Possible DB.TOXML bug? (UniVerse 11.3.1 on AIX)

Question

Based on my understanding of the XMAP specification relative to DB.TOXML, the following XMAP represents a simple object model containing two child tables with the same parent table.

The command DB.TOXML CUST_ACT.XML XMAP_CustomerActivity.XML produces an XML file containing the records and fields from the parent table and one of the child tables as expected. However, the fields for each record of the other child table are repeated once within the record node. If I switch the child TableMaps, in the parent TABLECLASSMAP, the problem switches to the other child table.

It appears that when more than one (child) TableMap is specified in the parent map, fields from the table in the child map referenced by the first (child) TableMap entry are repeated TableMap times in record nodes of that table. This behavior was noticed during development of a process in a real-world UniVerse database environment with a more involved object model.

In order to confirm, I created simple CUSTOMER / CONTACT, CUSTOMER / ORDER files with a few test records for demonstration purposes. If this is a bug versus an XMAP configuration error on my part, then it appears either the XMAPCreate() API function or the XMAPAppendRec() API function may not correctly support this structure.

XMAP:
     ?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <!-- DOCTYPE U2XMAP SYSTEM "U2XMAP.DTD" -->
    <U2XMAP version="1.0" Name="XMAP1" >
        <!-- Table/Class map XCLASS_CLASS -->
        <TABLECLASSMAP MapName="M1" StartNode="/Customers/Customer" TableName="CUSTOMERTBL">
            <ColumnMap Node="CustKey" Column="CKEY"/>
            <ColumnMap Node="Name" Column="CNAME" />
            <TableMap Node="Orders/Order" MapName="M2" />
            <TableMap Node="Contact/Methods" MapName="M3" />
        </TABLECLASSMAP>
        <TABLECLASSMAP MapName="M2" StartNode="Orders/Order" TableName="ORDERTBL">
            <ColumnMap Node="CustKey" Column="C.KEY" />
            <ColumnMap Node="OrderKey" Column="@ID" />
            <ColumnMap Node="OrderDate" Column="ORDERDATE" />
            <ColumnMap Node="ProductId" Column="PRODUCTID" />
        </TABLECLASSMAP>
        <TABLECLASSMAP MapName="M3" StartNode="Contact/Methods" TableName="CONTACTMETHTBL">
            <ColumnMap Node="CustKey" Column="C.KEY" />
            <ColumnMap Node="ContactKey" Column="@ID" />
            <ColumnMap Node="Type" Column="TYPE" />
            <ColumnMap Node="Address" Column="ADDRESS" />
        </TABLECLASSMAP>
        <RelatedTable>
            <MapParentKey TableName="CUSTOMERTBL" Column="CKEY" KeyGenerate="No" />
            <MapChildKey TableName="ORDERTBL" Column="CKEY" />
        </RelatedTable>
        <RelatedTable>
            <MapParentKey TableName="CUSTOMERTBL" Column="CKEY" KeyGenerate="No" />
            <MapChildKey TableName="CONTACTMETHTBL" Column="CKEY" />
        </RelatedTable>
    </U2XMAP>

