StyleVision Server Archives

Tag Archive for: StyleVision Server

XML Reports to Text

December 14, 2021/in XBRL, XML, XSL /by Erin Cavanaugh

Creating business reports from data stored in XML and relational databases is a common requirement in most organizations. However, it’s often complicated by the need to have information available in both web formats and print-ready formats such as PDF. Altova StyleVision takes a unique approach to report creation by letting users design reports from XML, databases, and even XBRL in a visual way – and output them in multiple formats simultaneously.

Over the years, support has been added for output to HTML, RTF, Word, and PDF – and now, based on customer feedback and requests, StyleVision also supports direct output to text. Let’s take a look at how it works.

How to Create Fillable PDF Forms

February 12, 2020/in Development, Software /by Erin Cavanaugh

Compared to traditional paper forms, fillable PDF forms offer numerous benefits – aside from saving trees – including removing issues with legibility, allowing data validation, reducing re-keying errors, and streamlining information storage and re-use.

I, for one, really wish my kids’ school would switch to PDF forms for the myriad back-to-school information pages that we fill out in triplicate every fall. Perhaps I can give the administrators a demo of StyleVision, which just added support for fillable PDF form creation.

Unlike other PDF form design tools, however, StyleVision also provides form workflow functionality via integration with StyleVision Server for extracting and processing the data that end users enter. Let’s take a look at how it works.

PDF Forms

Support for JSON5 in Altova MissionKit, Server Products, and MobileTogether

June 28, 2017/in JSON, Tools /by David McGahey

Altova products have supported JSON for several years. Now, Version 2017 Release 3 of MissionKit and Server products, and MobileTogether Version 3.2 all include support for JSON5 across the product line.

The JSON data format was originally designed to be machine-written and consumed, promoting efficient communication between servers. Usage has expanded and JSON5 is a proposed extension intended to make JSON code easier for humans to write and read. JSON5 extends JSON by adding some ECMAScript 5 features and, like JSON, is a strict subset of JavaScript. Specifically, JSON5 permits inline and block comments, allows long strings to be split over several lines, and defines alternate legal syntax options for quotes and commas. These features are not permitted in standard JSON, so files containing the proposed enhancements are typically identified with the .json5 filename suffix.

This post details specific support for JSON5 in each Altova product.

Learn about JSON5 support in Altova tools

Starting Business Reports from Word

March 14, 2016/in Applications, Tools, XSL /by Erin Cavanaugh

So much content these days is in the form of Microsoft Word documents. Word is where content or report creators often begin, and it has great tools for designing layouts and including images, tables and hyperlinks, and so on. What Word lacks though, is the ability to publish dynamic content or publish multiple versions of that content using the same template in an automated way, and that’s where Altova StyleVision comes in.

StyleVision is a unique product that is often difficult to describe because it does so much. Whether you want to auto-generate an XSLT stylesheet based on a visual design, create multi-channel business reports from dynamic XML or database data, or build user-friendly enterprise forms, StyleVision has you covered.

Starting with StyleVision 2016 Release 2, you can begin your StyleVision design based on an existing Word doc. Let’s take a look at why this saves an incredible amount of time, giving report and form designers the best of both worlds.

Designing a business report

Rendering XBRL Table Linkbases using StyleVision

March 24, 2015/in XBRL /by Erin Cavanaugh

StyleVision provides the ability to quickly and easily generate multichannel renderings and reports of XBRL data. Because it employs a visual, drag-and-drop design model and includes numerous XBRL-formatting wizards, even stakeholders without deep technical XBRL expertise can leverage the full power of standards-based XBRL data to generate rich business reports on a one-time or recurring basis. Starting with Version 2015 Release 3, StyleVision provides built-in support for rendering data according to XBRL Table Linkbase definitions. Let’s take a look at how it works.

Automating Data Integration Workflows – Download the E-Book

August 19, 2014/in Applications, Data Integration /by David McGahey

We’ve published an e-book titled Automating Data Integration Workflows with Altova FlowForce Server that is now available for free download from the Altova Web site.

Here is a brief description: FlowForce Server is a highly-customizable platform to automate data transformations defined by MapForce data mappings, report and document generation, and other tasks on dedicated servers, virtual machines, or workstations scaled for the scope of the project. FlowForce Server empowers data architects, analysts, and other IT professionals to efficiently complete enterprise-level data integration tasks.

