User guide

AutoEnginuity ScanTool User Guide 39
A delimited text file is the most common way to log data for
spreadsheets. A delimiter is a character used to separate each of the
data fields. The delimiter can only be one character. The default
character is a comma (hence the formatting technique commonly
called "comma-delimited").
An XML file can be viewed with Interent browsers such as
Netscape and Internet Explorer. XML is the acronym for Extensible
Markup Language, and is best described as a means of structuring
data. XML provides rules for placing text and other media into
structures and allows you to manage and manipulate the results.
This formatting method is more sophisticated than delimited text
files because of the power and control that a user has over the
resulting document. With XML there is no need for a single delim-
iter to separate fields. Each field will have an individual tag to
denote its start and end. XML uses a file called a style sheet to help
format the data in a browser. The AutoEnginuity ScanTool XML
Template. x sl is the default style sheet for XML output created with
AutoEnginuity’s ScanTool. The style sheet file must be in the same
directory as the data logging file for the data logging file to be
viewed correctly. By default, the style sheet is installed in the same
directory as the ScanTool program. If you create XML-formatted
data logging files in other directories, you will have to copy the
style sheet to that directory for the data logging files to view cor-
rectly.
XML also gives you the unique ability to create your own cus-
tom style sheets to format the logged data. For example, in the case
that you will show the resulting data to your customers, you might
want your company’s logo at the top.
The fields that can be logged are listed with a check box so that
they can be enabled and disabled. The fields that cannot be disabled
A delimiter should be a character that is not
alphanumeric (1 - 10 or A -Z). Otherwise, regular
data will be confused with the delimiter.