Daffodil

----------------
INTRODUCTION
----------------

Daffodil is a parser generator that follows the DFDL specification.

The generated parsers will translate into XML files that follow the format
described by an XML Schema with DFDL annotations.

It is a command line tool and a Java library.

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REQUIREMENTS
----------------

Daffodil requires Java 1.6 or higher. All scripts provided for running and
testing are written in bash and tested in GNU Linux. Those scripts are not
required though, so Daffodil should be able to run in other platforms as long
as Java is installed


Apache Ant (1.7 or higher) is required for building using the provided script.

Daffodil is written in Scala 2.9
It is not required to install Scala to run or compile Daffodil (the required
Scala libraries are included).

----------------
RUNNING
----------------

The command line of Daffodil is invoked through the provided Bash daffodil.sh.
If $DAFFODIL is the installation directory then the easiest way to run Daffodil
is:

  $ $DAFFODIL/daffodil.sh -i <dataFile> -s <schemaFile> -r <rootElement>

where <dataFile> is a data file to translate into XML, <schemaFile> is a
XML Schema file describing the format, and <rootElement> is the name of the
root element of the XML document to be created. The option '-r <rootElement>'
might be omitted if the schema contains only one top level element.

The output XML document will be output to the standard output.

See the documentation at $DAFFODIL/doc/daffodil.pdf for more command line
options or print a full list of options with:

  $ $DAFFODIL/daffodil.sh --help

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BUILDING FROM SOURCE
----------------

An Ant script is provided in $DAFFODIL/build.xml. To build Daffodil simply
issue:

  $ ant -f $DAFFODIL/build.xml all

or, if inside the installation directory:

  $ ant all
   .

There are IDE's and eclipse plug-ins that can be used to build daffodil. See:

  http://www.scala-lang.org/node/91


----------------
DOCUMENTATION
----------------

Documentation is provided in the directory 'doc' inside the Daffodil
installation directory. The following documents are included:

 * daffodil.pdf: A brief developers guide to Daffodil. It includes information
   on building and running, description of the files distributed, and
   description of the software architecture.
 * dfdl.odt: The DFDL specification followed by Daffodil, with comments on
   differences with the actual implementation.
 * index.html: The Scala API documentation.

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EXAMPLES
----------------

Several examples are provided in the directory 'test'. They are in the form of
schema <XX.xsd>, input data files <XX###.in> and expected output <XX###.xml>.

----------------
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
----------------

Copyright (c) 2010 NCSA.  All rights reserved.
Developed by: NCSA Cyberenvironments and Technologies
              University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
              http://cet.ncsa.uiuc.edu/

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to
deal with the Software without restriction, including without limitation the
rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or
sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
  1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
     this list of conditions and the following disclaimers.
  2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimers in the
     documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
  3. Neither the names of NCSA, University of Illinois, nor the names of its
     contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this
     Software without specific prior written permission.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
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