From: "cardboard42@..." <cardboard42@...>
Date: 2007-06-23T13:20:02+09:00
Subject: Re: xml newbie

On Jun 22, 7:27 pm, "Colin Summers" <blade...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Okay, so I am scraping the FAA site and keeping track of some airplanes.
>
> A lot of the time I get a tail number and I have it already, so I am
> going to store the important information in a file that is
> {tailnumber}.xml
>
> That way I can add some of my own information (email address of owner,
> airport last sighted).
>
> I've never written any xml. But apparently there are gems I could add
> to my Ruby installation which would let me write it.
>
> Suggestions for where to start?
>
> I assume I'll wind up with a file that has
> <model>DA20</model>
> <serial>408.21</serial>
>
> and I can say things like
>   serial = xml('serial')
> and
>   xml(serial) = '408.21'
> right?
>
> I can picture writing these things, but I bet someone has already done the work.
>
> Thanks,
> --Colin

Why bother with xml at all? For something this small YAML would work
just as well and requires less work too.

require 'yaml'
planes = [ {:tailnumber => 'N1234Z', :model => 'DA20', :serial =>
'408.21'},
           {:tailnumber => 'N1234AZ', :model => 'magic happy
plane', :serial => '42'} ]
#write planes
File.open("planes.yaml", "w") { |f| f.puts tree.to_yaml }

#read planes
planes = YAML.load(File.open("planes.yaml"))
puts planes.first[:serial]
#408.21