Event Reference

Every time you send data to Doodlebase, you are describing an event. Your Doodlebase XML schema describes how your events are structured. There are no required elements to a Doodlebase XML schema - only that it conforms to XML standards. For more information on XML, w3schools.com has a good reference. In short, when you add an XML element to your Doodlebase schema, later on that element becomes the name of a database table. So a schema can have many instances of the same element, all with different values, and that builds a database table for later reports and viewing. You will want to work with a Schemaport consultant to structure your XML schema so it provides the kind of reporting you want.

Event Basics

An event in Doodlebase is formed from the fact that an XML file was sent. The file is sent at a specific time from a specific location. You have a few options to describe the time of the event, and where it originated from. If you don't specifically use one of these two descriptive methods below, then Doodlebase will use the time that the file arrived at the server for the DateTimeUtc of the event, converted to UTC or universal time, and it will use the IP address it came from as the MachineName where it originated.

• HTTP Header Option:
  You can add two headers to your HTTP request:

  • DateTimeUtc
  • MachineName

• XML Schema Option:
  You can add both MachineName and DateTimeUtc as an XML schema element. You can add any name for them that makes sense to you, as well as any name for the enclosing element. Beleow the enclosing element is named "Session", and the attributes assigned show that if it's included in the XML file, then it occurs only once.

    <xs:element name="Session" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1">
        <xs:complexType>
            <xs:all>
              <xs:element name="dateTimeUtc" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0"/>
              <xs:element name="machineName" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0"/>
            </xs:all>
        </xs:complexType>
    </xs:element>

Note that each event also must be associated with one of the Routes you defined in the Doodlebase Configure App. This information, however, is not part of the XML itself, rather, you will define it with your authentication header using a RouteKey and Password.

Event Elements

Elements are the building blocks of your event. Doodlebase recognizes XML Elements, and XML Attributes are used for datatypes and occurences. Your data however will be defined in the Elements. It's recommended that you collect numeric data and non-numeric data in separate Elements. For example:

• Variables: Numeric measurements.
• Attributes: Non-Numeric measurements.
• Components: Components of the product that were added during the event.
• Symptoms: Errors or issue descriptions.

These are only examples, and you aren't bound to any of the names described here.

Files

You can include one or more files such as images, audio, pdf documents, or any binary file type with an event. Files are not included in the XML itself. Instead, you include them in a ZIP folder with the XML file you created. You then send this ZIP file in your HTTP Post request to your Network. You can use Doodlebase Transformer to easily package your data into the right ZIP folder configuration.

Next Steps

• See the Transformer page to understand how Transformer helps you load your data
• Explore Viewing your data