forum.vdsworld.com

[gerrit]

Has someone some experience in parsing XML files? Is there may a function to Parse them?
I don't kenw how to do it, because I dont think that's possible with the parse Command.

;)) Thanks,
Gerrit

[FreezingFire]

Welcome to the forums, Gerrit!

VDS doesn't include an XML parsing component, but it can be done. What
kind of XML file are you planning to parse?

[gerrit]

Hi FreezingFire, thanks for the Welcome... ;)

Well I think to go a bit more than this..
I wrote a small Programm witsh will write Combustion Workspaces.
Combustion is a Compositing tool like Photoshop (i.e. After effects) just for working on film and Video's. I'm Working since 12 Jears in this Job as (mostly) Demo artist.
The big Problem of all these Film Company's is that they are not communicating to another software, so I tried to learn C++ to just Mixx some Lists in a logical Position together. It was a desaster to do this in C++ .. Copycat.. Thousend of classes and this bloody ";" witsh I forgot every line....
Than I found (was wery hard to find) VDS, and like every other scripting laguage I was wery fast to Produce something useful.
After a Half jear Work I got this damm Workspace done without any kind of development or description on their company side. (kind of reverse engeneering..)

Okay now to come to the Point..
I can now Write with my tool these Workspaces, but some of the NLE (Non Linear Editing) Company's write just XML Files of any nessesary Parameters in a timeline.
My Problem is that I can just write this file by loading a List (Textfile) and Processing the Data.
When these Companys are not writing exactly my Textfile than I cant Process this file.
Some of these Company's only support XML Output, and they don't want to spepnd any Programmer to make my tool Working. They all Want it, also all the Customers who bought Combustion, but they don't wanna spend some time to Make this working.
I'm not doing this to make the big mony. I'm doing this because I'm also a customer, and it pisses me off that some BIG Fat Company's earning so mutsh mony while some small Company's have a very good tecnoligy or idea behind it, and U can't brig the result into another software. Other words I want to blast off some big comp's with it.

What I want is to may scan eatsh line in a XML file. I don't knew exactly the XML Description jet.
<layer foo>
<Filename fooooo.foo 12 50 13 12>
<Scale Layer foo 50 50>
</layer foo>

What I need to do is to load them into a list... already done it with Html Files. And then to find a string <Layer XXXXXX> If I found this string I will scan eatsh other line for the Param's until </Layer XXXXXX>
For this I need just the command to do this... How it works I will figure out myself... to save some time here.. ;)

I think that's all I need to do, because when I knew how to seperate the XXXXX than I can Process the Data by the same.
I realy did'nt find a command/func to search in a line of a list for a specific string and the next following chr's until the > Or Space put in Variable Foo....


I hope that you can undersand... my bloody english i meen.... ;)))

Thanks a Lot... ;)
Gerrit

[jules]

There isn't a command to do this. You would have to write some code.

I would build some parsing routines with code like:

[gerrit]

Thanks jules..

That was exactly what I needed...

Made a function for it, but still have Problems with characters like " " and "="??

(Missing Parameter(s) to command)
Do I need to use the @Chr() Function for these sign's?

Function is:

[gerrit]

Tried around a lot, but I can't get this Func working....

To Parse a XML File it's nessesary to search Chr's like "=" @Chr(32) and " " @Chr(61).
But my Func. is still telling me that he's missing a Parameter..??

I tried now with...

[FreezingFire]

Did you create a user-defined function XMLParse?

[Vic D'Elfant]

I assume that you need to parse a value between two XML tags... am I right?
Well, I needed such a thing a while ago... I've posted the code below, you can have a look if it's of any use

[gerrit]

Hi FreezingFire, Vic...

Jeeep, did this Func by myself... with a bit help from Jules.
With this I learned how to use the SubStr func.

I tried a bit mor, and figured out that my little Problem has nothing to do with the Func. It seem's that SubStr Function doesn't take any signs witsh are used by VDS itself "()=, ", eaven if they are defined with a @Chr() Func. <-- is this possible??
If yes, are all Func's limited to this?
Well my plan was to prvent external dll's first, and learn the basic language of VDS. But if this is a limitation, than there is no other way than to use a DLL.

The point is when I use myown Func, than I can tweek it as needed, and understand how the basic parsing of soem param's work.

The XML what I want to parse looks like this, and I think I need to parse in a more complex way than just <></>...
When I parsed everything, I need to find a way to put the colected data in a kind of order to put it into my other programm that he writes a CWS (Combustion Workspace)

May someone of the have an Idea..
But thanks Vic, I will into the DLL anyway...

[vdsalchemist]

Welcome Gerrit,
I am not sure what your XMLParse is supposed to return but take a look at the changes I have made to it and tell me if this is close to what you want?

[vdsalchemist]

Gerrit,
I thought about this some more and here ya go... I think you should be able to add features to this but this is the basics. I am sure it can be optimised more but you should be able to do simple XML/HTML parsing with this script. About the only thing it may have trouble with is the DOCTYPE tag and you will have to use an external loop to get tags that are repeated in the XML??? Still needs more work but have fun it's a start

[gerrit]

Thanks...
I need a while to understand what exactly you did there..

but Thanks a lot...


gerrit