Parent Harvester

The Marshal Parent harvester is used to harvest data from the parent query element. You can use this harvester to build complex elements, e.g. for creating a file element with a name attribute, a size attribute and an MD5 attribite.

Say that you create a model that lists documents, including binary content and document name. Since you cannot store binary content in XML files, you need to decide how you want to handle the binaries. You could of course just add an Embed Base 64 data processor or a Save as file data processor to your leaf. However, if you want to create a complex file element with multiple attributes, the Parent harvester comes in handy.

Notice that the Content node is yellow. This indicates that something is wrong and that the user needs to take action. Hover the cursor over the node to display the error message. In this case the problem is that the node holds binary data and we have not yet decided how this should be handled.

You can of course always add a new Query-node that uses the Parent harvester and add the leaves of your choise, but in the case of creating a file element from a blob, there is a shortcut. 

Right click on the blob leaf in the tree, and select the Create File Element menu option. Marshal will now create a file element for you with different attributes depending on whether or not you have chosen to use XLink for file references in the root node.

If the Use XLink for file references property is set to false, the following file element is created.

The Content leaf is now red, indicating that the Export property is set to false. This means that the data of the node is available during execution, but it will not be exported to XML. Instead a Query-element, with the same name as the original leaf, in this case Content, has been created, and four attribute leaves have been added to this node.

If the Use XLink for file references property is set to true, the following file element is created.

Also in this case the Content leaf is red, indicating that the Export property is set to false., The data of the node is available during execution, but it will not be exported to XML. A Query-element, with the same name as the original leaf, in this case Content, has been created, and twoattribute leaves have been added to this node.