xFiles Documentation

• Introduction
• Features
• What xFilesXML Doesn't Do
• Limitations
• What is XML?
  
•  xFileXML Quick Start Guide
  • Loading, Importing and Parsing XML
  • Creating an XML File or String
• xFiles Template
• Some Practical Applications of the xFilesXML Class   
  •  Creating RSS Feed Files
  •  Storing Global Settings in an XML file
  •  Creating SOAP requests
  •  Using a View to create a filtered, sorted, XML file
  •  Formatting a field before it is saved to XML
  •  Storing multiple things in the same XML file
  • Saving Fields As Attributes
• Examples
• Importing Advanced Structures
  • Importing the whole xml data record into a field in the destination structure
  • Importing from XML where there are multiple fields with the same name
• Classes
  • xFileXML Methods
  • xFileXML Properties
  • xFileLinkDLLmethods
  • xFileLinkDLL Properties
• FAQ
• Support
• Clarion 5 and Clarion 5.5 Limitations
• Installation
• Distribution
• License & Copyright
• Version History
  

• Reading and writing XML files directly to and from Groups, Queues and Files (TPS, or any other backend). Support for writing xml from Views is also included.
• Fast reading and writing of XML files to and from Clarion data structure with no significant overhead for the XML - files are read from disk and written to disk at the speed at which a binary file can be read or written.
• Support for creating RSS feeds
• Support for creating simple SOAP server or SOAP client packets.
• Automatic encoding of binary data, BLOB and MEMOs in XML. Automatic addition of CDATA tags when needed.
• XML support for nested groups within queues, groups and files (Clarion 6 and above)
• XML support for fields with multiple dimension (Clarion 6 and above)
• Create XML in memory from queues, groups, views and files, or populate a queue, group or file from a string in memory that contains the XML.
• Use xFilesXML to load and save all program settings in one go using the Load and Save methods.
• xFileSettings class replaces storing settings in INI files with XML files, using Get and Put and the same syntax as is used for INI files.
• Reading and Writing binary (and text) files to and from disk. Includes dynamic memory allocation for loading any size file into memory (as a string).
• Supports automatic ZIP and UNZIP compression when reading and writing files (including XML files).
• Very high precision timers using the xFileFastTimer class. Uses 64bit precision for accurate, high resolutions timers.
• xFilesExplode supports decompressing files compressed with the proprietary Implode algorithm.

Note: xFiles is primarily for hand coders. This means you will need to call the xFiles methods within your code.

One of the best things about xFiles is that is it really, really fast (yeah, really, you will be surprised just how fast it is!). This means that it outperforms other XML toolkits (for example the Microsoft SAX toolkit).

• Writes a Queue, Group, View or File to an XML file simply by calling the self.Save() method.
• Reads an XML file into a data structure (Queue, Group or File) by calling the self.Load() method.
• Reads and Writes XML files fast and reliably.
• No knowledge of XML is required.
• The xFileXML class also allows application settings (for example global application settings stored in a global group) to be stored in XML files.
• Alternatively the xFileSetting class can be used to replace settings that you would previously have stored in INI files. This class uses XML files for ultra fast, reliable storage of settings.
• Thread safe.
• Includes a number of extra utility classes for providing high precision timers, API runtime DLL linking, and basic zip compression.
• xFiles is Clarion Source Code. This means that your application is not dependent on external DLLs or Microsoft toolkits. The xFiles classes are compiled into your application and they run on all flavors of the Windows Operating Systems.

  

• File size must be less than 2.1 GB (2147483638 bytes).
• There is a default maximum tag name length, determined by the XF:MaxFieldNameSize equate (currently 100 characters). This can be extended if necessary. Contact us for more details.
• The maximum number of fields per File, View, Group or Queue is determined by the XF:MaxFields equate (This is 1024 by default). This can be set to any value as required.
• xFiles supports a small subset of compression (zip, unzip and explode). Compression support is very much Beta (feature incomplete), we would not advise using xFiles as a compression utility at this point - it compresses an XML file (or other file) into a ZIP file, and decompresses a file inside a ZIP, but it is not currently a generic ZIP or compression solution.

XML and HTML Tags

Advantages of XML

• Things you need to know to Load XML
• Loading From an XML File into a Group, Queue or File
• Loading From an XML String into a Group, Queue or File
• Loading XML from the Web into a Clarion Structure

Things you need to know to load XML

Loading an XML File from the disk into a Clarion Structure

Loading an XML File from a string into a Clarion Structure

Loading XML from the Web into a Clarion Structure

Advanced: Loading Parent and Child records at the same time

• Saving a Clarion Structure to an XML file on the Disk
• Saving a Clarion structure to an XML string in Memory
• Properties which can be set before a call to Save
• Properties which can be set in SaveTweakFieldSettings
• Methods which can be used during a Save

Saving a Clarion Structure to an XML file on the Disk

Saving a Clarion structure to an XML string in Memory

Properties which can be set before a call to Save

Properties which can be set in SaveTweakFieldSettings

Methods which can be used during a Save

• Generic xFiles Template (to use an xFiles object)
• Export to/Import from XML Control Template

The Global xFiles Extension Template

In order to use xFiles, you need to add the Global Extension Template.

