Migrate Flat File Records

Overview

Microsoft BizTalk Server supports multi-character delimiters, although it supports only one type of delimiter—child delimiter.

Three schema annotations control delimiter handling in BizTalk Server: two for parsing (skip_CR, skip_LF), and one for serializing (append_newline). BizTalk Server interprets these annotations as follows when migrating records:

• If the skip_CR annotation has a value of true and the current delimiter is not carriage return (0x0D), BizTalk Server adds a carriage return to the current delimiter. For example, if the current delimiter were the pipe symbol (0x7C), the resulting delimiter is a pipe symbol followed by a carriage return (0x7C 0x0D). If the current delimiter is carriage return, it remains as a single carriage return regardless of the value of skip_CR.

• If the skip_LF annotation has a value of true, BizTalk Server adds a linefeed character (0x0A) to the current delimiter. Notice that in the preceding case where the current delimiter is the pipe symbol (0x7C), a three character delimiter results (0x7C 0x0D 0x0A) if both skip_CR and skip_LF are true.

• BizTalk Server ignores the setting of the append_newline annotation.

  While these interpretations of the annotations ensure the majority of cases migrate without difficulty, there are some cases where migration fails. For example, if skip_CR and skip_LF are both true and the current delimiter is the pipe symbol (0x7C), BizTalk Server accepts all of the following as valid delimiters within a single set of records: 0x7C 0x0D 0x0A, 0x7C 0x0D, 0x7C 0x0A, and 0x7C. Records using such sets of delimiters cannot be migrated and require custom parser code in BizTalk Server.

  Although BizTalk Server has only one type of delimiter, it interprets the old annotations so that records migrate easily. If a BizTalk Server schema has values for def_record_delimdef_field_delim, def_subfield_delim, and these are referenced in delimiter_type as inherit_record, and so on, BizTalk Server retrieves the corresponding value and stores it locally.

  In addition, BizTalk Server adds fields for tagged positional records without children.

See Also

Known Issues with Schema Generation and Validation