XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.

Applies to:
SAP NetWeaver Process Integration 7.1 (SAP PI 7.1)

Summary
This document explains about using XSLT mapping in SAP Process Integration for converting a simple input
to a relatively complex output. It explains the complete process of preparing a .xsl file and then importing it to
PI.
Authors: Amit Srivastava, Anshul Chowdhary
Company: Infosys Technologies Limited
Created on: 13 August 2010

Author Bio
Amit Srivastava is working as a Senior Software Engineer on SAP XI/PI. He began his career
on Nov-2007 and since then he has been working on SAP XI/PI. His area of expertise is SAP
XI/PI.

Anshul Chowdhary is working as a Technology Analyst. He began his career on July-2006

and has an experience of around 1 year on DOT NET. He started working on SAP XI/PI from
December-2007 and is still hooked to the technology.

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

Table of Contents
A Basic Overview on XSLT................................................................................................................................. 3
Basic XSLT Tags ............................................................................................................................................ 5
XPATH Functions in XSLT Mapping: .............................................................................................................. 9
How to Use an XSLT Mapping in PI ................................................................................................................. 10
Example 1 ..................................................................................................................................................... 11
Example 2 ..................................................................................................................................................... 15
References........................................................................................................................................................ 20
Disclaimer and Liability Notice .......................................................................................................................... 21

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

A Basic Overview on XSLT

XSLT stands for EXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation. When it is not possible to use message
mapping, usually when we need to create a complex structure from a flat message or where aggregation of
nodes etc is required, we prefer using XSLT mapping. XSLT describes how an XML structure is transformed
into another XML structure. It is very simple to use an XSLT mapping in PI. The XSLT is developed and then
imported as a zip file into ESR. The structured description of a simple XSL style sheet is as shown below:
Example
Let’s take a simple example which will give a complete idea about XSLT:

1.) Let the Source be as shown below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<ns0:MT_XSLT_Source xmlns:ns0="http://XYZ.com/gen">
<Person>
<FirstName>Anshul</FirstName>
<LastName>Chowdhary</LastName>
<Gender>Male</Gender>
<Address>
<Street>2nd Main</Street>
<Houseno>83/b</Houseno>
<City>Mysore</City>
</Address>
</Person>
</ns0:MT_XSLT_Source>

2.) Let the desired target be as shown below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<ns1:MT_XSLT_Target xmlns:ns1="http://XYZ.com/Test">
<Title>Male</Title>
<Name>Anshul Chowdhary</Name>
<Street>83/b 2nd Main</Street>
<City>Mysore</City>
</ns1:MT_XSLT_Target>

Now as we have the source and the target with us we can develop an XSLT mapping between them using
any of the XML editors or even a note pad.

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

The XSL style sheet of the above transformation is as given below:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?>

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:ns0="http://XYZ.com/Gen"
Xmlns:ns1=”http://XYZ.com/Test”>
<xsl:template match="/">
<ns1:MT_XSLT_Target>
<Title>
<xsl:value-of
select="ns0:MT_XSLT_Source/Person/Gender"/>
</Title>
<Name>
<xsl:value-of
select="concat(concat(ns0:MT_XSLT_Source/Person/FirstName,' '),

ns0:MT_XSLT_Source/Person/LastName)"/>
</Name>
<Street>
<xsl:value-of
select="concat(concat(ns0:Mt_XSLT_Source/Person/Address/Houseno
,' '),
ns0:Mt_XSLT_Source/Pers
on/Address/Street)"/>
</Street>
<City>
<xsl:value-of
select="ns0:Mt_XSLT_Source/Person/Address/City"/>
</City>
</ns1:MT_XSLT_Target>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

Basic XSLT Tags

Now let’s explain the above XSLT elaborately. Since an XSL style sheet is an XML document itself, it always
begins with the XML declaration: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>. The next element,
<xsl:stylesheet>, defines that this document is an XSLT style sheet document (along with the version
number and XSLT namespace attributes). The <xsl:template> element defines a template. The match="/"
attribute associates it with the root of the XML source document. The content inside <xsl:template> element
defines some HTML content to be written as an output. The last two lines define the end of the template and
of the style sheet respectively. Let’s understand each tag used in an XSLT elaborately:

1) <xsl:stylesheet> or <xsl:transform> :
<xsl:stylesheet> or <xsl:transform> are the root elements that declare the document to be an XSL style
sheet. Either of the two elements can be used as root elements as they are synonymous.
EG: <xsl:stylesheet version=”1.0” xmlns:xsl=http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform>
The xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" points to the official W3C XSLT namespace. If you
use this namespace, you must also include the attribute version="1.0".

2) <xsl:template> :
An XSL style sheet contains one or more set of rules that are called templates.A template contains rules to
apply when a specified node is matched.The “match” attribute is used to associate a template with an XML
element or it can also be used to define a template for the entire XML document. The value of the match
attribute is an XPath expression (i.e. match="/" defines the whole document).

3) <xsl:value-of> :
The <xsl:value-of> element is used to extract the value of a selected node.The value of the select attribute is
an XPath expression. An XPath is used for defining parts of an XML document. An XPath expression works
like navigating a file system where a forward slash (/) selects subdirectories.