• Click on the Global button, and Choose "Extensions", then press the "insert" button.
• Choose the "ActivatexFiles - Activate Capesoft's xFiles" from the 'Class xFiles - CapeSoft xFiles - Version x.xx" section.

• Remove File Prefix from field Labels - removes the file prefix from fields labels that are entered into the XML file. Note: these settings must match on import and export (if using a different instance of this control template to do the other import/export)
• Replace colon in field name with a dot - if checked, all colons in field names are replaced with a dot in the XML tags (a colon is an invalid character in an XML tag)
• Encoding method - allows you to select whether to use iso-8859-1, utf-8 or windows-1252. The default method is iso-8859-1, but you can force it to one of the others if you prefer.
• Set Logging to - allows you to force debug logging on or off - otherwise you can use the compile time settings that are in the classes (normally off).
• Customize Header and Footer - allows you to enter a customizable Header and or Footer (for things like RSS Feeds, etc).
• Field Type Overrides - if you don't want to save MEMOs and/or BLOBs into your XML file, then you can disable this with these checkboxes.
• CDATA Saving - you can encase your data in CDATA tags - you can select which field type you would like to do this for using these checkboxes

Generic xFiles Template (to use an xFiles object)

xFiles provides a template to make it simple to add an object to a procedure. To use the template:

• Right click on the procedure you wish to add an object to and Choose "extensions", then press the "insert" button.
• Choose "IncludexFilesObject - Use an xFiles object" from the 'Class xFiles - CapeSoft xFiles - Version x.xx" section.
• In the "This Object Name" field enter "xmlWriter".

The class details tab allows properties to be added to the class and methods to be added, overloaded or customised and provides access to the method and data embeds for the object.

Export to/Import from XML Control Template

You can populate this control template onto a window, and export a file/queue/group to a file from a button on the window.
  You can setup the following options in the control template:

• Local Data - the data source (typically this would be the name of the file to export - or the queue or group)
• XML File - the file to export the data to. You can use quotes or a variable name.
• Display Status - shows a message after exporting or importing the file.
• ThisWindow.Reset(1) - resets the window after loading the file, forcing your browses and fields to be refreshed.

• Remove File Prefix from field Labels - removes the file prefix from fields labels that are entered into the XML file. Note: these settings must match on import and export (if using a different instance of this control template to do the other import/export)
• Encoding method - allows you to select whether to use iso-8859-1, utf-8 or windows-1252. The default method is iso-8859-1, but you can force it to one of the others if you prefer.
• Set Logging to - allows you to force debug logging on or off - otherwise you can use the compile time settings that are in the classes (normally off).
• Customize Header and Footer - allows you to enter a customizable Header and or Footer (for things like RSS Feeds, etc).
• Field Type Overrides - if you don't want to save MEMOs and/or BLOBs into your XML file, then you can disable this with these checkboxes.
• CDATA Saving - you can encase your data in CDATA tags - you can select which field type you would like to do this for using these checkboxes

• Creating RSS Feed Files
• Storing Global Settings in an XML file
• Creating SOAP requests
• Using a View to create a filtered, sorted, XML file
• Formatting a field before it is saved to XML
• Storing multiple things in the same XML file
• Saving Fields As Attributes

Creating RSS Feed Files

Storing Global Settings in an XML file

Creating SOAP requests

Using a View to create a filtered, sorted, XML file

Formatting a field before it is saved to XML

Storing multiple things in the same XML file.

Saving Fields as Attributes

Importing the whole xml data record into a field in the destination structure

Importing from XML where there are multiple fields with the same name

xFileXML.AddRecord (<any p_F1>,<any p_F2>,<any p_F3>, ...)

Adds a record to the xFilesXML record queue. The method takes up to 20 ANY parameters, which allows the addition of records to a queue where the type of a field is not known.

Parameters:

See Also:

xFileXML.Load(), xFileXML.Save()

xFileXML.Copy (*Group p_Group, byte p_Direction=0)

xFileXML.Copy (*Queue p_Queue, byte p_Direction=0)

Copies the records from the internal xFileXML group/queue property to the passed group/queue, or from the passed group/queue to the xFiles group/queue. The direction parameter specifies whether the data is copied from the parameter to the xFilesXML property or from the property to the passed variable.

Parameters:

See Also:

xFileXML.Load(), xFileXML.Save()

xFileXML.Init (*Queue p_Queue, string p_FileName)

xFileXML.Init (*Group p_Group, string p_FileName)

xFileXML.Init (*File p_File, string p_FileName)

xFileXML.Init (*View p_View, string p_FileName)

Initialises the xFileXML object to the a particular data structure and file, you can call this method at any point to change the data structure that is read from and written to, and the XML file that is used. If you are setting any of the class properties such as LoadFields and SaveFields then Init must be call after setting the class properties in order to use them.

Note: As well as passing a Queue, you can also pass a Group, File or View to the Init method to have xFiles read and write using a group, file, view or queue. (Views are Write-Only, not Read).

Note: You don't need to call Init unless you set advanced class properties like xFileXML.loadFields, xFileXML.saveFields and xFileXML.copyFields. If you set these properties to change which fields are saved then you need to use the first method above and call Init(). Otherwise you can call the Load and Save methods and pass them the queue/group/file/view and file name without calling Init().

