Data Active

Rails has some really fantastic features for serialisation of ActiveRecord to XML however going back the other way is not so fantastic. Data Active aims to provide the import of XML into your database while utilising the strengths of ActiveRecord. It extends ActiveRecord allowing it to seamlessly work in with your model. Here are the features provided by Data Active:

Updating of records based on an XML document containing elements matching primary key
Creation of records based on elements in an XML
Removal of records based on an XML document containing elements matching primary key
Choose to only update, only create or only remove records
Choose to combine update, create and remove actions
Synchronise your database with an XML Document

(NB: This gem was based on xml_active (github.com/michael-harrison/xml_active) which has been retired)

The Background

XML Documents

Data Active supports specific XML document styles including those created by ActiveRecord and Microsoft Access. Following are soem samples of an XML documents that are supported.

Active Record Style

<books type="array">
  <book>
    <id type="Integer">4</id>
    <name>Book 1</name>
  </book>
  <book>
    <id type="integer">5</id>
    <name>Book 1</name>
    <chapters type="array">
      <chapter>
        <id type="integer">1</id>
        <title>Chapter 1</title>
        <introduction>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</introduction>
        <pages type="array">
          <page>
            <id type="integer">1</id>
            <content>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</content>
            <number>1</number>
          </page>
          <page>
            <id type="integer">2</id>
            <content>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</content>
            <number>2</number>
          </page>
          <page>
            <id type="integer">3</id>
            <content>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</content>
            <number>3</number>
          </page>
        </pages>
      </chapter>
      <chapter>
        <id type="integer">2</id>
        <title>Chapter 2</title>
        <introduction>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</introduction>
        <pages type="array">
          <page>
            <id type="integer">5</id>
            <content>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</content>
            <number>1</number>
          </page>
          <page>
            <id type="integer">6</id>
            <content>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</content>
            <number>2</number>
          </page>
          <page>
            <id type="integer">7</id>
            <content>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</content>
            <number>3</number>
          </page>
          <page>
            <id type="integer">8</id>
            <content>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</content>
            <number>4</number>
          </page>
        </pages>
      </chapter>
    </chapters>
  </book>
  <book>
    <id type="integer">6</id>
    <name>Book 1</name>
  </book>
</books>
</code>

Microsoft Style

<dataroot xmlns:od="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:officedata" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="book.xsd" generated="2012-07-11T16:01:54">
  <book>
    <id >1</id>
    <name>Book 1</name>
    <book_price>
      <id >1</id>
      <sell>50.00</sell>
      <educational>35.00</educational>
      <cost>20.00</cost>
    </book_price>
    <chapter>
      <id >1</id>
      <title>Chapter 1</title>
      <introduction>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</introduction>
      <page>
        <id >1</id>
        <content>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</content>
        <number>1</number>
      </page>
      <page>
        <id >2</id>
        <content>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</content>
        <number>2</number>
      </page>
      <page>
        <id >3</id>
        <content>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</content>
        <number>3</number>
      </page>
    </chapter>
  </book>
  <book>
    <id >2</id>
    <name>Book 12</name>
    <chapter>
      <id >4</id>
      <title>Chapter 1</title>
      <introduction>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</introduction>
      <page>
        <id >12</id>
        <content>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</content>
        <number>1</number>
      </page>
      <page>
        <id >13</id>
        <content>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</content>
        <number>2</number>
      </page>
      <page>
        <id >14</id>
        <content>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</content>
        <number>3</number>
      </page>
      <page>
        <id >15</id>
        <content>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus purus nulla, condimentum vitae hendrerit nec, blandit et felis. Suspendisse vulputate mollis suscipit. Vivamus non libero quis urna gravida euismod quis in nisi. Morbi turpis orci, posuere nec ultrices ut, egestas ac purus. Morbi id pretium erat. In ullamcorper, ligula id porta pellentesque, sem turpis ultricies libero, non elementum ipsum neque at dui. Donec auctor nulla id mi dapibus id faucibus felis mollis. Curabitur imperdiet tristique nisi, consectetur molestie purus accumsan id. Curabitur lacinia diam et nisl iaculis eleifend. Quisque turpis elit, volutpat eget dapibus sed, egestas nec leo. Mauris dignissim tellus non lorem fringilla pharetra.</content>
        <number>4</number>
      </page>
    </chapter>
  </book>
</dataroot>

Database Schema

Data Active will detect the primary key of the tables in your schema even if is a name other than id. It will use the primary key to match records for update or deletion or creation when they don’t exist. Given this it’s very important that the tables that you wish to synchronise have a primary key with auto increment. The good news is by default Rails will create a primary key field called id that is auto-increment. At this time Data Active doesn’t support compound primary keys.

