MSXML3: A Comprehensive Guide

====== Parsing XML files in Perl using XML::Simple ====== The Perl [[http://search.cpan.org/~grantm/XML-Simple-1.08/Simple.pm|XML::Simple module]] provides an easy way for parsing XML files. Using the provided //XMLin// function, the whole XML file is converted into a hash table which can then be used to access the XML entries. The following article uses a very simple example to explain how to use the XML::Simple module. The example script converts a catalog of books stored in an XML file into a HTML table. ===== A simple XML parser using XML::Simple ===== As an example, let's consider the following xml file.






  
      O'Brien, Tim
      MSXML3: A Comprehensive Guide
      Computer
      36.95
      2000-12-01
      The Microsoft MSXML3 parser is covered in 
      detail, with attention to XML DOM interfaces, XSLT processing, 
      SAX and more.
  

  
      Knorr, Stefan
      Creepy Crawlies
      Horror
      4.95
      2000-12-06
      An anthology of horror stories about roaches,
      centipedes, scorpions  and other insects.
  

  
      Corets, Eva
      The Sundered Grail
      Fantasy
      5.95
      2001-09-10
      The two daughters of Maeve, half-sisters, 
      battle one another for control of England. Sequel to 
      Oberon's Legacy.

The above xml file is a database that stores a catalog of books. Using the XML::Simple module, we are going to implement a simple Perl script that parses the xml file and renders its contents as an HTML table. This is the script :



use XML::Simple;

my $file = './file.xml';

# Here we create a new parser object
my $parser= XML::Simple->new();

# We tell the parser to parse the input file into the 
# variable $doc. 
my $doc = $parser->XMLin($file);

open (HTML, '>output.html');

printf HTML "\n";
printf HTML "\n";

printf HTML "\n";
printf HTML "\n";

printf HTML "\n";
printf HTML "\n";
printf HTML "\n\n";

printf HTML "\n";


# The list of books is parsed as a hash in the variable $doc
# We access the book entries using the hash keys as follows

foreach my $key (keys (%{$doc->{book}})) {


	printf HTML "\n";

        # For each book we display the title, author and a discription 
	printf HTML "\n";
	printf HTML "\n";
	printf HTML "\n";

	printf HTML "\n";


}

printf HTML "";
printf HTML "Title ";
printf HTML "Author ";
printf HTML "Description
".$doc->{book}->{$key}->{title}." ".$doc->{book}->{$key}->{author}." ".$doc->{book}->{$key}->{description}."\n";
printf HTML "\n";
printf HTML "\n";
close (HTML);

The output is as follows :







Title 
Author
Description



MSXML3: A Comprehensive Guide
O'Brien, Tim
The Microsoft MSXML3 parser is covered in 
      detail, with attention to XML DOM interfaces, XSLT processing, 
      SAX and more.


Creepy Crawlies
Knorr, Stefan
An anthology of horror stories about roaches,
      centipedes, scorpions  and other insects.


The Sundered Grail
Corets, Eva
The two daughters of Maeve, half-sisters, 
      battle one another for control of England. Sequel to 
      Oberon's Legacy.

The HTML rendered table of our XML data would look as follows : \\

Title	Author	Description
MSXML3: A Comprehensive Guide	O'Brien, Tim	The Microsoft MSXML3 parser is covered in detail, with attention to XML DOM interfaces, XSLT processing, SAX and more.
Creepy Crawlies	Knorr, Stefan	An anthology of horror stories about roaches, centipedes, scorpions and other insects.
The Sundered Grail	Corets, Eva	The two daughters of Maeve, half-sisters, battle one another for control of England. Sequel to Oberon's Legacy.

{{tag>coding howto}} ~~DISCUSSION~~

"; printf HTML "Title	"; printf HTML "Author	"; printf HTML "Description
".$doc->{book}->{$key}->{title}."	".$doc->{book}->{$key}->{author}."	".$doc->{book}->{$key}->{description}."