Parameters:

Examples

! DATA
myQueue           queue
from                  string(80)
to                    string(80)
end

xmlFileName       string(260)

! CODE
    xmlFileName = 'myXmlFile.xml'
    thisFileXML.Init(myQueue, xmlFileName)

See Also:

xFileXML.Load(), xFileXML.Save()

xFileXML.Load (*Queue p_Queue, string p_fileName, <string p_FileBoundary>,<string p_RecordBoundary>)

xFileXML.Load (*Group p_Group, string p_fileName, <string p_FileBoundary>,<string p_RecordBoundary>)

xFileXML.Load (*File p_File, string p_fileName, <string p_FileBoundary>,<string p_RecordBoundary>)

xFileXML.Load (*Queue p_Group, *String p_XMLString, Long p_XMLStringLength, <string p_FileBoundary>,<string p_RecordBoundary>)

xFileXML.Load (*Group p_Group, *String p_XMLString, Long p_XMLStringLength, <string p_FileBoundary>,<string p_RecordBoundary>)

xFileXML.Load (*File p_File, *String p_XMLString, Long p_XMLStringLength, <string p_FileBoundary>,<string p_RecordBoundary>)

xFileXML.Load ()

Loads an XML file into the data structure.

The first parameter is the Clarion data structure that will receive the parsed XML. Valid structures are a Queue, File or Group.

The second parameter is the name of the file on disk, or the name of the string which is holding the XML in memory. If the XML is in a string, then an additional parameter, the length of the string, is required at this point.

Following this are 2 optional parameters that allow you to specify the File Boundary, and Record Boundary tags.

The .Load method (no parameters) ultimately loads the XML into the specified structure. It is included here for completeness but it should not usually be called directly.

Parameters

Examples

 ! DATA
myQueue           queue
from                  string(80)
to                    string(80)
                  end

xmlFileName       string(260)

  CODE
    xmlFileName = 'myXmlFile.xml'
    thisFileXML.Load(myQueue, xmlFileName)

 ! DATA
myGroup           group
from                  string(80)
to                    string(80)
                  end

xmlFileName       string(260)

  CODE
    xmlFileName = 'myXmlFile.xml'
    thisFileXML.Init(myGroup, xmlFileName)

    thisFileXML.Load()

See Also:

xFileXML.Save(), xFileXML.Init(), Loading XML Files

xFileXML.Save (*Queue p_Queue, string p_fileName, <string p_FileBoundary>,<string p_RecordBoundary>)

xFileXML.Save (*File p_File, string p_fileName, <string p_FileBoundary>,<string p_RecordBoundary>)

xFileXML.Save (*View p_View, string p_fileName, <string p_FileBoundary>,<string p_RecordBoundary>)

xFileXML.Save (*Group p_Group, string p_fileName, <string p_FileBoundary>,<string p_RecordBoundary>)

xFileXML.Save (*Queue p_Queue, <string p_FileBoundary>,<string p_RecordBoundary>)

xFileXML.Save (*File p_File <string p_FileBoundary>,<string p_RecordBoundary>)

xFileXML.Save (*View p_View <string p_FileBoundary>,<string p_RecordBoundary>)

xFileXML.Save (*Group p_Group <string p_FileBoundary>,<string p_RecordBoundary>)

xFileXML.Save ()

Saves a Clarion data structure into an XML file, or string.

The first parameter is the Clarion data structure that holds the data to be exported. Valid structures are a Queue, File, View or Group.

The second parameter is the name of the file on disk. If the XML is to be stored in a string, in memory, then this parameter is ignored.

Following this are 2 optional parameters that allow you to specify the File Boundary, and Record Boundary tags.

The .Save method (no parameters) ultimately saves the XML into the file or string. It is included here for completeness but it should not usually be called directly.

Parameters:

Examples

 ! DATA
myQueue           queue
from                  string(80)
to                    string(80)
                  end

xmlFileName       string(260)

  CODE
    xmlFileName = 'myXmlFile.xml'
    thisFileXML.Save(myQueue, xmlFileName)

See Also:

xFileXML.Load(), xFileXML.Init()

These are some of the properties of the xFileXML class that you might find useful to set directly.

xFileLinkDLL.LinkDLLFunction (string p_DLLName, string p_FunctionName, *long p_fpFunction)

This method loads a function from a DLL when passed the name of the DLL and the name of the function to locate. If the DLL has not already been loaded it loads the DLL. The address of the function is located and stored in the passed p_fpFunction parameter .

Parameters

 Return Values

Returns zero for success, or an error code if it fails.

Examples

See the "Runtime DLL Loading QuickStart Guide" for a full example and how to declare and use the addresses returned.

See Also

These are some of the properties of the xFileLinkDLL class that you might find useful to set directly.

1. I declare the object and call Load/Save but nothing happens.
   
   xFiles provides two ways to handle loading and saving of XML files:
   
   1. Without needing the Init method, you can call Load and Save and pass the data structure and file name directly to the load and save methods:
      
      xFileXML.Load(p_Queue, fileName)
      xFileXML.Save(p_Queue, fileName)
      
      
   2. By calling Init to set the data structure to use and the file name, then calling Load and Save:
      
      xFileXML.Init(p_Queue, fileName)            ! Call Init to set which data structure and file to use
      xFileXML.Load()
      xFileXML.Save()
      
   You don't need to use the second method and call Init unless you set advanced class properties like xFileXML.LoadFields, xFileXML.SaveFields and xFileXML._CopyFields. If you set these properties to change which fields are saved then you need to use the first method above and call Init.
2. Is there any way to change the tag itself when writing out an XML file from a browse?
   I see that I can format or change the contents but not the tag itself.
   