The Model

In order to identify the relationships Data Active it relies on associations so you have to make sure you define your associations in your model. Following are is a sample model.

book.rb

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :chapters, :dependent => :destroy
end

chapter.rb

class Chapter < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :pages, :dependent => :destroy
  belongs_to :book
end

page.rb

class Page < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :chapter
end

At this stage Data Active has been tested with a limited number of associations. It is hoped in the future that a more complete set of tests will exist.

Examples

Now to the meaty part, the examples. Data Active currenly uses “Nokogiri”(nokogiri.org/) to do its XML parsing so you can provide either a Nokogiri::XML::Element or raw XML.

New Functions

Data Active extends the ActiveRecord class giving you the following functions:

many_from_xml(xml, options) Allows for the import of many records based on an XML document. This function expects an XML document similar to the following with many records in it:

books_changed.xml

<books type="array">
  <book>
    <id type="Integer">4</id>
    <name>Book 1</name>
  </book>
  <book>
    <id type="integer">5</id>
    <name>Book 1</name>
  </book>
  <book>
    <id type="integer">6</id>
    <name>Book 1</name>
  </book>
</books>

Following is an example:

Book.many_from_xml File.open("books_changed.xml").read, [:update]

one_from_xml(xml, options) Allows for the import of one record based on an XML document. This function expects an XML document similar to the following with many records in it:

one_book_changed.xml

<book>
  <id type="Integer">4</id>
  <name>Book 1</name>
</book>

Following is an example:

Book.one_from_xml File.open("one_book_changed.xml").read, [:update]

Options

You can combine any of the options (:create, :update or :destroy) and Data Active will only perform the actions provided in the options. However if you use the :sync option then all other options are ignored. Following are the current options:

:update records in the database that match those in the provided XML document based on classes in the model, associations and the primary key.
:create records in the database that exist in the provided XML document but not in the database. Matching is based on classes in the model, associations and the primary key.
:destroy records in the database that don’t exist in the provided XML document. Matching is based on classes in the model, associations and the primary key. This respects validation by using the ActiveRecord destroy rather than delete.
:sync is really the combination of :create, :update and :destroy. Using this option will cause Data Active to ignore :create, :update and :destroy options and will proceed to make your database records match those in the XML document.
:strict will raise an exception when elements that do not exist as ActiveRecord classes or attibutes on those classes. When this option isn’t used Data Active will ignore those unknow classes and attributes.

One to One Associations

Data Active supports has_one association with all options and following arr the behaviours of Data Active with each option:

:update

Record exists in XML but not in DB: No Action
Record exists in DB but not in XML: No Action
Record exists in XML and in DB: DB record is updated if identifying features (eg id) match

:create

Record exists in XML but not in DB: A new record in the DB is created
Record exists in DB but not in XML: No Action
Record exists in XML and in DB: No Action

:destroy

Record exists in XML but not in DB: No Action
Record exists in DB but not in XML: The DB Record is Destroyed
Record exists in XML and in DB: DB record is destroyed if identifying features (eg id) don’t match

:sync

Record exists in XML but not in DB: A new record in the DB is created
Record exists in DB but not in XML: The DB Record is Destroyed
Record exists in XML and in DB: DB record is replaced if identifying features (eg id) don’t match but if they do then the DB record is updated

Versions

0.0.1 First Release
0.0.2 Resolved issue where the parent record in a one to many relationship had not been saved causing validation errors when saving child records
0.0.3 Added option to raise exception when an invalid record id found
0.0.7 Ractoring of internals to optimise speed and memory usage for large documents

Future Features

Dry Run allow data_active to do a dry run and report potentail changes rather than making them
Events Event hooks in key locations
Selective Upates Specify a set of active record objects to effect and leave all the rest alone
Many to Many Tested support for has_and_belongs_to_many
Polymorphic Associations Tested support for these associations

Testing

In order to perform testing I created a number of test applications which can be found in the test_apps folder. These applications target specific versions of rails utilising cucumber for testing

At this stage data_active has been tested with Rails 3.1.x and 3.2.x