Using the XML Data Binding Wizard

To use the Data Binding wizard:

Choose FileNewOther and select the icon labeled XML Data Binding from the right pane of the New folder located under Delphi Projects.
The XML Data Binding wizard appears.
On the first page of the wizard, specify the XML document or schema for which you want to generate interfaces. This can be a sample XML document, a Document Type Definition (.dtd) file, a Reduced XML Data (.xdr) file, or an XML schema (.xsd) file.
Click the Options button to specify the naming strategies you want the wizard to use when generating interfaces and implementation classes and the default mapping of types defined in the schema to native Delphi data types.
Move to the second page of the wizard. This page lets you provide detailed information about every node type in the document or schema. At the left is a tree view that shows all of the node types in the document. For complex nodes (nodes that have children), the tree view can be expanded to display the child elements. When you select a node in this tree view, the right-hand side of the dialog displays information about that node and lets you specify how you want the wizard to treat that node.
- The Source Name control displays the name of the node type in the XML schema.
- The Source Datatype control displays the type of the node's value, as specified in the XML schema.
- The Documentation control lets you add comments to the schema describing the use or purpose of the node.
- If the wizard generates code for the selected node (that is, if it is a complex type for which the wizard generates an interface and implementation class, or if it is one of the child elements of a complex type for which the wizard generates a property on the complex type's interface), you can use the Generate Binding check box to specify whether you want the wizard to generate code for the node. If you uncheck Generate Binding, the wizard does not generate the interface or implementation class for a complex type, or does not create a property in the parent interface for a child element or attribute.
- The Binding Options section lets you influence the code that the wizard generates for the selected element. For any node, you can specify the Identifier Name (the name of the generated interface or property). In addition, for interfaces, you must indicate which one represents the root node of the document. For nodes that represent properties, you can specify the type of the property and, if the property is not an interface, whether it is a read-only property.
Once you have specified what code you want the wizard to generate for each node, move to the third page. This page lets you choose some global options about how the wizard generates its code and lets you preview the code that will be generated, and lets you tell the wizard how to save your choices for future use.
- To preview the code the wizard generates, select an interface in the Binding Summary list and view the resulting interface definition in the Code Preview control.
- Use the Data Binding Settings to indicate how the wizard should save your choices. You can store the settings as annotations in a schema file that is associated with the document (the schema file specified on the first page of the dialog), or you can name an independent schema file that is used only by the wizard.
When you click Finish, the Data Binding wizard generates a new unit that defines interfaces and implementation classes for all of the node types in your XML document. In addition, it creates a global function that takes a TXMLDocument object and returns the interface for the root node of the data hierarchy.