   Yes, there is a way. In the SaveCurrentFieldToXML method you can change the outgoing name of the field. To do this you do something like this;
   In this method
   xFileXML.SaveCurrentFieldToXML PROCEDURE (Long p_x,Long p_DimCounter,String p_name)
   [aside – make sure it's this one, there are two with the name SaveCurrentFieldToXML ]
   
   case p_name
   of 'REQUESTEDACTION'
   self._sFieldName[x] = 'REQUESTTYPE'
   end
   This goes before the parent call.
   
   If you were using this embed to format the contents of the field as well, then do this before that code, and in that code check self._sFieldName[x] instead of p_name because otherwise the first time the p_name will be wrong.

Clarion5

Clarion 5.5 Support Limitations

Version 2.28 (24 January 2012)

• Added support for Attributes when creating XML.
• Fix: Possible GPF when used in Multi-DLL mode with BoTran.

Version 2.27 (11 October 2011)

• Fix: Calling Save on a File, with Strings set to CData did not correctly recognize a Group as a Group.

Version 2.26 (6 Sept 2011) 

• Corrected examples with missing files.

Version 2.25 (20 July 2011)

• Support for attributes quoted with a single-quote added.

Version 2.24 (28 June 2011)

• Support for ColumnDisabled property added to .Load method.

Version 2.23 (4 May 2011)

• Tweak to template to support xFile objects generated into Source procedures in Clarion 8.

Version 2.22 (24 March 2011)

• Added .CRLF property so that alternate line endings can be used. Default is CR/LF (ie char 13, followed by char 10). Use this in conjunction with the IndentBy property to minimize the size of the xml.

Version 2.21 (24 March 2011)

• Add new method, SaveCurrentFieldToXML with name parameter. Makes custom formatting of fields easier if you have the name.
• Add new method FormatCurrentField to simplify simple formatting of a current field.
• Added section to the docs: Formatting a field before it is saved to XML

Version 2.20

• Added new method, UseCharSet which sets the .SaveEncoding property based on a Clarion Charset.
• .RSSVersion string extended from 10, to 252 characters

Version 2.19

• Added support for auto closed, empty tags, when doing a 'match by number'.

Version 2.18

• Fixed place where dontReplaceColons property was not being respected.
• Added PROC attribute to Save method declaration

Version 2.17 (24 January 2011)

• Added XF:CaseAny equate
• Set default of TagCase property to XF:CaseAny

Version 2.16 (19 January 2011)

• Fixed regression with errant SOAP boundary appearing in non-soap xml.

Version 2.15 (14 January 2011)

• Added support for SOAPHeader property.

Version 2.14 (1 December 2010)

• Prototype for Copy method changed to explicitly take both source and destination structures. This avoids possible thread problem with global, unthreaded, objects.
• .TagCase property can be set to XF:CaseAsIs for Loading. If set, then all structure external names need to be set specifically.

Version 2.13 (27 November 2010)

• SOAPEnvelopeBoundaryAttribute lengthened from 252 to 1024 characters.

Version 2.12 (15 November 2010)

• fixed regression in string length of encoded strings when converting & to &amp;

Version 2.11 (26 September 2010)

• Fixed bug with encoding of &, < and > in xml that wasn't encoded any other way.

Version 2.10 (24 August 2010)

• Fixed regression with records being filtered in ValidateRecord

Version 2.09 (4 August 2010)

• Added .PrefixChar property (defaults to :)

Version 2.08 (23 July 2010)

• Add EndRecord method - allows you to embed strings, when saving, right before the end of a record.
• AddString method - allows you to inject a custom string into the xml stream when saving.

Version 2.07 (12 July 2010)

• Fix possible GPF when saving large fields (> 1 MB).
• Optimized encoding of &, < and > characters.

Version 2.06 (18 May 2010)

• Fix GPF in AssignField. If CurrentFieldNumber was 0 , then it was using that to check the GroupLen array.

Version 2.05 (2 April 2010)

• ParseAttr method saves, and restores currentTag property.
• Autoclosing a tag while in a record refined.

Version 2.04 (March 2010)

• CurrentTag property set when parsing attributes on a .Load
• added support for <record attr="whatever" /><record attr="something" /> styled xml
• added autoCloseTags property for loading invalid xml.

Version 2.03 (1 March 2010)

• Updated Demo app, modernising calls in embeds to .Load and .Save
• Fixed bug where closing tag might be truncated if indent was <> 0 at that point.

Version 2.02 (17 February 2010)

• Added IndentBy property. Set to 2 by default. Set to 0 to suppress all indenting, before the call to .Save.

Version 2.00 (5 January 2010)

• Fixed another problem with groups in a VIEW

Version 1.99 (11 December 2009)

• Fixed problem detecting GROUPs in Views with a JOIN
• Fixed problem where SetFieldPointer method could enter infinite loop
• Fixed problem where IgnoreGroups property was on.

