2.8. Configuring the Fixed-Length Reader

  1. To configure the fixed-length reader, modify the http://www.milyn.org/xsd/smooks/fixed-length-1.3.xsd configuration namespace as shown below: 
    <?xml version="1.0"?>
<smooks-resource-list xmlns="http://www.milyn.org/xsd/smooks-1.1.xsd" xmlns:fl="http://www.milyn.org/xsd/smooks/fixed-length-1.3.xsd">
 
    <!--
    Configure the Fixed length to parse the message into a stream of SAX events.
    -->
    <fl:reader fields="firstname[10],lastname[10],gender[1],age[2],country[2]" skipLines="1" />
 
</smooks-resource-list>
    Here is an example input file: 
    #HEADER
Tom       Fennelly  M 21 IE
Maurice  Zeijen     M 27 NL
    Here is the event stream that will be generated: 
    
<set>
    <record>
        <firstname>Tom</firstname>
        <lastname>Fennelly</lastname>
        <gender>M</gender>
        <age>21</age>
        <country>IE</country>
    </record>
    <record>
        <firstname>Maurice</firstname>
        <lastname>Zeijen</lastname>
        <gender>M</gender>
        <age>27</age>
        <country>NL</country>
    </record>
</set>
  2. Define the string manipulation functions as shown below: 
    
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<smooks-resource-list xmlns="http://www.milyn.org/xsd/smooks-1.1.xsd" xmlns:fl="http://www.milyn.org/xsd/smooks/fixed-length-1.3.xsd">
 
    <!--
    Configure the fixed length reader to parse the message into a stream of SAX events.
    -->
    <fl:reader fields="firstname[10]?trim,lastname[10]trim.capitalize,gender[1],age[2],country[2]" skipLines="1" />
 
</smooks-resource-list>
  3. You can also ignore these fields if you choose: 
    
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<smooks-resource-list xmlns="http://www.milyn.org/xsd/smooks-1.1.xsd" xmlns:fl="http://www.milyn.org/xsd/smooks/fixed-length-1.3.xsd">
 
    <fl:reader fields="firstname,$ignore$[2],age,$ignore$[10]" />
 
</smooks-resource-list>