For years I have used a simple technique to transfer data between applications. One application appends a pipe-delimited
string to a file, one line is one record. The file name and data structure are well-known.
On the other end, the importing application attempts to rename this well-known file name to a new name, then acts on the contents.
In this way, the exporting app can open a text file in append mode whenever it needs to write, and the importing app only does something when the file is successfully renamed (i.e. not open by the exporting app).
Usually this data transfer is between my app and a competitor's app, so the data structure is always a source of trouble. I'd love to have a 'contract' - a dtd.
Guess what I'm wondering is how do I accomplish something similar with well-formed xml? If the exporting app just appends, there can never be an open/close document tag, and the xml is illegal.
Just fishing for ideas, any input is appreciated.
Michael