Version 1.98

• Added support for structures that contain a field with the same name as the record.
• Added support for multiple fields, with the same name, in the same structure.
• Added new section to the docs called Importing Advanced Structures.
• Added StoreWholeRecord property.
• Fixed: Bug closing group structures where last field in group was disabled, or an Over.

Version 1.97

• fixed bug where xml with no encoding specified was assumed to be utf. This affected extended character sets that were encoded, but used a scheme other than utf-8.

Version 1.96

• fixed bug where attribute started a new line
• fixed bug when loading memos and blobs
• tweaked code in decode method for Clarion 5.5 and earlier support.
• Change to Copy method to allow for the case where the file is closed.
• fixed bug in complex structure save where text was appended.

Version 1.95

• Added support for one complex structure inside another. For example a queue of Queues, a queue of Files and so on. See QinQ example for hints on the way to do it.

Version 1.94 (20 August 2009)

• Fixed regression with dimensions being over-detected.

Version 1.93 (13 August 2009)

• Added automatic detection of dimensioned fields to Groups and Queues for Load and Save. Only C6 and higher can detect automatically, C5 and C5.5 need to set _Dimension[FieldNumber] specifically in SaveTweakFieldSettngs.

Version 1.92 (28 July 2009)

• added support for &quot; and  &apos; encoded characters.
• added support for group structures that contain attributes, but no data, and end with the abbreviated close tag.
• extended example added in version 1.91to handle cnumber field.

Version 1.91 (21 July 2009)

• Added support for xml where the record boundary contains data. See ParentChild example, Example2 procedure.

Version 1.90 (15 July 2009)

• Fixed regression with CurrentTag property missing.
• Corrected ParentChild example which was missing the example xml file.

Version 1.89 (13 July 2009)

• Fixed bug where SendToString property was not explicitly being set to 0 when .Save method (to file) was called.
• Added UpdateAsWhole property for updating incoming records. Note that if the file has memos then this mode is not supported.

Version 1.88 (18 May 2009)

• Fixed bug where updating records that contain arrays - save Buffer size was calculated incorrectly.

Version 1.87 (6 May 2009)

• Better support for arrays in Queues and arrays in Groups. However note that you need to manually set
  xml._Dimension[fieldnumber] = xxx
  before calling Load or Save.
  xxx is the size of the dimensioned field (i.e. the number of elements in the array). 

Version 1.86 (17 April 2009)

• Added support for decoding xml that has no File boundary AND no Record boundary. In this case each tag triggers a save to the File, or Queue.
• New example, "ParentChild" included to show how child records inside a parent xml can be parsed using a second xFiles object.

Version 1.85 (4 April 2009)

• AssignField method (used when loading) now takes decoded string rather than encoded boundaries into BinData. This allows for much easier control over altering (formatting / deformatting etc) incoming values before they are assigned to the Group, Queue or Field field.

• fixed bug where number of fields in group was inaccurate if group contained fields with no label.
• fixed bug where groups-in-groups could fail where group tags were case sensitive.
• Calling ._close after an error resulted in the error code being cleared.

• Fixed regression where multiple root boundary tags were included in multi-part xml docs.

• Fixed possible memory lead when saving xml into a string.
• Fixed possible "hang" where an error occurs during a load, leaving the CriticalSection in an unreleased state
• Corrected problem with SOAP header being omitted if OmitXMLHeader was set when calling Save. (Thanks to Sebastian Arribas.)
• Added AddQueueRecord method. (Virtual method called before a record is added to the Queue)

• Extended Append to support Xml-To-Strings.

• Added _sFieldNameAttribute and _sFieldNameAttributeLen properties. See properties which can be set in SaveTweakFieldSettings.

• Clarion 7 compatible install.
• Class - don't write the record boundary if there is none.
• Template - change to the tpw (fix Methods list to '' when finished generating the list).

• Fixed extra space at the end of RootBoundary and SOAPBoundary tags.
• More template updates to prevent dropped objects.
• Import/Export Control template updated to support Clarion 5.
• Table, and Row boundaries added to the Import/Export Control template.

• Documented limitations for Clarion 5, and Clarion 5.5
• Improved support for Clarion 5 File-To-XML
• Added small FileDump example.
• Template change to try and avoid orphaned methods.

• fixed bug in FileBinary.Init method that could truncate file names. (Thanks to Benjamin Krajmalnik)
• improved support for groups, where the Clarion group is a superset of the XML group, of the xml file being loaded.

• Added template option to both global and local templates;
  "Update File on Import if record already exists".
• fixed bug with importing records if records already exist.
• improved error information when errors occur while loading an XML file.
• improved speed when importing records, and the records exist, and the file has no memos or blobs.

• fixed possible GPF when loading/saving XML from a string (not a file).
• improved the RemovePrefix support a lot. Specifically if the .RemoveProperty is set then prefixes in the XML are now ignored, INCLUDING prefixes in the FileBoundary and RecordBoundary. In additional prefixes in the .RecordBoundary and .FileBoundary properties are also removed.

• fixed regression: DontCleanFileName property was in the wrong class.

