Creates a datetime XML element from defined source(s).

Date/Time steps are used to convert dates into various formats. The resulting XML element is inserted in the output. If dates do not match format and locale properties, the result is the concatenation of input sources.

Property Type Category Description
Comment String standard Describes the object comment to include in the documentation report.
This property generally contains an explanation about the object.
Is active boolean standard Defines whether the step is active.
Node name String standard Defines the tag name of the generated XML element.
This property can contain any name, no words are reserved, and must follow the rules on XML naming:

• it can contain letters, numbers, and other characters,
• it cannot start with a number,
• it cannot contain spaces nor punctuation character.
Assigned XSD Simple type QName XmlQName expert Defines the schema base type to assign as a type to this simple XML element.
This property allows to assign a simple XSD type to the simple XML element generated by this step. It can only be used when the step actually generates a simple XML element.
Format String expert Defines the resulting date format.
For more information on usable symbols, see Appendix “Date format - Usable symbols”.
Locale String expert Defines the resulting date locale.
This property defines the resulting date locale. Text is formatted depending on this property.
For example, if the date is 09/09/2009, the resulting MMMM format:

• with the Locale property set to US is September,
• with the Locale property set to FR is septembre.
Output boolean expert Defines whether the XML generated by this step should be appended to the resulting XML.
Set this property to true to add the step’s resulting XML to the sequence’s output XML (default value for steps generating XML). Set this property to false to prevent the steps’s XML result to appear in the sequence’s output XML.
Setting this property to false does not prevent the step’s generated XML from being used as a source by other steps.
Separator String expert Defines the text to be used as a separator string.
If set, this text is added between each text to concatenate. Default value is a white space, think about removing it if you do not want to use it.
Source(s) format String expert Defines the date format of source(s).
For more information on usable symbols, see Appendix “Date format - Usable symbols”.
Source(s) locale String expert Defines the locale of source(s).
If the source date contains text, make sure to properly set this property. If not, the date will not be recognized.
For example, if this property is set to FR with a source date being 09-September-2009, the source date will neither be recognized nor converted.
Sources XMLVector expert Defines a list of source items to use as values.
This property allows defining a list of source items that are used to create the result value. Each source item contains three columns to be set:

• Description: Defines a comment or description about this source item.
• Source: Defines the source. A source is a reference on a step previously existing in the parent sequence, associated with an XPath applied on the step’s result DOM. At runtime, the XPath is applied on the step’s current execution result XML and extracts a list of XML nodes resulting from this execution.
• Default value: Defines the default value for this source. If the source’s XPath doesn’t match in the referenced step or if the source is left blank, the default value is used. Otherwise, the source item creates no data.

Each source item may define a source and a default value.
Note: A new source item can be added to the list using the blue keyboard icon. The source items defined in the list can be ordered using the arrow up and arrow down buttons, or deleted using the red cross icon.