments specific to the individual transform. Some, but not many, transforms are provided in the basic pyXSD package, but you can find more at <http://pyxsd.org/> or other locations. All the transforms must be stored in the transforms directory in order to work. Each transform call follows the following syntax:

TransformClassName(arg1, arg2,....)

The class name should be the same as the file in which the class is stored, except with the first word captilized. The program will raise an error if this pattern is broken.

You can load transforms when calling pyXSD from the command line two different ways. One way is to specify the location of a "transform" file, using the -T option. The transform file should have one transform call per line. Do not use quotes around the call (see the example transform file in the example/ directory. You can also call a series of transform calls from the command line, using the -t option. You must put quotes around the list of calls. Not all quotes may work on your system, so experimentation may be necessary. If you are not having success with the normal single and double quotes, try using symbol commonly under the ~ on your keyboard (`). Seperate the individual calls with the greater-than sign >. The call might look something like the following:

pyXSD.py ... -t `Transform1(arg1, arg2) > Transform2(arg3, arg4, arg5)`  

When using transform when pyXSD is functioning as a library, each transform call must be a seperate entry in a list, and they must all be strings.