• fixed bug which hindered loading of CDATA strings > 1024 characters
• improved group support when saving and loading File, View and Queue structures
• explicitly cleared various properties on load & save, making multiple use of the same object better.
• handles .\ and ..\ in path better when writing in append mode.wc o:\cl
• Added new property IgnoreGroupTags. Set this before saving to NOT write out the group tags around grouped fields.
  Set this before loading to allow ungrouped XML fields to be loaded into a structure - even if they are grouped in your clarion layout. If the XML fields are grouped then the fields will still load, however there may be complications if you have duplicate field names in the xml.

• Fix: Allowed more characters as legal in CleanFileName method
  
• Fix: Handled case in Load where record boundary is a subset of a field label.

• support for auto-closed tags in RSS feed
• Added support for loading xml files that contain comment

• Added support for nested groups for both load and save.

• added "standalone" property which can be se to "yes" or "no" as desired. For example;
  
  <?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes">

• Fixed regression in XML Settings class. FileBoundary and RecordBoundary attributes now set correctly.

• Fixed over-zealous error reporting in _close method. Closing an already closed file no longer results in an error.

• New Jump-Start section added to the docs - Creating an XML File or String

• Fixed regression with Load methods not using default FileBoundary and RecordBoundary properties.
  VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: These properties are now no longer set to default values by the INIT method. If you are using the (obsolete) Load mechanism of
  xml.Init()
  xml.Load()
  Then you will need to set these two properties before the call to .Load. (Before or after .Init is fine.) EG
  self._pRecordBoundary = 'item' ! or 'data'
  self._pFileBoundary = 'queue' ! or 'file', or 'view', or 'group'
  
  As an alternative use the new forms of .Load and .Save.

• Added extra Save methods to support setting the FileBoundary and RecordBoundary in the Save command.

• Added extra Load methods to support setting the FileBoundary and RecordBoundary in the Load command.

• Created a new Jump-Start section in the Docs -  Loading / Importing & Parsing XML Files

• Added two new procedures, AddOldField and LoadAllOldFields. This allows you to change a table, view, group or queue field name and still import and XML file using the old field name.
• Some more minor bug fixes.

• Changed: Remove all Stop() message for API failures. These are handled by ErrorTrap (and logged if logging is enabled) and the application should choose the desired behaviour when an error occurs.
• Added: Additional file handling for opening files that are not already open when the Load(), Save() and Copy() methods are used. The file maintains it's state (if a closed file is opened it is closed when the method is complete).
• Added: Additional features specific to CapeSoft Email Server in Service mode. This release is required for the source code version of Capesoft Email Server 3.83 and later.

• Fix: Supports <tag/> syntax as well as <tag /> syntax.
• Add: Any attributes in the Record Boundary are now parsed into fields as if they were separate tags. For example
  <record firstname="bruce" lastname="brown">
     <dob>1/1/2000</dob>
  </record>
  Is processed as if it was
  <record>
     <firstname>bruce</firstname>
     <lastname>brown</lastname>
     <dob>1/1/2000</dob>
  </record>
• General: cleaned code to remove out-of-date comments, and old, commented-out code.

• If RootBoundary set during Load, then root boundary attributes loaded into RootBoundaryAttribute property.

• Add: Ability to store multiple things (Groups, Queues, Files, Views) in a single XML file. See Storing multiple things in the same XML file for more details.
• Add: Files which are part of the View are automatically Bound.
• Fix:A GPF could occur if using the .Save(View) method, and the table could not be opened.
• Fix: Dict example was missing Wages.Tps file.
• Fix: Saving a View would fail if the view had a prop:filter
• Fix: Tag names for blobs & memos were not clipped
• Fix: If the "simple" form of the view was coded (i.e. with no projected fields) then xFiles would GPF if the file structure contained over fields.
• Fix: Loading file boundary attribute was broken if attribute did not exist.

• Added ability so save VIEWS to an XML file, or string.
• Added .ValidateRecord method to allow client-side filtering of records being saved, or loaded.
• Added ability to ignore attributes on a record boundary. (Similar to the feature done for 1.51 for the file boundary.
• Setting _pFileBoundary property to blank suppresses the file boundary tag in both Load and Save methods.
• Added SoapEnvelopeBoundary and SoapBodyBoundary properties that allow you to set specific tags when creating a soap packet. They default to soap:Envelope and soap:Body respectively.
• Added .TagCase property. This defaults to XF:CaseLower. Other options are XF:CaseUpper and XF:CaseAsIs. In order to have mixed case tags, the Name property for each field in the group/file/queue must be set.
• Added a section to docs, Creating SOAP Requests.
• Added a section to docs, Using a View to create a filtered, sorted, XML file.
• Added a new example (Examples\SOAPClient\Convert) courtesy  of Larry Sand (www.ClarionFreeImage.com)
• Added new example (Examples\Dict) that show minimalist source procedures saving a file, or view, to XML.
• Change: SoapEnvelopeText property (added in version1.52) has changed name to SoapEnvelopeBoundaryAttribute to make naming more standard.
• Fix: If .Load method opens the file, then it closes the file as well. If file is closed, and .Save is called, then file is opened, and closed. If .Save is called in View mode then all necessary files and view itself, if not already open, will be opened and closed.
• Internal: Calls to .SaveTweakSettings, and .LoadTweakSettings moved higher in .Save and .Load methods respectively.