Automating Data Integration Workflows with Altova FlowForce Server provides an overview of the Altova FlowForce Server platform through a series of real-world data integration tasks and examples.

Automating Data Integration Workflows with Altova FlowForce Server

The new e-book collects updated information from the Altova Blog, the Altova Web site, and some all-new material, organized in one location to help new FlowForce Server users get started and to suggest new applications and efficiencies for experienced users.

Installing Altova Server Software in the Cloud

July 8, 2014/in Software /by David McGahey

Cloud-first is becoming the new normal. At recent events we have frequently been asked about using Altova Server tools in the cloud. The answer is definitely, go for it. The installation is easy. In fact, we use Altova Server Software products ourselves for an internal reporting application, installed on local virtualized servers and on an AWS cloud instance. The charts below were generated by StyleVision Server running in the cloud to quickly communicate information about changes in dynamic data.

StyleVision Server is based on the built-in report and document generation engine developed for StyleVision and renders .SPS stylesheets originally designed in StyleVision, including features like a rich variety of charts to visually represent data.

In this post we will walk through the installation of FlowForce Server, MapForce Server, StyleVision Server, and RaptorXML Server for a complete data integration solution in the cloud.

Deploy Data Mappings and Report Designs for Automated Processing

March 4, 2014/in Data Integration, XSL /by David McGahey

Deploying data mappings created in MapForce and report designs created in StyleVision for automated processing by Altova server products is straightforward and quick.

The File menu in MapForce includes two options to optimize, preprocess, and deploy data mappings for MapForce Server and FlowForce Server. Preprocessing enables faster performance and reduced memory footprint for most data mappings. MapForce menu option to deploy to FlowForce Server Read more…

Tags: FlowForce Server, MapForce, MapForce Server, StyleVision, StyleVision Server

Result Caching Accelerates Application Response Time

November 25, 2013/in Data Integration /by David McGahey

Rapid response to user input is critical to the success of any Web application. FlowForce Server administrators can leverage result caching, a new feature introduced in version 2014, to deliver nearly instantaneous results to users running FlowForce Server jobs in a browser window as HTTP services.

A FlowForce Server job running as an HTTP service

Configuring a FlowForce Server job to take advantage of result caching is a simple two-step process. As an example, let’s look at the job we created recently in FlowForce Server Jobs as HTTP Services. We defined a StyleVision Server transformation as the last step in a FlowForce Server job and made the job available as an HTTP service that delivered the HTML result to a Web browser window. Read more…

Tags: FlowForce Server, HTML, StyleVision Server

FlowForce Server Jobs as HTTP Services

October 21, 2013/1 Comment/in Data Integration /by David McGahey

FlowForce Server administrators can define jobs as HTTP services to empower end users to execute the job on demand, as easily as opening a Web page.

A FlowForce Server job as an HTTP service with a URL

When a FlowForce Server job runs as an HTTP service results are delivered back to the Web browser. If the last step is a StyleVision Server transformation, the job can create a rich HTML-based Web page.

Even better, the same result is simultaneously saved in the enterprise workflow.
Read more…

Tags: FlowForce Server, StyleVision Server

Filesystem Commands and More Wizardry with FlowForce Server Built-in Functions

August 13, 2013/in Data Integration /by David McGahey

In our earlier posts on FlowForce Server, we described jobs that execute MapForce Server for data transformations, StyleVision Server for report and document rendering, and RaptorXML Server for XML processing. In each scenario we also used built-in system functions to copy move, or delete files, as is often required in real-world workflows.

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In this post we’ll take a look at more of the built-in functions automatically installed in the FlowForce Server system container. You can use these commands as execution steps to automate the file housekeeping so often required in enterprise production.
Read more…

Tags: FlowForce Server, MapForce Server, RaptorXML, StyleVision Server

Taming Bad Input Data with FlowForce Server

June 18, 2013/1 Comment/in Data Integration /by David McGahey

Whenever you accept data from an outside source you risk encountering errors. We have blogged about this phenomenon in the past in Expect the Unexpected – Altova MissionKit Solves a Number Format Mystery and in the series of posts on Processing the Groupon API.

Bad data in an input file can cause the data transformation step of a FlowForce Server job to fail. When a FlowForce Server Job fails, further execution steps will not be performed. FlowForce Server is designed this way to prevent an error in one job step from cascading into a series of additional invalid results. Happily, FlowForce Server also includes features to help you recover from errors and keep production flowing.

