Examples

Command line

note: in Powershell you must use .\bafi.exe e.g.

.\bafi.exe -i input.csv -t "?{{toXML .}}"
curl.exe -s someurl.com/api/xxx | .\bafi.exe -f json -t "?{{toXML .}}"

Basic

Get data from testdata.xml -> process using template.tmpl -> save output as output.txt

bafi.exe -i testdata.xml -t template.tmpl -o output.txt

Inline template

Get data from testdata.xml -> process using inline template -> save output as output.json

bafi.exe -i testdata.xml -o output.json -t "?{{toJSON .}}"

note: BaFi inline template must start with ? e.g. "?{{toJSON .}}" How to format inline templates

Stdin/REST

Get data from REST api -> convert to XML -> output to Stdout.

curl.exe -s https://api.predic8.de/shop/customers/ | bafi.exe -f json -t "?{{toXML .}}"

More info about curl here but you can of course use any tool with stdout

Append output file

Redirect stdout to file and append ( > = replace, >> = apppend )

bafi.exe -i testdata.xml -t template.tmpl >> output.txt

Template

Examples are based on testdata.tmpl included in project

XML to CSV

command

bafi.exe -i testdata.xml -t myTemplate.tmpl -o output.csv

myTemplate.tmpl

Employee,Date,val1,val2,val3,SUM,LuaMultiply,linkedText
{{- range .TOP_LEVEL.DATA_LINE}}
{{index .Employee "-ID"}},
{{- dateFormat .Trans_Date "2006-01-02" "02.01.2006"}},
{{- .val1}},{{.val2}},{{.val3}},
{{- add .val1 .val2}},
{{- lua "mul" .val1 .val2}},"{{index .Linked_Text "-VALUE"}}"
{{- end}}

JSON to CSV

command

curl.exe -s https://api.predic8.de/shop/customers/ | bafi.exe -f json -t myTemplate.tmpl -o output.html

myTemplate.tmpl

name,surname
{{- range .customers}}
"{{.firstname}}","{{.lastname}}"
{{- end}}

JSON to HTML

command

curl.exe -s https://api.predic8.de/shop/customers/ | bafi.exe -f json -t myTemplate.tmpl -o output.html

myTemplate.tmpl

<html>
    <body>
        <table>
            <tr><th>Name</th><th>Surname</th></tr>
            {{- range .customers}}
            <tr><td>{{.firstname}}</td><td>{{.lastname}}</td></tr>
            {{- end }}
        </table>
    </body>
</html>

<style>
table, th, td { border: 1px solid black; width: 400px; }
</style>

JSON to custom XML

command

curl.exe -s https://api.predic8.de/shop/customers/ | bafi.exe -f json -t myTemplate.tmpl -o output.xml

myTemplate.tmpl

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<MY_DATA>
    {{- range .customers}}
    <CUSTOMMER>
        <NAME>{{.firstname}}</NAME>
        <SURNAME>{{.lastname}}</SURNAME>
    </CUSTOMMER>
    {{- end }}
</MY_DATA>

XML to custom JSON

command

bafi.exe -i testdata.xml -t myTemplate.tmpl -o output.json

myTemplate.tmpl

{{- $new := "{\"employees\": [" }}
{{- range .TOP_LEVEL.DATA_LINE}}
{{- $new = print $new "{\"employeeID\":\"" (index .Employee "-ID") "\", \"val1\":" .val1 "}," }}
{{- end}}
{{- /* Trim trailing comma, alternatively you can remove last char by "(slice $new 0 (sub (len $new) 1))" */}}
{{- $new = print (trimSuffix $new "," ) "]}"}}
{{ $new}}

JSON in $new variable can be mapped to struct and autoformatted to other formats like:

Transform $new to YAML

{{toYAML (mapJSON $new) -}}

Transform $new to XML

{{toXML (mapJSON $new) -}}

CSV to text

command

bafi.exe -i users.csv -t myTemplate.tmpl -o output.txt

users.csv

name,surname
John,"Jack Doe"

myTemplate.tmpl

Users:
{{- range .}}
Name: {{.name}}, Surname: {{.surname}}
{{- end}}

note: CSV file must be RFC4180 compliant, file must have header line and separator must be comma ( , ). Or you can use command line argument -d ( e.g. -d ';' or -d 0x09 ) to define separator(delimiter).

