In this recipe, we will see how we can create transformations that correspond to a nested structure defined within an ABAP program. We will create a transformation, then call the transformation from a program using the CALL TRANSFORMATION statement and pass it to a populated ABAP structure corresponding to the root element of the transformation. We will then see how serialization will generate the XML stream.
We will now see the steps needed to create a transformation corresponding to a structure:
- Call the transaction
XSLT_TOOL. Then, enter a suitable name for your transformation. We gave it the nameZST6_FOR_STRUCTURE. - Click on the Create button. Then, on the Create Transformation dialog box that appears, choose the option Simple Transformation and proceed further.
- Enter the following code within the transformation editor:
-
When done, click on the Activate (
) button. - Next, we will create the program that will call the transformation and pass it to an ABAP structure.
- In the program, we will first define the nested structure, as shown in the following screenshot. The name of the structure is
struc. It has a fieldfield1and contains another structurenest1, comprising of the fieldsfield1andfield2.
- Then, populate the structure fields with suitable values.
- Finally, in the ABAP program we will define a string named
xml_stringand call the transformation using theCALL TRANSFORMATIONstatement. The result of theCALL TRANSFORMATIONstatement corresponding to the passed structure is returned inxml_string.
The transformation created is comprised of a structure that will be passed during serialization via the root variable struc. Within the XML literal elements X1, X3, and X4, the current node is set using the reference of the data root struc. For X1, we include the field field1 of struc. For X3, we address the field1 field of the nest1 structure contained within struc.
The ABAP program calls the transformation using the CALL TRANSFORMATION statement. Since it is serialization, we passed a populated ABAP structure struc as the SOURCE structure. The result is read into xml_string. The contents of the string xml_string may be viewed in the ABAP debugger, as shown in the following screenshot:
