Import Preferences

To configure importing options, open the Preferences dialog box and go to XML > Import. This page allows you to configure how empty values and null values are handled when they are encountered in imported database tables or Excel sheets. Also you can configure the format of date / time values recognized in the imported database tables or Excel sheets.

The following options are available:

Create empty elements for empty values

If selected, an empty value from a database column or from a text file is imported as an empty element.

Create empty elements for null values

If selected, null values from a database column are imported as empty elements.

Escape XML content

Selected by default, this option instructs Oxygen XML Author Eclipse plugin to escape the imported content to an XML-safe form.

Add annotations for generated XML Schema

If selected, the generated XML Schema contains an annotation for each of the imported table columns. The documentation inside the annotation tag contains the remarks of the database columns (if available) and also information about the conversion between the column type and the generated XML Schema type.

Date / Time Format section

Specifies the format used for importing date and time values from Excel spreadsheets or database tables, and in the generated XML schemas. You can choose from the following format types:

Unformatted - The date and time formats specific to the database are used for import. When importing data from Excel a string representation of date or time values are used. The type used in the generated XML Schema is xs:string.
XML Schema date format - The XML Schema-specific format ISO8601 is used for imported date / time data (yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss for datetime, yyyy-MM-dd for date and HH:mm:ss for time). The types used in the generated XML Schema are xs:datetime, xs:date and xs:time.
Custom format - If selected, you can define a custom format for timestamp, date, and time values or choose one of the predefined formats. A preview of the values is presented when a format is used. The type used in the generated XML Schema is xs:string.

Table 1. Pattern Letters
Letter	Date or Time Component	Presentation	Examples
G	Era designator	Text	AD
y	Year	Year	1996; 96
M	Month in year	Month	July; Jul; 07
w	Week in year	Number	27
W	Week in month	Number	2
D	Day in year	Number	189
d	Day in month	Number	10
F	Day of week in month	Number	2
E	Day in week	Text	Tuesday; Tue
a	Am / pm marker	Text	PM
H	Hour in day (0-23)	Number	0
k	Hour in day (1-24)	Number	24
K	Hour in am / pm (0-11)	Number	0
h	Hour in am / pm (1-12)	Number	12
m	Minute in hour	Number	30
s	Second in minute	Number	55
S	Millisecond	Number	978
z	Time zone	General time zone	PST; GMT-08:00
Z	Time zone	RFC 822 time zone	-0800

Pattern letters are usually repeated, as their number determines the exact presentation:

Text - If the number of pattern letters is 4 or more, the full form is used. Otherwise, a short or abbreviated form is used if available.
Number - The number of pattern letters is the minimum number of digits, and shorter numbers are zero-padded to this amount.
Year - If the number of pattern letters is 2, the year is truncated to 2 digits. Otherwise, it is interpreted as a number.
Month - If the number of pattern letters is 3 or more, the month is interpreted as text. Otherwise, it is interpreted as a number.
General time zone - Time zones are interpreted as text if they have names. For time zones representing a GMT offset value, the following syntax is used:
- GMTOffsetTimeZone - GMT Sign Hours: Minutes
- Sign - one of + or -
- Hours - one or two digits
- Minutes - two digits
- Digit - one of 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Hours must be between 0 and 23, and Minutes must be between 00 and 59. The format is locale independent and digits must be taken from the Basic Latin block of the Unicode standard.
RFC 822 time zone: The RFC 822 4-digit time zone format is used:
- RFC822TimeZone
- TwoDigitHours (must be between 00 and 23)