Preserving the Root Element

You can include the root element in the generated record by enabling the Preserve Root Element property.

The root element depends on whether you omit or specify a delimiter:

Omit a delimiter: When you omit a delimiter to generate a single record, the root element is the root element of the XML document.
Specify a delimiter: When you specify a delimiter to generate multiple records, the root element is the XML element specified as the delimiter element or is the last XML element in the simplified XPath expression specified as the delimiter element.

For example, let's look at how Data Collector treats the root element when processing the following XML document:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<bookstore xmlns:prc="http://books.com/price">
   <b:book xmlns:b="http://books.com/book">
      <title lang="en">Harry Potter</title>
      <prc:price>29.99</prc:price>
   </b:book>
   <b:book xmlns:b="http://books.com/book">
      <title lang="en_us">Learning XML</title>
      <prc:price>39.95</prc:price>
   </b:book>
</bookstore>

Root Element when Omitting a Delimiter

If you omit a delimiter to generate a single record, the root element is bookstore, the root element of the XML document.

When you enable the Preserve Root Element property, Data Collector generates the following record, including bookstore as the root element:

When you disable the Preserve Root Element property, Data Collector generates the following record, removing the bookstore root element:

Root Element when Specifying a Delimiter

If you specify book as the delimiter element to generate multiple records, the root element is book.

When you enable the Preserve Root Element property, Data Collector generates the following records, including book as the root element of both records:

When you disable the Preserve Root Element property, Data Collector generates the following records, removing book as the root element from both records:

Similarly, if you specify the XPath expression /bookstore/book/author as the delimiter element to generate multiple records, the root element is author. Data Collector includes author in the generated records based on the Preserve Root Element property.