In this post we will further extend the data mapping and report rendering job described in Customizing a FlowForce Server Job to gracefully handle bad data in an input file.

Come see us at TechEd in New Orleans!

May 29, 2013/in Events /by Cindy Neely

Altova will be exhibiting in New Orleans, LA from June 3-6 at Microsoft TechEd in booth #429. Come on down to the Morial Convention Center and speak with our experts about our new line of cross-platform server software products: FlowForce Server, MapForce Server and StyleVision Server. If you are attending TechEd, stop by our booth to see first-hand how these new products offer high-speed automation for projects designed using familiar Altova MissionKit developer tools. While you are at our booth mention this blog post to receive a special giveaway. We can’t wait to see you next week in New Orleans!

Tags: Altova events, FlowForce Server, MapForce Server, StyleVision Server, Tech Ed, tradeshows

Customizing a FlowForce Server Job

May 21, 2013/1 Comment/in Data Integration /by David McGahey

In our earlier post titled Automate Data Mapping and Transformation with FlowForce Server, we created a job called SimpleMapAndTransform to automate data mapping with MapForce Server and creation of html reports by StyleVision Server. After the FlowForce Server job ran several times, we have accumulated many output files in the same folder we use to process input files, as well as temporary intermediate files in the workFiles folder, as seen in the image below.

FlowForce Server job execution log and working folders

In this post we will enhance the job to create more orderly results and remove unneeded temporary files.
Read more…

Tags: data mapping, FlowForce Server, MapForce Server, reporting tool, StyleVision Server

Automate Data Mapping and Transformation with FlowForce Server

May 8, 2013/1 Comment/in Data Integration /by David McGahey

Altova FlowForce Server, launched on April 29, 2013, includes numerous enhancements over earlier beta releases and one of the most exciting new features is the implementation of StyleVision Server. Now a FlowForce Server job can automate a complete data transformation workflow by executing MapForce Server for data mapping and pipelining results to StyleVision Server to render a variety of output formats.This post describes a straightforward FlowForce Server mapping and transformation job as illustrated in these messages from the FlowForce Server Log, with the most recent step at the top of the list:

FlowForce Server Job Log showing MapForce Server and StyleVision Server job steps

We’ll start with the GPS log files created by a digital camera. We wrote about these files last January in the post titled Process Multiple Input Files in a Single Data Mapping. We’ll use the mapping output with a StyleVision SPS stylesheet adapted from the XPath Enhances XML Reports post to produce a time and elevation report for each file.A FlowForce Server For-each job step repeats based on the result of an expression. We can use For-each to build a list of files in a folder, then repeat one or more steps for each file. Here is how it looks in the job configuration page:

FlowForce Server data mapping job step

The line labeled Execute function defines the mapping to be used by MapForce Server, and the input parameter {file} refers to each file in the list C:CameraGPSexample*.LOG.We can add an execution step to instruct StyleVision Server to perform the transformation:

FlowForce Server transformation job step

The data mapping creates output files by adding .gpx to the name of the input file, and now we can define the transformation input using the {file} variable with the new file suffix. We chose to create .html output, but we could just as easily create other formats for a multi-channel publishing implementation.The transformation working directory is the location where StyleVision Server unpacks the contents of the .pxf file containing the stylesheet, XML Schema, and other needed components. Using a dedicated working folder will keep the workflow more organized.We want to allow network users to drop new .LOG files into the C:CameraGPSexample folder and we want run the FlowForce Server job on a regular schedule, but we don’t want to process the same files over and over. We can define one more job step to move the processed file to a different location:

FlowForce Server file move job step

The complete FlowForce Server job is a series of three steps that loops for each .LOG file found in the folder. We can set up a repeating trigger for the workweek or any other appropriate schedule:

FlowForce Server calendar-based job trigger

Here is a portion of a .LOG file created by the camera that is an example of one input file:

.csv input file example

We can drop this file into the C:CameraGPSexample folder, where it will be processed based on the FlowForce Server job trigger:

Workflow folder structure

When the timer triggers execution of the FlowForce Server job, the Web interface Job Log page displays this series of messages for the complete job:

FlowForce Server job log for complete job execution

The contents of the C:CameraGPSexample folder now look like this:

Completed work files after FlowForce Server job execution

We can examine the 121130.LOG.gpx file in XMLSpy:

XML file created by MapForce Server job step

And we can open the .html file in any Web browser:

.html output from StyleVision Server job step

In future blog posts we will enhance this FlowForce Server example to illustrate jobs with error handling and more complete cleanup of working files.FlowForce Server is available for Windows, Linux, and soon for Mac OS platforms. To get started yourself, click here to download a free trial!