• Added new Save methods to save a group to a string, and Queue to a string. .Save(Group) and .Save(Queue) respectively. XML String is in .xmlData property after the call is made.
• Added .SoapEnvelope property and .SoapEnvelopeText property. If .SoapEnveloper = 1 then a SOAP envelope will be wrapped around the XML.

• Added support for additional attributes in the file boundary tag. For example if an XML file is modified in Excel the Schema is added to the tag that acts as the file boundary:
  <file xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  Which is now supported. Additional attributes will be ignored, and overwritten when the file is saved, however the file will now load as expected.
• Template - added description into extension template header for ease of identification of which instance of xFiles each extension is.
• Template - fix for legacy class generation (includes xfiles01.tpw 1.54)

• Documented the xFileLinkDLL class
• New Quick Start guide for dynamic DLL loading using xFileLinkDLL
• Support for loading XML based on field number rather than field name (allows an XML file to be loaded where the field names don't match those of the data structure being loaded). Also support starting from any field in the XML.
• Updated the documentation, fixed incorrect links, added numerous new links, fixed references where xFilesXML was simply referred to as "xFiles", update the Contents to assist with navigation and added additional links to the JumpStart/Quickstart guides in the documentation.
• New xFileXML.Load() method to load directly from memory by passing the data structure and string that contains the XML to load. Using this method means that the LoadFromString property does not need to be set and the xFileXML.xmlData does not need to be populated manually.

• Extensive new document for the xFileXML class, a large number of new methods and properties have been documented and the existing documentation expanded on.
• Support for storing multiple data structures in a single XML file.
• Support for reading data from an XML file that contains more than the data structure currently being read.
• Support for writing multiple data structures and custom XML to a single file.
• Added support for Multi-Proj

• Fixed a bug that could cause problems loading groups (the data would not be loaded from the XML file, unless Save had previously been called).
• Updated documentation for the xFileXML class to include additional class methods, this update is currently a work in progress and the documentation will be further updated shortly (for all classes).
• Added xFileXML.SaveBinData() and xFileXML.LoadBinData() methods to allow files to be loaded and saved directly to the binData property of the class without doing any parsing. This can be used to save multiple groups, files and queues to a single XML file by using the .saveToString property to create the XML in memory, populating it into the binData property and the using SaveBinData() to write it to disk. The standard Load() method handles loading data from XML files that contains multiple data structures (see below)
• Added support for reading an XML file that contains multiple groups, files and queues.

Version 1.23  Beta (1 May 2007)

• New example. Uses the xFileTimer object to delay 1ms between tasks.

Version 1.22  Beta (15 February 2007)

• Code to handle nested groups and queues uses the IsGroup() function, which is not available in version of Clarion prior to C6. In 1.20 Beta this results in a compiled error when using C55. This code has now been wrapped in a conditional compile for C6 only.
• Added support for nested groups, queues and records in groups, queues and records. Previously only groups were handled.
• Fixed compile errors in example applications due to missing Global extensions.
• The Multi Dimensional example used GPFReporter, Hyperactive and WinEvent, these have been removed.

Version 1.20  Beta (06 February 2007)

• Updated xFileXML.Copy() function to allow queues to be copied to files and files to be copied to queue.
• Fixed xFileXML.Copy() function when used with Files - an option was used that was not supported by some driver types (such as the IMDD), all functions are now very generic and should support all file drivers.
• Added handling to prevent issues when xFileXML.RemoveDuplicatesAfterSort was called with a file instead of a queue.
• New handling for tables (especially IMDD tables) to support the same features as queues.
• Numerous fixes of table handling code, fixed loading and saving issue etc.
• Added the ability to override the main wrapping tag to so that files and queues can be populated from an XML file regardless of whether the wrapper tag is <queue> or <file>.
• Fixed: Sub groups and queues (group within groups/queue and queues within queues) now output correctly. Previously the fields would be output, but the sub group/queue itself would also be dumped as a single "field" within the XML.
• This is now the official version used by Email Server 3.50 and above. Previous version of xFiles are not compatible with Email Server source code.

Version 1.10  Beta (3 August 2006)

• Fixed Global Disable (was trying it include some code in the Export from and Import to file control template which was causing compile errors).
• In Init - don't override settings (with defaults) that were set prior to Init being called.
• Includes a stamped version to indicate the version of xFiles that the application was previously compiled with.
• Warning is generated if a XMLFile is attempted to be imported to a file, or a name for the file is not specified.
• Case insensitive parent method name checking (if the parent method's name case was different, then the class deriver saw as two different methods).
• Fixed GPF in export to string.

Version 1.09  Beta (19 June 2006)

• Replaces Colons with Dots (for fieldnames if required) even if the RemovePrefix property is set (was previously either doing the one of the other).
• Template option to specify whether (in field names) colons must be replaced by dots or not.
• Fixed regression (from 1.08) - omitting fields (where export was not from SendTo)

Version 1.08  Beta (19 June 2006)

• New property - ColumnDisabledStr - a string over the ColumnDisabled byte array (makes setting or resetting these bytes easy)
• Added a constructor method (which is called from the construct method) - makes deriving the construct method possible.