mt940 to CSV

mt940 returns simple struct (Header,Fields,[]Transactions) of strings and additional parsing needs to be done in template. This allows full flexibility on data processing
Identifiers are prefixed by "F_" (e.g. :20: = .Fields.F_20)
if parameter -d (delimiter e.g. -d "-}\r\n" or "\r\n$") is defined for files with multiple messages (e.g. - Multicash), app returns array of mt940 messages.
Note: This is actually good place to use integrated LUA interpreter where you can create your own set of custom functions to parse data and easily reuse them in templates.
command

bafi.exe -i message.sta -t myTemplate.tmpl -o output.csv

myTemplate.tmpl

Reference, balance, VS
{{- $F20 := .Fields.F_20 }}{{ $F60F := .Fields.F_60F }}
{{range .Transactions }}
{{- $vsS := add (indexOf .F_86 "?21") 3 }} {{- $vsE := add $vsS 17 -}}
{{- $F20}}, {{$F60F}}, {{slice .F_86 $vsS $vsE}}
{{ end }}

Any SQL to XML

Bafi can be used in combination with very interesting tool USQL https://github.com/xo/usql. USQL allows query almost any SQL like database (MSSQL,MySQL,postgres, ...) and get result in various formats. In this example we use -J for JSON. Output can be further processed by BaFi and templates

usql.exe mssql://user:password@server/instance/database -c "SELECT * FROM USERS" -J -q | bafi.exe -f json -t "?{{toXML .}}"

MongoDump to CSV

command

bafi.exe -i users.bson -t myTemplate.tmpl -o output.html

myTemplate.tmpl

name,surname
{{- range .}}
"{{.firstname}}","{{.lastname}}"
{{- end}}

Dashes in key names

If key name contains dashes ( - ) bafi will fail with error "bad character U+002D '-'" for example:

{{.my-key.subkey}}

This is known limitation of go templates which can be solved by workaround

{{index . "my-key" "subkey"}}

Input autoformat to XXX

Input data can be easily fomated to oher formats by functions toXML,toJSON,toBSON,toYAML. In this case its not necesarry add template file because it's as easy as

curl.exe -s https://api.predic8.de/shop/customers/ | bafi.exe -f json -t "?{{toXML .}}" -o output.xml
curl.exe -s https://api.predic8.de/shop/customers/ | bafi.exe -f json -t "?{{toJSON .}}" -o output.json
curl.exe -s https://api.predic8.de/shop/customers/ | bafi.exe -f json -t "?{{toBSON .}}" -o output.bson
curl.exe -s https://api.predic8.de/shop/customers/ | bafi.exe -f json -t "?{{toYAML .}}" -o output.yml

ChatGPT query

curl -s https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/eurofxref/eurofxref-daily.xml | ./bafi -f xml -gk myChatGPTToken -gq "What's the current CZK rate?"
curl -s https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/eurofxref/eurofxref-daily.xml | ./bafi -f xml -gk myChatGPTToken -gq "format rates to html" -gm gpt4
./bafi -i invoice.json -gk myChatGPTToken -gq "create XML UBL format invoice" -o invoice.xml

Multiple input files

Bafi can read multiple input files and merge them into one output file. This will require aditional file with files description. Description file must be in YAML format as described below and prefixed by question mark "?" for examle bafi.exe -i ?files.yaml

Example:

batch file which gets the data from multiple sources myFiles.bat

curl -s https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/eurofxref/eurofxref-daily.xml > ecbRates.xml
curl -s https://goweather.herokuapp.com/weather/prague > pragueWeather.json

Files description myFiles.yaml

- file: ./ecbRates.xml # file path
  format: xml # File format
  label: RATES # Label which will be used in the template {{ .RATES }}
- file: ./pragueWeather.json
  format: json
  label: WEATHER

Template file myTemplate.tmpl which will generate simple HTML page with data

<html>
    <body>
    <h3> Weather in Prague </h3>
    <h4> Temperatre: {{.WEATHER.temperature}} </h4>
    <h4> Wind: {{.WEATHER.wind}} </h4>
    <h3> ECB Exchange rates from: {{dateFormat (index .RATES.Envelope.Cube.Cube "-time") "2006-01-02" "02.01.2006" }}</h3>
        <table>
            <tr><th>currency</th><th>rate</th>
            {{- range .RATES.Envelope.Cube.Cube.Cube }}
            <tr><td>{{index . "-currency" }}</td><td>{{index . "-rate" }}</td>
            {{- end}}
        </table>
    <body>
</html>

<style>
table, th, td { border: 1px solid black; width: 400px; }
</style>

Finally run bafi

bafi.exe -t myTemplate.tmpl -i ?myFiles.yaml -o output.html

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