RESULT:
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes" ?>
    <Customers>
      <Customer>
        <CustKey>1</CustKey>
        <Name>MOUSE, MICKEY</Name>
        <Orders>
          <Order>
            <CustKey>1</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>10</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>01-04-2022</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>555R3232</ProductId>
            <CustKey>1</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>10</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>01-04-2022</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>555R3232</ProductId>
          </Order>
          <Order>
            <CustKey>1</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>1</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-27-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>5323423</ProductId>
            <CustKey>1</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>1</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-27-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>5323423</ProductId>
          </Order>
          <Order>
            <CustKey>1</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>2</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-28-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>9299399</ProductId>
            <CustKey>1</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>2</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-28-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>9299399</ProductId>
          </Order>
          <Order>
            <CustKey>1</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>3</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-29-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>23492349</ProductId>
            <CustKey>1</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>3</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-29-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>23492349</ProductId>
          </Order>
        </Orders>
        <Contact>
          <Methods>
            <CustKey>1</CustKey>
            <ContactKey>1</ContactKey>
            <Type>HOMEPH</Type>
            <Address>444-555-6666</Address>
          </Methods>
          <Methods>
            <CustKey>1</CustKey>
            <ContactKey>2</ContactKey>
            <Type>HOMEST</Type>
            <Address>580 LIBERTY CIR</Address>
          </Methods>
        </Contact>
      </Customer>
      <Customer>
        <CustKey>2</CustKey>
        <Name>FROG, KERMIT</Name>
        <Orders>
          <Order>
            <CustKey>2</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>4</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-29-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>99338822</ProductId>
            <CustKey>2</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>4</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-29-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>99338822</ProductId>
          </Order>
          <Order>
            <CustKey>2</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>5</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-28-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>23874771</ProductId>
            <CustKey>2</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>5</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-28-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>23874771</ProductId>
          </Order>
        </Orders>
        <Contact>
          <Methods>
            <CustKey>2</CustKey>
            <ContactKey>3</ContactKey>
            <Type>HOMEPH</Type>
            <Address>777-888-9999</Address>
          </Methods>
          <Methods>
            <CustKey>2</CustKey>
            <ContactKey>4</ContactKey>
            <Type>WORKPH</Type>
            <Address>909-090-0909</Address>
          </Methods>
        </Contact>
      </Customer>
      <Customer>
        <CustKey>3</CustKey>
        <Name>BIRD, BIG</Name>
        <Orders>
          <Order>
            <CustKey>3</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>6</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-30-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>83776632</ProductId>
            <CustKey>3</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>6</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-30-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>83776632</ProductId>
          </Order>
          <Order>
            <CustKey>3</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>7</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-30-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>R29898W9</ProductId>
            <CustKey>3</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>7</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-30-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>R29898W9</ProductId>
          </Order>
          <Order>
            <CustKey>3</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>8</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-31-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>23884888</ProductId>
            <CustKey>3</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>8</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-31-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>23884888</ProductId>
          </Order>
          <Order>
            <CustKey>3</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>9</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-29-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>29993999</ProductId>
            <CustKey>3</CustKey>
            <OrderKey>9</OrderKey>
            <OrderDate>12-29-2021</OrderDate>
            <ProductId>29993999</ProductId>
          </Order>
        </Orders>
        <Contact>
          <Methods>
            <CustKey>3</CustKey>
            <ContactKey>5</ContactKey>
            <Type>HOMEPH</Type>
            <Address>405-040-5040</Address>
          </Methods>
        </Contact>
      </Customer>
    </Customers>

Any ideas? Thanks in advance. UniVerse 11.3.1 on AIX.

I also posted this question here but haven't gotten much exposure. (where you can better see highlighted in red the repeated entries).

Answer 1

Looks like it might be a bug to me. I tested it under Linux with 11.3.2 and I noticed the same behavior. It may be a system limitation, but if that were the case I would expect a failure on the mapping call as it seems to be pretty particular.

I would open a ticket with Rocket. I used the HS.SALES demo data that comes with UniVerse to replicate. I will provide it here for you to use in your report. It will be much easier for support to either confirm the bug or tell you what we are collectively doing wrong if they are already working with the same data.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- DOCTYPE U2XMAP SYSTEM "U2XMAP.DTD" -->
<U2XMAP version="1.0" Name="XMAP1" >
    <!-- Table/Class map XCLASS_CLASS -->
    <TABLECLASSMAP MapName="M1" StartNode="/Customers/Customer" TableName="CUSTOMER">
        <ColumnMap Node="CustID" Column="@ID"/>
        <ColumnMap Node="FirstName" Column="FNAME"/>
        <ColumnMap Node="LastName" Column="LNAME" />
        <ColumnMap Node="State" Column="STATE" />
        <ColumnMap Node="ProductID" Column="PRODID" />
        <TableMap Node="States/State" MapName="M2" />
        <TableMap Node="Products/Product" MapName="M3" />
    </TABLECLASSMAP>
    <TABLECLASSMAP MapName="M2" StartNode="States/State" TableName="STATES">
        <ColumnMap Node="StateName" Column="NAME" />
    </TABLECLASSMAP>
    <TABLECLASSMAP MapName="M3" StartNode="Products/Product" TableName="PRODUCTS">
        <ColumnMap Node="Price" Column="LIST" />
        <ColumnMap Node="Description" Column="DESCRIPTION" />
    </TABLECLASSMAP>
    <RelatedTable>
        <MapParentKey TableName="CUSTOMER" Column="PRODID" KeyGenerate="No" />
        <MapChildKey TableName="PRODUCTS" Column="PRODID" />
    </RelatedTable>
    <RelatedTable>
        <MapParentKey TableName="CUSTOMER" Column="STATE" KeyGenerate="No" />
        <MapChildKey TableName="STATES" Column="CODE" />
    </RelatedTable>
</U2XMAP>

In the mean time if you are blocked and the mapping isn't overly complex you can probably just add I-Descriptors and TRANS (or XLATE) over to the other file to include it in parent dictionary and thus not require any additional table mapping.

Good Luck,