Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide | Data Source Definition File Overview |
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NOTE: As data source definition files are XML code, care must be taken when using certain characters in parameter values. The characters in the table at the right must be replaced by their corresponding XML entity codes, or Data Parser will fail to load the data source definition file.
For example, the following is invalid:
<StartTag>"Hello & Goodbye"</StartTag>
Instead, the special characters must be replaced:
<StartTag>"Hello & Goodbye"</StartTag>
Note that all XML entity codes start with an ampersand (&) and end with a semicolon.
The General Element
The <General> element defines the basic parameters of the data source and the table into which the data source should be parsed. <General> contains five or six child elements:
•<Url> specifies the Internet location of the data source. Data Parser suports http, file, and ftp URLs. The URL should resolve into a text type, such as a plain text, HTML or XML file.
•<Database> identifies the database file into which parsed data should be saved.
•<AllowDuplicates> can be either True or False. When set to True, Data Parser will allow duplicate entries to be created from the parsed data. When set to False, Data Parser will discard duplicate entries.
•<RefreshInterval> specifies the number of seconds Data Parser waits before reloading the data source's URL.
•<TableStructure> defines the schema of the data table to be created from the parsed data. It requires a single attribute, Name, that specifies the name of the table. <TableStructure> contains child <Field> elements that define the columns of the table.\
The value of a field element is the name of the data table column. Each <Field> element requires a Type attribute specifying the column's type. Currently supported types are Text (a 255 character string), Memo (a 2048 character string), and Integer. The <Field> element also allows optional AllowEmpty and KeyField attribute.
AllowEmpty can be either True or False, and determines whether Data Parser will accept table entries with no value for this column. The default for AllowEmpty is True.
The KeyField attribute can also be either True or False. When set to True, Data Parser will require unique values in this column for all the entries in
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