Tags: data mapping, FlowForce Server, MapForce Server, reporting tool, StyleVision Server, XML charts

New Server Products for Data Transformation

April 29, 2013/in Data Integration /by David McGahey

Altova Server Products On the heels of our RaptorXML announcement earlier this month, we are very excited to tell you about the availability of three more new products that round out the Altova server software product family.

These high-performance server products are optimized for multi-CPU servers and are highly complementary when used together for defining and managing information pipelines. Cross-platform support is immediately available for Windows and Linux, with MacOS support expected just around the corner in May. Supported languages include English, German, Spanish, and Japanese.

Let’s take a look at each of these new products in detail.

FlowForce Server

After receiving valuable customer feedback during the beta period, we have announced general availability of FlowForce Server, a powerful new tool for managing multi-step, enterprise-level data aggregation, processing, and reporting tasks. The straight-forward FlowForce Web browser interface makes it easy to configure and monitor jobs, whether they require a single step, or multiple cascading steps starting with data aggregation and conversion, and completing with multi-channel report generation.

FlowForce Server Job Log

A flexible and highly customizable system of job triggers lets you schedule FlowForce Server job execution based on each job’s unique requirements. Jobs can be triggered by date and time, by the arrival of files in hot folders, or by http command – and you can define multiple triggers per job. To take full advantage of server resources and meet the demands of busy data transformation workflows, multiple jobs – even multiple instances of the same job – can run simultaneously on FlowForce Server.

FlowForce Server Job Triggers

FlowForce Server provides strong security measures through user, role, job credential, and permission definitions that enable multiple simultaneous jobs while preventing unauthorized access to restricted data repositories or system resources.

So, what kind of jobs can you set up on FlowForce Server? Most customers will want to use it in conjunction with MapForce Server and/or StyleVision Server for high-performance automation of data integration and multichannel publishing projects that doesn’t require writing or compiling any source code.

FlowForce Server enterprise workflow

MapForce Server

You may already be familiar with MapForce, Altova’s desktop developer software for aggregating, mapping, and converting data. We describe it as an any-to-any data mapping tool because it lets you move between any combination of XML, SQL database, flat file, EDI, Excel, XBRL, and Web services data. With the introduction of MapForce Server, it’s now easy to fully automate those transformations that have been defined in MapForce.

MapForce Server performs data transformations based on preprocessed and optimized data mappings stored in MapForce Server Execution files prepared by MapForce and uploaded over a network. Preprocessing enables faster performance and reduced memory footprint for most data mappings.

When operating under the management of FlowForce Server, MapForce Server is a powerful transformation engine suitable for the high-volume, quick turn-around demands of today’s leading edge data centers. The standalone version is suitable in a department level or other small environment that does not require the extensive multi-tasking, job scheduling, and security features of FlowForce Server.

StyleVision Server

StyleVision Server provides high-performance automation of report and document generation tasks based on templates designed in Altova StyleVision. A graphical XSLT stylesheet and report design tool, StyleVision helps you create one design to render XML and XBRL data in Web and print formats including HTML, Word, RTF, and PDF, simultaneously. Using StyleVision Server, you can generate reports from XML and XBRL data on a recurring basis faster than ever before.

Like MapForce Server, StyleVision Server is an important option for document production by FlowForce Server, and the standalone version can be run from the command line and is suitable in smaller deployments that may not require all the features of FlowForce Server.

This new line of Altova server products represents a huge leap forward in effective automation of essential business processes, whether they require a single step, or multiple cascading steps starting with data aggregation and conversion via MapForce Server and completing with multi-channel report generation via StyleVision Server. These high performance workflow servers help customers design information pipelines quickly and easily, and then deploy them in a flexible way, utilizing the power and speed afforded by multi CPU servers. We’re excited to offer this new family of server products to our customers developing data integration and reporting projects using Altova MissionKit developer tools, as well as welcoming new customers who need a multi-platform, lightning fast orchestration engine.

Download a free fully-functional 30-day trial!

As with all Altova tools, we invite you to try these new server products before making a purchasing decision. Download a free, 30-day trial now!

Tags: FlowForce Server, MapForce Server, StyleVision Server