'all-purpose' XML parse script.. ?

[Stimpson]

Hey people, long time no visit :).

I'm parsing some xml (yet again) for a project, and I was wondering if there wasn't somesort of 'all-purpose' XML parsing script around which could parse any given xml, into an object with basicly the same tree structure as the xml doc... handling the xml doc as a black box so to speak.

Right now I'm always parsing based on specific nodes, which can get a bit tedious adapting the script for different projects. I've been fiddling around with this, but not much luck so far.. Could'nt find anything either, all about node specific parsing.

Any of you people got an idea on this?

[uten]

hmmm.. try using xmlconnector component and databinding. :) works really well.

jon

[Stimpson]

Yeah, thx :). But I haven't got any other MM components in there right now, so I don't think databinding would help here (I could be wrong though ;)). Unless you could use the xmlconnector alone to get this result perhaps..? And doesn't that need xml schemas or something to work?

Hmm..I guess in those components there would be some script which does exactly what I want here, so it must be possible :D.

[splict]

could buggedcom's post here (http://www.actionscript.org/forums/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=38433) help, or there are other similar threads. Or are you looking for something different?

-splict

[Stimpson]

Hmmmm.... doh!

Thx splict, ...I even have a post in that thread hehehe. That will go along way I think, I'll have a looksee :).

[CyanBlue]

Um... I don't think there is any that is 100% working, is there??? :(

[Stimpson]

I sure hope so... nah, otherwise it will get me started on it no doubt.

[splict]

Well, I just used that example because I wasn't sure (since Stimpson had a post in the thread ;) ) if that was the type of thing he was talking about or not. If that one doesn't work there are many others like in this post (http://www.actionscript.org/forums/showthread.php3?t=40699&highlight=xml+object+parse).

Or is it a fundemental problem with that method altogether?

-splict

[Stimpson]

Not sure.. All I'm looking for is some sort of little nifty cript which parses any given xml doc (without knowing it's structure) into an object with the same tree structure and content... well that's the idea anyways hehe.

I'll take a closer look at those threads if they have something like that. Thx :).

[CyanBlue]

Hm... XMLtoObject... I use this one most of the times... :)

XMLtoObject by Michelangelo
http://www.onrelease.org/index.php?m=200303#79769937

[Stimpson]

Excellent CyanBlue!! That looks exactly like what I had in mind (and that wasn't pretty hehe)

..... geeezzz.. what's wrong with me, scripts everywhere. I must be losing it....

Thx all :).

[Stimpson]

Arrgghh.... that XMLtoObject link is down.... can you give me a fix on that script CyanBlue?

[Stimpson]

Ok..... never mind:

http://www.actionscript.org/forums/showthread.php3?t=45320 (last post)



I'll stop now :rolleyes: :D

[CyanBlue]

Yeah... I think that's the same file... :D

[Stimpson]

Yeah, shame it isn't AS 2 though, not that it really matters. Found this on it:

http://www.tweenpix.net/archives/000042.html

But my french is subzero, so perhaps I'll rework it myself (perhaps.... ;))

[splict]

Thanks for the link, CyanBlue! Looks good. :) Stimpson, It should be fairly easy to write a 2.0 XMLObject class that would extend XML so that you could (if you had no use for the original XML object) just load the XML file into it and it would be the object. Sounds handy.

CyanBlue, how much luck have you had with this for complex files and Flash's slow parsing of strings and xml?

[Stimpson]

Yeah, not even a reason to extend XML I guess. Just a class which accepts a xml url in it's constructor, and returns the parsed object....excellent :).

[CyanBlue]

Well... I did not really used very very extensive XML cuz I don't like XML very much... :D

But this site, https://www.steadyhosting.net/ , uses reasonable amount of XML...
Tell me how slow or how fast it is for you... I think the parsing speed on this site is not really an issue... What do you think??? :)

[CyanBlue]

Yeah, not even a reason to extend XML I guess. Just a class which accepts a xml url in it's constructor, and returns the parsed object....excellent :).
Hm... That sounds like a good one to try with AMFPHP... Though, it sounds abit of overkill for that... :)

[CyanBlue]

Oh... Found the XML files...

Just in case how big of XML file I was using... :)
At the bottom of the page, there are Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy which are linked to...

https://www.steadyhosting.net/texts/aup.xml
https://www.steadyhosting.net/texts/tos.xml

Most of the menus loads XML files as well... I just can't remember the URL for them... :)

[Stimpson]

I did not really used very very extensive XML cuz I don't like XML very much... :eek: (Wash your mouth young man!! :D)

Tell me how slow or how fast it is for youYou're doing fine there, runs great on my end (..now that just sounded wrong....). Just a barely noticable timegap befor the text appears.

