From: Cam <cameron.matheson@...>
Date: 2005-07-23T03:47:00+09:00
Subject: Re: something similar to perl's XML::Simple

Thanks everyone,

I will check out the port for XML simple, that is just what i was
looking for... i will need to look further into YAML however... i've
never heard of that one before.  I'm not necessarily needing XML per
se (i just thought it seemed like a convenient way to store my data,
but YAML seems to provide the same level of convenience).  Is that a
standard format across many languages (i hadn't heard of it before).

Anyway, thanks for the help guys,
Cameron Matheson

On 7/22/05, James Edward Gray II <james@grayproductions.net> wrote:
> On Jul 22, 2005, at 12:36 PM, Cam wrote:
> 
> > Hi!
> >
> > I'm trying to write a few simple apps (a flash-card type program for
> > chinese characters, and a simple address book type program), and for
> > the file format i want to use XML.  Anyway, i don't need anything
> > complex at all... just the most basic reading/writing of xml files
> > possible.  i was looking through a bunch of the various ruby-xml
> > libraries, and it seems that rexml is the 'official' xml library for
> > ruby?  I like the looks of it, but it seems overly complex for what i
> > want to do.  My friend steve told me about a module in perl called
> > xml:simple (apparently it just loads up the xml file into a nice
> > little hash for you).  Anyway, that sounds like just the thing for me,
> > and i was wondering if ruby had anything similar.  If not maybe just
> > some simple example code for rexml (the debian packages didnt' seem to
> > come w/ any).  Tips or suggestions on xm file i/o would be greatly
> > appreciated.
> 
> Are you strictly tied to the XML idea?  YAML is a standard Ruby
> library and pretty darn easy to use.  Here's an example:
> 
> $ ls
> yaml_example.rb
> $ cat yaml_example.rb
> #!/usr/local/bin/ruby -w
> 
> require "YAML"
> 
> unless File.exists? "contacts.yaml"    # save some YAML
>          # build up some example data...
>          require "ostruct"
> 
>          contacts = Hash.new
> 
>          contact = OpenStruct.new
>          contact.first_name = "James"
>          contact.last_name  = "Gray"
>          contact.address    = "Where Ever Dr."
>          contact.state      = "Edmond"
>          contact.city       = "OK"
>          contact.zip        = "12345"
> 
>          contacts["#{contact.last_name}, #{contact.first_name}"] =
> contact
> 
>          contact = contact.dup
>          contact.first_name = "Dana"
> 
>          contacts["#{contact.last_name}, #{contact.first_name}"] =
> contact
> 
>          # store data in a YAML file
>          File.open("contacts.yaml", "w") { |file| YAML.dump(contacts,
> file) }
> else    # reload YAML data
>          # load
>          contacts = File.open("contacts.yaml") { |file| YAML.load
> (file) }
> 
>          # and use...
>          p contacts["Gray, James"].first_name
> end
> $ ruby yaml_example.rb
> $ ls
> contacts.yaml   yaml_example.rb
> $ cat contacts.yaml
> ---
> "Gray, James": !ruby/object:OpenStruct
>    table:
>      :city: OK
>      :first_name: James
>      :zip: "12345"
>      :last_name: Gray
>      :address: Where Ever Dr.
>      :state: Edmond
> "Gray, Dana": !ruby/object:OpenStruct
>    table:
>      :city: OK
>      :first_name: Dana
>      :last_name: Gray
>      :zip: "12345"
>      :address: Where Ever Dr.
>      :state: Edmond
> $ ruby yaml_example.rb
> "James"
> 
> If you really do need XML, REXML is the way to go, in my opinion.
> It's not too hard to learn and it will grow with you.  We've had a
> few Ruby Quizzes that dealt (in part) with XML writing and parsing.
> Scanning those solutions will show you examples.  Here are some links...
> 
> For writing XML see Hans Fugal's and Brian Kang's solutions to:
> 
> http://www.rubyquiz.com/quiz6.html
> 
> For reading XML see most of the solutions to:
> 
> http://www.rubyquiz.com/quiz30.html
> 
> Now to finally answer your actual question:  Yes, we do have a port
> of XML::Simple.  You can find the Ruby version here:
> 
> http://www.maik-schmidt.de/xml-simple.html
> 
> Hope that helps.
> 
> James Edward Gray II
> 
> 
>