Version 1.07  Beta (6 June 2006)

• Very Important !!: self._NoFreeBeforeLoad has been inversely replaced by self.FreeFileBeforeLoad, self.FreeQueueBeforeLoad and self.FreeGroupBeforeLoad. You can turn this on or off in the template (or via handcode).
• Very Important: You need to add the xFiles Global Extension template to your applications that use xFiles. If you have used your own derived xFiles class, you will need to enter that into the field provided on the Class tab of the new xFiles Global Extension template.
• Important: self.InverseOrder has been replaced by self.InverseAddOrder and self.InverseTruncateOrder
• Important: self._cRecordBoundary has been replaced by self._pRecordBoundary
• Important: self._cIndent has been replaced by self._pIndent
• Important: self._cFieldName has been replaced by self._pFieldName
• Important: self._cRecordBoundary has been replaced by self._pRecordBoundary
• Important: self.GetValue() and self.SetValue() prototypes changes - but continue to work as before.
• Important: self._ReplaceColon() has been replaced by self._ReplaceColonInString().
• Added: Support for Importing and Exporting Clarion Files to and from XML (so it now handles Files, Queues & Groups). File to xml is only supported in C55 and above. And files with multi-dimensional fields, memos and/or blobs are only supported in C60 and above.
• Made import case insensitive for XML tags.
• Added: Dim, Blob & Memo support
• Added: self.SaveEncoding (defaults to iso-8859-1) but can also be set to utf-8 or windows-1252
• Added: self.LoadEncoding - which tells you what the encoding of the loaded XML file is.
• Added: CDATA support
• Added: self.SaveStringsToCData (Default off)
• Added: self.SaveMemosAsCData (Default on)
• Added: self.SaveBlobsAsCData (Default on)
• Added: self.SaveAsCData[index] (default off or on depending on SaveStringsToCData etc. options - override this in SaveTweakSeattings()
• Added: self.DontUseMemos (defaults off)
• Added: self.DontUseBlobs (defaults off)
• Added: CustomHeader (string) - which allows for a custom header string to be added when creating the header
• Added: CustomSectionAfterFileBoundary (string) - which allows for a custom section string to be added after the file boundary tag.
• Added: CustomFooter (string) - which allows for a custom footer string to be added when creating the footer
• Added: Advanced methods - self.SaveTweakSettings() and self.LoadTweakSettings() - which are called from Load() and Save() after the analyzing phase before the actual reading/writing phase - allow last minute changes to the configurations.
• Added: self.ForceDecimalEncode128 which forces all characters > 128 to be encoding as &#128;
• Added: Control template for Exporting and Importing Files / Queues and Groups.
• Added: self.RemovePrefix - which if set to 1 will remove the prefix from queues, groups & files. e.g. <Pro.ProductName> becomes just <ProductName>
• Added: self.FreeGroupData (defaults to a clear)
• Added: self.FreeQueueData (defaults to a free)
• Added: self.FreeGroupData (defaults to a loop / next / delete) - It's better to override this method with your own ABC Relational Delete - and xFiles may implement an update feature in future instead of delete and insert - which can break relational constraints.
• Added: self.RSSVersion (string) which you can set to '2.0' for example and your file/queue will be exported in RSS format. Best to set this before calling Save() and/or Load() e.g. Set in Construct()
• Fixed: Critical Section support for C5 and C55 applications that don't use NetTalk 4.\
• Fixed: interference with other templates (using the Object01.tpw template) - new xFiles01.tpw
• Fixed: a bug where a 0 byte file could be locked after loading with the Binary Class
• Added: SaveToString support added (previously was just doing LoadToString)
• Note: the zip functionality (with particular note to the save xml in zip file functionality) will be undergoing some future changes.

Version 1.05  Beta (27 February 2006)

• Fixed Wait Release problem in Zip code
• Changed Wait Release code to use NetTalk's Wait Release object if available.
  If you are not using the xFiles template, and don't have NetTalk v4.00 or newer please add the following project define to your application:
  xFilesNoNetTalk4=>1
  This is not needed if you have NetTalk v4.00 or if you are using the xFiles Extension Template, as this is controlled automatically.

Version 1.04 Beta (10 November 2005)

• Fixed install. Use this version rather than v1.03.

Version 1.03 Beta (8 November 2005)

• Added column suppression (for SendTo support). See new property - ColumnDisabled 

Version 1.02 Beta (13 September 2005)

• Added zlib_cs.dll and Explode.dll to the Install.
• Tweak to the template for Clarion 5 to remove warnings.
• Removed the p_DontCloseNow parameter to the Save() methods, and added SaveButDontClose() methods
• Fixed Destruct Freeing blocks twice

Version 1.01 Beta (08 September 2005)

• Corrections and additions to the documentation.
• Added an xFiles template to easily add the xFiles object to a procedure (replaces Object Writer's Object User template, and provides default settings for xFiles).
• New Save and Load methods that take the data structure and file name and can be called without needing Init to be called.
• Changed all example to use the new xFiles template to populate the object.
• Cleaned up and updated the documentation, added docs for addition class properties.

Version 1.00 Beta (31 August 2005)

• xFiles escapes captivity!
• Initial documentation etc.
• The original class name was changed from QueueFile, all classes included renamed for consistency.