Navigating through a PLM XML file

One approach to determine the path statements needed for your alias definition is to find the final node in the PLM XML file. Search the file for references to its ID. From this current node, find the node or nodes that reference it. Continue this backward traversal making sure you can get to the start node. Remember the start node is the node referenced by the traverseRootRef attribute. After you find a path using the backward traversal from the final node to the start node, go back and record the type of each node in the path. Use this information to build the path statements needed for an alias to your final node. Additionally, look at existing alias path definitions for examples of how to traverse from one type of node to another. A backward traversal using our example in pseudo XML would look something like this:

1. The ChildItem 1 Description node, the data you want to expose in the asset, is in the Form id=id23 node.

2. The Id23 node is referenced by AssociatedAttachment id=id22 as an attachmentRef type.

3. The Id22 node is referenced by the Occurrence id=id12 statement as an associatedAttachmentRef type.

4. The Id12 node is referenced by the Occurrence id=id9 statement as an occurrenceRef type.

5. The Id9 node is referenced by the AssocatedAttachment id=id4 statement as an AttachmentRef type.

6. The Id4 node is referenced by the AssociatedAttachment id=id3 statement as a childRef type.

7. The Id3 node is the traverseRootRef node from which traversal always starts.

There is another reference to id22, but if you follow it back you see a pseudofolder. Pseudofolders are generally not useful in a path traversal and can be ignored. After a while, it is useful to recognize what entities in the rich client relate to which nodes in the PLM XML file. Through some experimentation, these relationships become clearer. If you compare this pseudo XML code with the actual Path XML statements traversed in the example, you can see how they relate to each other. Therefore, when you need to update an alias file, if you can first determine a set of pseudo XML statements, it is easier to write the Path and XPath statements needed to edit the alias file.