Data export format

The last stage in developing the business requirements for the TravelDocs application is to specify the format of the captured data for export.

Datacap can export data to a text file, an XML file, a database, a Document Management system, or the input stage of another business application.

This example use case, which exports data only and does not export images, is not typical, and is used for simplicity. Almost all Datacap applications export images and documents together with captured data. In most Document Management systems, the captured data is stored in metadata or index fields that are associated with each document.

For TravelDocs, you specify that data is to be exported to a Microsoft Access database and also saved in XML format. To simplify the implementation, you export only the rental agreement page data initially:
  • For the database export, the application must export the data from each rental agreement page as a single record.
  • For the XML export, all rental agreement pages in the same batch are written to a single XML file.
<?xml version='1.0' ?>
<Rental_Agreements>
   <TM000001>
       <Pickup_Date>Tues, Dec 7, 2010</Pickup_Date>
       <Pickup_Location>Boston (BOS)</Pickup_Location>
       <Return_Date>Fri, Dec 10, 2010</Return_Date>
       <Return_Location>Boston (BOS)</Return_Location>
       <Car_Type>Compact</Car_Type>
       <Options>Fuel Service</Options>
       <Total_Cost>$345.70</Total_Cost>
   </TM000001>
   <TM000003>
      <Pickup_Date>Mon, Dec 6, 2010</Pickup_Date>
      <Pickup_Location>San Francisco (SFO)</Pickup_Location>
      <Return_Date>Fri, Dec 10, 2010</Return_Date>
      <Return_Location>San Francisco (SFO)</Return_Location>
      <Car_Type>SUV</Car_Type>
     <Options>Child Seat</Options>
      <Total_Cost>$489.31</Total_Cost>
  </TM000003>
  <TM000004>
      <Pickup_Date>Mon, Dec 13, 2010</Pickup_Date>
      <Pickup_Location>Newark (EWR)</Pickup_Location>
      <Return_Date>Thur, Dec 16, 2010</Return_Date>
      <Return_Location>Newark (EWR)</Return_Location>
      <Car_Type>Other</Car_Type>
      <Options>Navigation System Child Seat Fuel Service</Options>
      <Total_Cost>$387.40</Total_Cost>
   </TM000004>
</Rental_Agreements>
In future tasks, you can export some of the line item grid data too.