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destruk's avatar
destruk
Streaming Star
15 years ago

XML troubles with parsing

Maybe I'm just entirely stupid, or perhaps it will only work one way and I haven't understood what that single method is yet. I'm asking for a little help with this.
I have an xml file - from the video player example, and I'm using this code:

rss=CreateObject("roUrlTransfer")
rss.SetUrl("http://testurlxml.com/file.xml")
xml=rss.GetToString()
rss=CreateObject("roXMLElement")
rss.Parse(xml)

What this should be doing, as far as I can understand, is it creates the urltransfer object which allows it to access files from the internet
Then it sets the url to the file I want to retrieve from the internet
Then it puts the entire contents of that file into a string variable I have named "xml"
Next it creates the roxmlelement object which I have named "rss"

As far as I can tell, rss.parse(xml) should create an associative array of each 'item' group in the xml file.
I can print xml and it displays the entire xml file in the debugger, so that part should be ok
I can print rss.item and it displays ROT:roxmlElement three times, so that should be ok, I think, too, as there are three items in it
I can also print rss.item[0] and it displays ROT:xmlElement once, which is fine as well, as that is item 0, the first element of the array.

Now, using the video player example, how would I be able to reference the "title" field directly? Can I use something like "print rss.item[0].title" ? Seems everything I try to get an actual value of a specific field is failing for me.
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4 Replies

  • RokuChris's avatar
    RokuChris
    Roku Employee
    15 years ago
    There is some sample code for using roXMLElement in the BrightScript Reference Manual starting on p46. The method you're looking for to get the text within a tag is GetText()

     print rss.item[0].title.GetText()
  • destruk's avatar
    destruk
    Streaming Star
    15 years ago
    ok, that works fine RokuChris. 🙂
    Now, I think I have just one more little piece to go and then I can be on my way.
    my xml file has three entries for now.

    endcount=rss.item.count()-1

    ShowList=CreateObject("roAssociativeArray")

    ShowList = [{
    EpisodeNumber:"1",
    ShortDescriptionLine1:"Show #1",
    ShortDescriptionLine2:"Short Description for Show #1",
    }
    {
    EpisodeNumber:"2",
    ShortDescriptionLine1:"Show #2",
    ShortDescriptionLine2:"Short Description for Show #2",
    }
    {
    EpisodeNumber:"3",
    ShortDescriptionLine1:"Show #3",
    ShortDescriptionLine2:"Short Description for Show #3",
    }
    ]


    for z=0 to endcount
    showlist.EpisodeNumber=rss.item.EpisodeNumber.GetText()
    showlist.ShortDescriptionLine1=rss.item.ShortDescriptionLine1.GetText()
    showlist.ShortDescriptionLine2=rss.item.ShortDescriptionLine2.GetText()
    showlist.HDPosterURL=hdstring
    showlist.SDPosterURL=sdstring
    end for
    Return showList

    This code works - however, if I remove the initial declaration/population of ShowList then I get mismatch errors for the episodenumber.gettext line. How can I simply, manually populate and expand the array as necessary?
  • RokuChris's avatar
    RokuChris
    Roku Employee
    15 years ago
    You probably want to start with an empty array and build it up as you step through the XML.

    showList = []
    for each item in rss.item
      showList.Push({
        ShortDescriptionLine1: item.title.GetText()
        ...
      })
    next