This topic covers the Lines Client tool, which supports converting text that has multiple lines to and from XML that has one element for each line of text. It also addresses the Lines Call Back tool, which simplifies the handling of incoming Lines messages.

Sections include:

About these Tools

Lines Client is an instance of the EDI Client tool that is preconfigured to operate on text messages that have multiple lines. You can create a Lines Client tool directly from the Add Tool wizards. Or, you can add an EDI Client tool and change its format to Lines. The tool’s name will then change to Lines Client (unless you disabled the Use Default Name option).

Likewise, the Lines Call Back tool is an instance of the Enhanced Call Back tool that is preconfigured to operate on text messages that have multiple lines. To create a Lines Call Back tool, add an Enhanced Call Back tool and change its format to Lines. The tool’s name will then change to Lines Call Back (unless you disabled the Use Default Name option).

Note that the Lines tools do not have any Lines-specific conversion options.

Working with the Lines Format in SOAtest

SOAtest converts text that has multiple lines into XML that has one element for each line of text. This conversion facilitates the rapid configuration, sending, and validation of plain text messages. 

The Lines format is not a standard; rather, it is something that SOAtest offers to allow ad hoc conversion to XML (so that you can provide any value to an XML tool).

You would use the Lines format when you have some text input from which you want to extract one or more specific lines. For example, perhaps you need to fetch an FTP file from a server in a situation where you don't know the name of the file—you just know you need the latest one. You could use an FTP Client (with the "-rt" arguments) to list the files on an FTP server, with the last modified files listed first. You could attach an XML Converter in Lines format to the Messages output of the FTP Client. Then you would attach an XML Data Bank to the XML Converter, and extract the line(s) you were interested in.

For example, here’s how a simple message would be converted:

Text:

Last,First 
Dafoe,Daniel 
O'Hara,Maureen

XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
   <line>Last,First</line>
   <line>Dafoe,Daniel</line>
   <line>O'Hara,Maureen</line>
</root>

Conversion Options

No conversion options are available in the Lines Client and Lines Call Back tools.