XML selectNodes using Classic ASP

asp-classicxml

XML problem that's got me stumped, but is probably very simple…

The XML is like:

    <header>
    <createdOn>16 Sep 2009</createdOn>
    <createdBy>Jez</createdBy>
</header>
<agents>
    <agent>
            <agentDetails>
                    <agentName>text</agentName>
                    <agentTelephone>text</agentTelephone>
            </agentDetails>
            <properties>
                    <property>
                            <propertyid>number</propertyid>
                            <address>
                                    <number>1</number>
                                    <street>High St</street>
                                    <postcode></postcode>
                                    <country>UK</country>
                            </address>
                            <price>
                                    <category>text</category>
                                    <price>number</price>
                                    <reference>text</reference>
                            </price>
                            <description>
                                    <propertyType>House</propertyType>
                                    <bedrooms>2</bedrooms>
                                    <bathrooms>1</bathrooms>
                                    <sleeps>
                                    <briefDescription>text</briefDescription>
                                    <addDescription>long-text</addDescription>
                                    <floorSize>
                                            <size>80</size>
                                            <type>sq. mt</type>
                                    </floorSize>
                                    <bullets>
                                            <bullet>No Of Bedrooms : 2</bullet>
                                            <bullet>Condition : Habitable</bullet>
                                            <bullet>Land Size (M2): 2,000</bullet>
                                    </bullets>
                            </description>
                            <images>
                                    <image>
                                            <thumbnail>URL</thumbnail>
                                            <image>URL</image>
                                            <alttext></alttext>
                                    </image>
                                    <image>
                                            <thumbnail>URL</thumbnail>
                                            <image>URL</image>
                                            <alttext></alttext>
                                    </image>
                            </images>
                            <links>
                                    <link>
                                            <type>text</type>
                                            <url>url</url>
                                    </link>
                                    <link>
                                            <type>text</type>
                                            <url>url</url>
                                    </link>
                            </links>
                    </property>
            </properties>
    </agent>
 </agents>

And the code I would like to use is:

    Set NodeList = objXML.documentElement.selectNodes("agents/agent/properties/property")
For Each Node In NodeList
    'I want to be able to extract distinct fields here...
    response.write Node.selectSingleNode("address/street") & "<br/>"
    response.write Node.selectSingleNode("description/briefDescription") & "<br/>"
Next

But, I don't know how.

ALso, this could be a problem with, for example, the <images> and <links> tags.

Suggestions please?

Best Answer

The code I'm using is:

Set NodeList = objXML.documentElement.selectNodes("agents/agent/properties/property")
For Each Node In NodeList
    Set AddrNode = Node.selectSingleNode("address/street/text()")
    if not AddrNode Is Nothing then response.write AddrNode.nodeValue & "<br/>"
    set AddrNode = nothing

    Set AddrNode = Node.selectSingleNode("address/region/text()")
    if not AddrNode Is Nothing then response.write AddrNode.nodeValue & "<br/>"
    set AddrNode = nothing

    For Each ImgNode In Node.selectNodes("images/image")
        Set ThNode = ImgNode.selectSingleNode("thumbnail/text()")
        if not ThNode Is Nothing then response.write ThNode.nodeValue & "<br/>"
        set ThNode = nothing
        Set ThNode = ImgNode.selectSingleNode("image/text()")
        if not ThNode Is Nothing then response.write ThNode.nodeValue & "<br/>"
        set ThNode = nothing
        Set ThNode = ImgNode.selectSingleNode("alttext/text()")
        if not ThNode Is Nothing then response.write ThNode.nodeValue & "<br/>"
        set ThNode = nothing
    next
Next

I hope someone else finds its useful!

XML escape characters

There are only five:

"   &quot;
'   &apos;
<   &lt;
>   &gt;
&   &amp;

Escaping characters depends on where the special character is used.

The examples can be validated at the W3C Markup Validation Service.

Text

The safe way is to escape all five characters in text. However, the three characters ", ' and > needn't be escaped in text:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<valid>"'></valid>

Attributes

The safe way is to escape all five characters in attributes. However, the > character needn't be escaped in attributes:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<valid attribute=">"/>

The ' character needn't be escaped in attributes if the quotes are ":

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<valid attribute="'"/>

Likewise, the " needn't be escaped in attributes if the quotes are ':

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<valid attribute='"'/>

Comments

All five special characters must not be escaped in comments:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<valid>
<!-- "'<>& -->
</valid>

CDATA

All five special characters must not be escaped in CDATA sections:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<valid>
<![CDATA["'<>&]]>
</valid>

Processing instructions

All five special characters must not be escaped in XML processing instructions:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?process <"'&> ?>
<valid/>

XML vs. HTML

HTML has its own set of escape codes which cover a lot more characters.

Python – How to parse XML and count instances of a particular node attribute

I suggest ElementTree. There are other compatible implementations of the same API, such as lxml, and cElementTree in the Python standard library itself; but, in this context, what they chiefly add is even more speed -- the ease of programming part depends on the API, which ElementTree defines.

First build an Element instance root from the XML, e.g. with the XML function, or by parsing a file with something like:

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
root = ET.parse('thefile.xml').getroot()

Or any of the many other ways shown at ElementTree. Then do something like:

for type_tag in root.findall('bar/type'):
    value = type_tag.get('foobar')
    print(value)

And similar, usually pretty simple, code patterns.