4) <xsl:for-each> :
The <xsl:for-each> element is used to loop in XSLT. The value of the select attribute is an XPath expression.
For example in our above example if we had multiple person data at the source then we could have used
<xsl:for-each element> as shown below:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?>

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:ns0="http://XYZ.com/Gen"
Xmlns:ns1=”http://XYZ.com/Test”>
<xsl:template match="/">
<ns1:MT_XSLT_Target>
<xsl:for-each select=”ns0:MT_XSLT_Source/Person”>
<Title>
<xsl:value-of select="Gender"/>
</Title>
<Name>
<xsl:value-of select="concat(concat(FirstName,' '),

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

LastName)"/>
</Name>
<Street>
<xsl:value-of select="concat(concat(Address/Houseno,'
'),
Address/Street)"/>
</Street>
<City>
<xsl:value-of select="Address/City"/>
</City>
</xsl:for-each>
</ns1:MT_XSLT_Target>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

We can also filter the output from the XML file by adding a criterion to the select attribute of <xsl:for-each>
element.
EG: <xsl:for-each select="ns0:MT_XSLT_Source/Person[FirstName='Anshul']">

Valid filter operators are:

= (equal)
!= (not equal)
&lt; (less than)
&gt; (greater than)

5)<xsl:sort> :
The <xsl:sort> element is used to sort the output.
Example:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?>

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:ns0="http://XYZ.com/Gen"
Xmlns:ns1=”http://XYZ.com/Test”>
<xsl:template match="/">
<ns1:MT_XSLT_Target>
<xsl:for-each select=”ns0:MT_XSLT_Source/Person”>
<xsl:sort select=”Name”>
<Title>
<xsl:value-of select="Gender"/>
</Title>
<Name>
<xsl:value-of
select="concat(concat(FirstName,' '),

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

LastName)"/>
</Name>
<Street>
<xsl:value-of
select="concat(concat(Address/Houseno,' '),
Address/Street)"/>
</Street>
<City>
<xsl:value-of select="Address/City"/>
</City>
</xsl:sort>
</xsl:for-each>
</ns1:MT_XSLT_Target>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

The select attribute indicates what XML element to sort on. In the above example it will display the output
based upon sorting the “Names” .

6) <xsl:if> :
The <xsl:if> element is used to put a conditional test against the content of the XML file. The value of the
required test attribute contains the expression to be evaluated.
Syntax: < xsl: if test=”expression”>
</xsl:if>

Example:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?>

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:ns0="http://XYZ.com/Gen"
Xmlns:ns1=”http://XYZ.com/Test”>
<xsl:template match="/">
<ns1:MT_XSLT_Target>
<xsl:for-each select=”ns0:MT_XSLT_Source/Person”>
<xsl:if test=”Gender =Male”>
<Title>
<xsl:value-of select="Gender"/>
</Title>
<Name>
<xsl:value-of
select="concat(concat(FirstName,' '),
LastName)"/>
</Name>
<Street>
<xsl:value-of

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

select="concat(concat(Address/Houseno,' '),
Address/Street)"/>
</Street>
<City>
<xsl:value-of select="Address/City"/>
</City>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:for-each>
</ns1:MT_XSLT_Target>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

The above code will only output those person details which have “male” as gender .

7) <xsl:choose> :
The <xsl:choose> element is used to handle condition based tests. Multiple conditions are expressed with
the help of <xsl:when> and <xsl:otherwise> elements.

Syntax/EG:

<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test=" Gender =Male ">
... some processing logic inside ...
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
... some processing logic inside....
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>

Choose condition will come just above the element in the XSL where the condition needs to be implied.

8) <xsl:apply-templates> :
The <xsl:apply-templates> element applies a template to the current element or to the current element's child
nodes. If we add a select attribute to the <xsl:apply-templates> element it will process only the child element
that matches the value of the attribute. We can use the select attribute to specify the order in which the child
nodes are processed.

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XPATH Functions in XSLT Mapping:

This explains the use of various XPATH functions with their syntaxes:
1) substring()
This Function is used to extract some specified portion from the original string. It extracts the specified
number of characters from a string.
Syntax: substring("ANSHUL CHOWDHARY",1,6)
Output: “ANSHUL”

2) translate()
The translate function takes the input string in the value argument of the syntax as shown below and
substitutes all occurrences of a string specified in the string1 argument with that mentioned in string2
argument.
Syntax: translate("Anshul chowdhary","abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz","
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ")
Output:”ANSHUL CHOWDHARY”

3) string()
The string function converts the input to a string.
Syntax: string("Anshul chowdhary")

4) concat()
The concat function takes all input arguments individually and concatenates them together in the specified
order.
Syntax: concat("anshul","chowdhary")
Output:”anshulchowdhary”

5) sum()
The sum function converts PCDATA text to a numeric value
Syntax: sum(p2:marks/score)

6) count()
This function is used to count the nodes
Syntax: count(p2:marks/subjects) .
The use of the above XPATH Functions is explained in an example below, but before going into that we
should know how to use XSLT Mapping in PI.

