What is the proper way to export data from an ArrayList in moqui - moqui

Question

I am trying to export data in XML file. I have several entity from where I retrieve all the necessary data in an ArrayList. I can utilize this ArrayList and export data by embedding Java / groovy code in the script tag. But I like to know is there any other way to export data in Moqui?
I am only aware of the writeXmlText method which can write entity data in XML.
EDIT: This is my sample service
<service verb="get" noun="ExportData" type="script" location="component://PracticeTutorial/service/ExportTutorialServices/getExportData.groovy">
<out-parameters>
<parameter name="employees" type="List">
<parameter name="employee" type="Map">
<parameter name="empId"/>
<parameter name="firstName"/>
<parameter name="lastName"/>
<parameter name="designation"/>
</parameter>
</parameter>
</out-parameters>
</service>
The sample Groovy script:
import org.moqui.entity.EntityList
import org.moqui.entity.EntityValue
employees = []
EntityList employeeList = ec.entity.makeFind("tutorial.Employee").list()
for(EntityValue ev : employeeList) {
employees.add([empId:ev.empId, firstName:ev.firstName,
lastName:ev.lastName, designation:ev.designation])
}
I called the service like this:
<transition name="export">
<actions>
<service-call name="ExportTutorialServices.get#ExportData" in-map="context" out-map="context"/>
</actions>
<default-response url="."/>
</transition>
Question 1: How should I access the employees ArrayList from the screen after calling the service?
Question 2: Is there any simpler way to export data from ArrayList employees? I want to produce output like this.
Expected output:
<employees>
<employee>
<id>001</id>
<firstName>John</firstName>
<lastName>Doe</lastName>
<designation>Developer</designation>
</employee>
</employees>
Thanks

Answer 1

In short it sounds like you want to create an XML document with a specific structure, ultimately based on data from a database.
There are various tools for doing this in Java, the Groovy Node and XML API being a pretty good one. Appending strings to a Writer or StringBuilder is sometimes a good way to go, because the output format is so simple (for smaller documents, or those that follow particular patterns anyway).
For more complex documents, such as if the list you mentioned is one of dozens or the elements are nested a few levels deep, then I'd recommend using an FTL template to generate the XML and a Moqui Screen with actions to call your data prep service, and a screen.widgets.render-mode element to include the FTL template.
With the FTL wrapped in a screen approach you can use the ScreenFacade.makeRender() method to create a ScreenRender object. On that object set the root screen location, a render mode of "xml", other options as desired, and then call the render(Writer) method or the render() method that returns a String. With these methods you can stream the text to a file, send it over a web request, or whatever.