Current version is 1.0.10.

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The UBLish v1.0.10 XPS application is downloadable at

UBLish v1.0.10

• Installation
• How to generate XML schema (.xsd) files from spreadsheets (.xls)?
• Why is UBLish unable to generate schema files using some of the original spreadsheets in the UBL 1.0-committe-draft archive?

Once you have installed XPS v3.4p (or above), you can then download and install the UBLish v1.0.10 package by unzipping it anywhere within your PC's harddisk. The UBLish script ("UBLish-1.0.10.xps") is ready to go inside the ./bin/ directory.

In the description that follows, we refer to the sub-directories and files with the assumption of current directory being the top-level directory of the unzipped UBLish archive, and referred to as "./".

You will find the following sub-directories:

./bin/       [Back To Page Map]
This binary directory contains the UBLish application "UBLish-v1.0-10.xps" itself. It is an XPS application, which means that you can also look at the content using a text editor. As XPS carries a syntax similar to C or Perl, it would not be too difficult for a programmer familiar with them to read the script, even without prior knowledge of XPS. However, you are not advised to modify the script unless you are perfectly sure what you are doing.

You must have installed XPS with at least version 3.4p or above in order to run UBLish v1.0.10 properly. If you had done that, you should see the files displayed as a little red inverted 3D prism. Once you double-click that, you launch UBLish.

If you don't see the red inverted 3D prism, check that you have installed XPS v3.4p. If you had installed earlier versions of XPS, it is a good idea to uninstall them first before installing v3.4p. As some more advanced functions in v3.4p are used, UBLish v1.0.10 will not run properly with previous versions of XPS.

To remove older versions of XPS, go to

To download and install XPS v3.4p, go to

./etc/       [Back To Page Map]
This contains the initial splash screen graphics bitmap.

./xls-dir/       [Back To Page Map]
This is the spreadsheet output directory used by UBLish to store generated spreadsheets under the "Schema-->Spreadsheet" functions. These spreadsheets are slightly reformatted with some formatting touch-ups so that they do not force UBLish to process lots of blank cells. Other than that, they contain the same content as UBL's 1.0-cd2 model spreadsheets, except for 2 changes performed in UnspecializedDatatypes (UDT) spreadsheet: one to the Data Type column of UDT's "Date" type, and another to the Data Type column of UDT's "Time" type.

You will find the 8 main document spreadsheet models as described by UBL 1.0-cd2's specification. If you wish to design your own main document data models for UBLish to generate your schemas, you can drop your spreadsheet model in this directory, and UBLish will pick up your deposited spreadsheet when you instruct UBLish to generate all schemas or all main document schemas.

To start designing your own data model, the easiest way will be to make a duplicate copy of the "UBL-OrderResponseSimple-1.0.xls", rename it to your desired filename, and then edit the row contents within. There is nothing so special about "OrderResponseSimple". The reason it is advisable to duplicate "OrderResponseSimple" and not other main document is purely due to the fact that "OrderResponseSimple" is smallest and easiest to start off. Otherwise, if you so desire, other main document spreadsheets can also be used as a starting point.

Also, you will find 2 sub-directories, "typelist/", and "codelist/" under this directory.

The "typelist/" sub-directory contains 4 spreadsheet models, namely "CoreComponentTypes" (CCT), "Reusable", "SpecializedDatatypes" (SDT), and "UnspecializedDatatypes" (UDT). Each of CCT, SDT & UDT will result in their own schemas being generated. The Reusable spreadsheet model will, however, result in 2 schemas being generated: the CommonAggregateComponents (CAC) and CommonBasicComponents (CBC).

The "codelist/" sub-directory contains a UBLish spreadsheet models of all the codelist values used in UBL 1.0-cd2. These codelist spreadsheet models, when fed into UBLish, will result in generated codelist schemas that look like those found in UBL 1.0-cd2, with slight UBLish-extensions found within the of each code value.

Why do you need to use the spreadsheets contained in UBLish v1.0.10 package?       [Back To Page Map]
The spreadsheets contained in the "./xls/" subdirectory are properly formatted and optimized for use by UBLish. Stray columns are removed to enhanced readability and to limit unnecessary processing of empty columns. However, the contents are exactly the same as those in the UBL 1.0-beta archive.

./xsd-dir/       [Back To Page Map]
This is the schema output directory used by UBLish to store generated schema files under the "Schema-->Spreadsheet" functions.

This directory also contains 3 sub-directorys: "codelist/", "common/", and "maindoc/".

The "codelist/" sub-directory contains all the codelist schemas that UBLish generates. The "common/" sub-directory will end up containing those non-main-document schemas that UBLish generates. Together, these 2 sub-directories are also the "Preset XSD Sub-directory" that the UBLish will load from when the user instructs UBLish to preload all preset schema directories. All schemas, whether generated or otherwise, will be loaded into UBLish for further processing, whether it is for generating main documents, type inquiry, element inquiry, or random instance generation. In this manner, UBLish is able to cope with supporting schemas that are generated or designed by users outside of UBLish's internal generation process.

The "maindoc/" sub-directory contains all the schemas generated by UBLish. If you had not added any of your own model spreadsheets into "./xls-dir" spreadsheet directory, then UBLish will generate up to 8 main documents as per described by UBL 1.0-cd2 specification. Otherwise, if you had added some of your own data models in "./xls-dir", you should find them here after UBLish has generated them.

On a 1.8GHz PC, however, it will take just about 2 minutes to generate all UBL 1.0-cd2 schemas from scratch.