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Saving, importing, and exporting data
F
ILEMAKER PRO HELP 535
Exporting Tab-Separated Text files
FileMaker Pro exports plain text. (The exported file does not include font and style information.) The
tab character separates fields, the carriage return character separates records. Most applications
can use this file format.
• Tabs in fields are converted to spaces.
• Carriage return characters in a field export as vertical tab characters.
• Values in repeating fields are separated by the group separator character.
XML format
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a language for structured data interchange. Instead of being
a rigid file format, XML is a language for defining agreed-upon formats that groups can use for
exchanging data. Many individuals, organizations, and businesses use XML to transfer product
information, transactions, inventory data, and other business data.
Example files for XML import and export are available in the folder where FileMaker Pro is installed.
For general information on XML, additional examples that use XML, and links to XML resources,
see the FileMaker website at
http://www.filemaker.com.
Importing XML
FileMaker Pro supports the FMPXMLRESULT grammar for XML import. If your XML is in a different
format, you can apply an Extensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations (
XSLT) style sheet
during import to transform your XML into the FMPXMLRESULT grammar.
Exporting XML
FileMaker Pro can export XML in two grammars: FMPXMLRESULT and FMPDSORESULT. You can
apply an XSLT style sheet during export to transform either of the grammars into a different XML
format, or into a different format such as
HTML or plain text. For example, with XML export, you can
create a data-driven web page, or a text file of data that uses a custom field delimiter.
Note The XML import and export features in FileMaker Pro use an XML parser called Xerces and
an XSLT style sheet processor called Xalan. As you develop XML and XSL, you may want to test
your XML and XSLT with Xerces- and Xalan-based parsers and processors, available at
http://
xml.apache.org and other third-party locations.
Related topics
XML FMPDSORESULT grammar
XML FMPXMLRESULT grammar
Importing XML data
Exporting data from FileMaker Pro
XML FMPDSORESULT grammar
The FMPDSORESULT grammar is useful for exporting databases that you want to format with
cascading style sheets or XSL. This grammar is compatible with the Microsoft XML Data Source
Object used by Internet Explorer.
Note Do not name your data fields with leading numbers or single-byte kana characters (for
example “7”). The FMPDSORESULT grammar does not allow numeric or single-byte kana
characters as field name tags and will not display the resulting XML file in a browser.