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

How to Use an XSLT Mapping in PI

Basic Steps- There are some basics steps required for using XSLT mapping in PI. Those steps are -

STEP 1: Create the source and target data type.

STEP 2: Create the Source and the Target Message types.

STEP 3: Create Inbound and Outbound Service interfaces.

STEP 4: XSLT Mapping does not require creation of Message mapping as the .XSL file is directly imported
to the Operations Mapping.

STEP 5: Create a .XSL file which contains the logic for converting source data type to target data type.

STEP 6: Zip the developed .xsl file and import it into Enterprise Services Builder under Imported Archives.

STEP 7: In Operation Mapping choose mapping program as XSL and specify this zip program. (When one
chooses the Type as XSL, in search help all XSL Mapping programs that are imported under Imported
Archives of the particular namespace gets listed for selection)

STEP 8: Test the mapping program imported by moving to the Test tab.

Based upon the above mentioned steps, a few scenarios have been configured in PI as shown below. While
explaining the examples it has been assumed that the user has basic knowledge of interface creation in PI
7.1.

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

Example 1
Creating flat structure from a complex message.
The source structure is as shown in the outbound datatype below.

The inbound datatype is as mentioned below. This is the desired target structure.

For the above two data types, prepare the message types, service interfaces etc. Message Mapping will not
exist for interfaces which use XSLT mapping. The XSLT mapping is required to be specified in Operation
Mapping. To achieve this, .XSL file is transported to Imported archives in the form of a ZIP file as shown
below.

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

In the ESR go to the desired namespace and right click on Imported Archive. Select New as shown below.

The below screen pops up when the name of the xsl file is entered after clicking on New. The file is imported
by clicking in the Import Archive button as shown below.

When Import Archive button is pressed, a browser window open up from where the desired xsl mapping is
chosen.

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

Once the mapping is selected, it comes in ESR as shown below.

The xsl mapping is as given below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:ns0="
http://XYZ.com/gen1" xmlns:ns1=" http://XYZ.com/gen 2">
<xsl:template match="/">
<ns1:MT_XSLT_Inbound>
<xsl:for-each select="ns0:MT_XSLT_Outbound/Person">
<Details>
<Gender>
<xsl:value-of select="Gender" />

</Gender>
<Name>
<xsl:value-of select="concat(concat(FirstName,'
'),LastName)" />
</Name>
<Street>
<xsl:value-of select="Address/Street" />
</Street>
<HouseAddress>
<xsl:value-of
select="concat(concat(Address/Houseno,','),Address/City)" />
</HouseAddress>
</Details>

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

</xsl:for-each>
</ns1:MT_XSLT_Inbound>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

In Operation Mapping select XSL as type under Mapping Program and press the search button in the Name
section. The entire XSL mapping imported gets listed from where the desired mapping is chosen.

The desired output of the interface is as shown in the below screen.

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

Example 2
There is one common problem in JDBC scenarios that whenever SP name changes at target side , we need
to redo our graphical message mapping . So, in order to get rid of that we can use XSLT mapping. You just
need to change the SP name in the XSL sheet . The scenario is as mentioned below:
The below given are the outbound and the inbound datatypes.

The XSLT mapping code is imported as mentioned in the above example.

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

The xsl mapping used is as given below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:ns0="
http://XYZ.com/gen 1" xmlns:ns1=" http://XYZ.com/gen ">
<xsl:template match="/">
<ns1:MT_XSLT_JDBC_Inbound>
<xsl:for-each select="ns0:MT_XSLT_JDBC_Outbound/Revenue">
<StatementName>
<spUploadXSLT>
<xsl:attribute name="action">EXECUTE</xsl:attribute>
<intOpportunityId>
<xsl:attribute name="type">string</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:value-of select="CorpDb_Oppt_Id" />
</intOpportunityId>
<txtEmpNoCreated>
<xsl:attribute name="type">string</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:value-of select="Emp_Created" />
</txtEmpNoCreated>
<txtEmpNoModified>
<xsl:attribute name="type">string</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:value-of select="Emp_Modified" />
</txtEmpNoModified>
</spUploadXSLT>
</StatementName>
</xsl:for-each>
</ns1:MT_XSLT_JDBC_Inbound>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

Then the mapping is used in Operation Mapping to get the desired result.

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

The desired result is achieved as shown below.

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 XSLT Mapping in SAP PI 7.1

References
XSLT Tutorial - w3schools.com
Blog: xpath functions in xslt mapping
XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 2.0 - w3.org
XSLT Mapping for SAP PI 7.1 on help.sap.com

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Disclaimer and Liability Notice

This document may discuss sample coding or other information that does not include SAP official interfaces and therefore is not
supported by SAP. Changes made based on this information are not supported and can be overwritten during an upgrade.
SAP will not be held liable for any damages caused by using or misusing the information, code or methods suggested in this document,
and anyone using these methods does so at his/her own risk.
SAP offers no guarantees and assumes no responsibility or liability of any type with respect to the content of this technical article or
code sample, including any liability resulting from incompatibility between the content within this document and the materials and
services offered by SAP. You agree that you will not hold, or seek to hold, SAP responsible or liable with respect to the content of this
document.

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