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Altova XMLSpy® 2009 contains many powerful data exchange functions that allow you to easily convert back and forth between text and word processing files and XML.

While XML is ideally suited for the next generation of information and data exchange scenarios, much of the data we deal with today exists in the form of text files and word processing documents. XMLSpy® 2009 leverages the best of both worlds by providing powerful conversion functions that allow you to exchange information with the various formats in use today.

Importing Text

Converting legacy data into XML is a breeze with the text import functionality of XMLSpy® 2009 - simply export the data from your legacy system into a typical CSV (comma separated value) text file, and you are ready to start your XML conversion.

To convert, select any text file, specify the character-set being used, set the field-separation character, and you immediately get a preview of the data in XML form.

If the file contains field names in the first line, these can be used to label the respective columns, and you can also directly edit the column headers at will.

You can choose which columns you want to import as attributes, sub-elements, etc., or even choose not to import a column at all by simply clicking on the header to deselect it.

Importing Word Documents

If you are using paragraph styles in Microsoft Word, you can easily convert your existing Word documents into XML files with XMLSpy® 2009.

When you select the corresponding import function, you can choose any existing Word file, and XMLSpy® 2009 will automatically generate an XML document that includes a CSS stylesheet. The stylesheet represents each paragraph as an element of the corresponding paragraph style.

Exporting to Text

Exporting XML data into text files can be quite tricky because XML information is structured in a hierarchical fashion. XMLSpy® 2009 solves this problem by automatically "normalizing" the data in an XML file. Consequently, this generates several text files to represent the different hierarchical levels of the XML document.

To export an XML document, you only need to specify which elements you would like to export. XMLSpy® 2009 automatically calculates the files required to model your hierarchy properly in text format. The set of text files will be generated in the folder you specify, and each file name will be generated from the corresponding element name. You can also specify the file extension to be used.

In addition to legacy data integration, XMLSpy® 2009 provides powerful relational database integration capabilities.

Experience this powerful legacy data conversion functionality - Download a free 30-day trial of XMLSpy.