How to get workflow to stop and send email/create a file if there are no records in an XML

[craigja]

Am I missing something very easy here.....  I have a workflow that has several different branches in it and one of the sources (that goes to all branches) is an XML file.  Im having issues when certain tags are missing from the XML, Ive had this before and the only way round it that I found was to union in a 'dummy' blank field with the same name - my issue this time round is that Im pulling out loads of XML tags into the workflow and wonder if there is a way to avoid having to add in loads of these dummy fields, one for every field Im extracting from the XML?

[Raj · Accepted solution]

@craigja 
you can use control containers

or you can create a macro and use a container and control it with a field such as row count 
if row count is 1 then it is turned off else turned on.

[craigja · Accepted solution]

Yeah that would work but....  Would take ages as I have a lot of different tags to deal with.  What I did in the end was union existing files tot he workflow that I know have all the needed tags, I also bring in the filename then at the end of the workflow I filter out those files, much easier!