This topic contains the pages:

Overview

A binary file grammar is an XML document that specifies the structure of a binary or ASCII file. 

Note in the following sections that:

• attribute (beginning with lower case a) refers to attributes of nodes, in the standard terminology of XML.
• Attribute Node (beginning with upper case A) refers to a node that represents a target File Collector Column– that is, an Attribute in PhixFlow that can be used in the output Stream to populate a Stream Attribute.
• Control, Data, etc.Nodes – that is, types of nodes specific to PhixFlow binary file grammars – will start with an upper case letter.
• Expressions are PhixFlow scripting expressions – see PhixFlow help for more details. All Expressions must be inside curly braces in a grammar file, unless contained in a Script Node.

Nodes

There are three classes of node in a binary file grammar:

1. Control nodes that define the possible options, sequences, choices and repeating loops in the file. These nodes are:
   1. <Grammar/>
   2. <Repeat/>
   3. <Sequence/>
   4. <Choice/>
2. Logic nodes that run Expressions to calculate values that might be used later, or to carry out validation logic. These nodes are:
   1. <Script/>
   2. <Validate/>
3. Data nodes that construct the Attributes and Records that will be generated by the binary file reader. These nodes are:
   1. <Record/>
   2. <Attribute/>
   3. <Tag/>
   4. <Length/>
   5. <Name/>
   6. <Value/>
   7. <Bytes/>