That sounds like a good one to try with AMFPHPHmm.... interesting, that would make a nifty little webservice me thinks... :cool:.

[CyanBlue]

Yup... Great webservice indeed... The only problem would be how useful it is going to be... It'd be fine when the connection speed is good, but if the connection is bad, it might take more than the actual parsing time in Flash... :D

Glad to hear that it isn't that bad... I probably had to use Flash Remoting to do that job to speed up the process... Nah... I should really just hard code all the texts... :D

[Stimpson]

Yeah, connection speed would be key.. I myself have zero to none experience with these things though... doh!

Nothing wrong with hardcoding the text, if they wont need to change that is hehe.

[CyanBlue]

True... But that's hardly the case... Lots of clients wnats to modify/update the site whether they know what the computer is or not... :(
(Not saying that the above client is though... He's very savvy computer user...)

[Stimpson]

Yeah...pesky clients always... It's because they pay, but otherwise... oh wait IT IS beacuse they pay :rolleyes:.

[CyanBlue]

Hahaha... That's true... :)

So, did you test the one that you got???
And, do you HAVE TO convert it to AS 2.0??? You cannot use it as it is??? (Just curious...)

[Stimpson]

Oh yeah, it worked great. Excellent, just what I needed :).

Well I noticed some hickups before mixing AS1 and AS2 OOP (probably just me not handling it right hehe), and the project is AS 2. So there goes... another example of reworking something which works great already, ah well :rolleyes:.

[CyanBlue]

Ah... I see... :)

Go to babelfish and translate that tweenpix page to see if it makes more sense...
I think that's faster... :)

[Stimpson]

Hmmmmm...... intreging option... :D

[CyanBlue]

Yeah... There is no reason to reinvent the whole thing again when there is something you can just touch up and utilize it for your own project... :)

[Stimpson]

Yep, so true. But wouldn't mind to get my feet dirty on this so to speak. Ah well, I'll just see. If it's to much hassle I'll go at it with that french link like there's no tommorow.... :cool:.

[CyanBlue]

Yeah... I know... There is nothing wrong with trying to get your hands dirty... That's how we learn, right??? But if that's something you should do in hurry, you've got to do what you got to do to finish the project... That's all... :)
(Um... Is there tomorrow anyways??? :D)

[Stimpson]

Hurry.........??? Nope, never heard of that. Some kind of fruit? :D

[CyanBlue]

Hehe... Yeah, right... I've got to go back before I get fired... :D

[Stimpson]

Hmmm..yeah, got to keep paying them bills... work well :).

[CyanBlue]

Can't... My brain is no workie... :(

[CyanBlue]

Not sure how much this will help you but here is another one that looks like it might do the job for you as well...
http://downloads.junioronline.us/details.php?section=2&item=44

[Stimpson]

Hey great! Actually that other code sits already comfy in i't's AS 2 class, wasn't much hassle. I'll post it later when I brushed it up a bit. I'm gonna take a look at that XML-connector though, it might be usefull :D.

[CyanBlue]

Hm... Okay... I don't think I'll be bothering you with that for some time, but yeah... make them handy and have them all worked out... In the mean time, make several versions of webservices and AMFPHP versions as well... :D :p

BTW, what the !@#$ is that XML connector??? Is it something for FMX 2004 only stuff??? I've never heard of that before... :D

[Korona]

lol, sorry for the late reply, but i made an XML serializer 2-3 months ago, in AS2. it hasnt been doing much except sitting on my HD, the project it was for fell through the floor (im doing it in c# instead). but anyway, if youve already made one yourself...
;)

[Stimpson]

Well....adepted one for AS2..that's all hehe :rolleyes:. Works great though, thx anyways :)

XML connector...I've never heard of that before...Dude...wasn't that in that link you gave 3 posts down the road :D. I could just be delerious though, you know how that goes on a friday night (*cough*).

[hipster]

Hello people,
was wondering if any of you guys know how to access the data inside the xml connector once you read the xml in. I can hook the connector up to all sorts of components...but I need to make some of the data variables. Does anyone know the syntax for this. I've looked all over the forums here and macromedia...everyone is asking...nobody knows though.

cheers,
morgan

[georgeatef]

Hi all,

This link will be very useful:

http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flash/articles/xmlconnector.html

but i have a problem, that link shows databinding and using xml connector and Schema for getting results from XML file depending on the user choice from a comboBox, but what if i want a user to type a part of a word in an input text box then press SUBMIT to access XML data, how can i do it?

any ideas, suggestions or tutorials?
Thanks.