Difference between revisions of "XML Tutorial"

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(→‎Reading a text node: No need to create TXMLDocument before calling ReadXMLFile)
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For Delphi Programmers:
 
For Delphi Programmers:
Note that when working with TXMLDocument, the text within a Node is considered a separate TEXT Node.  As a result, you must access a node's text value as a separate node. For instance, consider the following XML:
+
Note that when working with TXMLDocument, the text within a Node is considered a separate TEXT Node.  As a result, you must access a node's text value as a separate node. Alternatively, the '''TextContent''' property may be used to retrieve content of all text nodes beneath the given one, concatenated together.
 +
 
 +
The '''ReadXMLFile''' procedure always creates a new '''TXMLDocument''', so you don't have to create it beforehand. However, be sure to destroy the document by calling '''Free''' when you are done.
 +
 
 +
For instance, consider the following XML:
  
 
<xml>
 
<xml>
Line 34: Line 38:
 
   Doc:      TXMLDocument;
 
   Doc:      TXMLDocument;
 
  begin
 
  begin
  Doc := TXMLDocument.Create;
 
 
   // Read in xml file from disk
 
   // Read in xml file from disk
 
   ReadXMLFile(Doc, 'c:\xmlfiles\test.xml');
 
   ReadXMLFile(Doc, 'c:\xmlfiles\test.xml');
Line 43: Line 46:
 
   // The text of the node is actually a separate child node
 
   // The text of the node is actually a separate child node
 
   WriteLn(PassNode.FirstChild.NodeValue); // correctly prints "abc"
 
   WriteLn(PassNode.FirstChild.NodeValue); // correctly prints "abc"
 +
  // alternatively
 +
  WriteLn(PassNode.TextContent);
 +
  // finally, free the document
 +
  Doc.Free;
 +
end;
 
</delphi>
 
</delphi>
  

Revision as of 16:04, 8 October 2007

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Introduction

The Extensible Markup Language is a W3C recommended language created to interchange information between different systems. It is a text based way to store information. Modern data interchange languages such as XHTML, as well as most WebServices technologies, are based on XML.

Currently there is a set of units that provides support for XML on Free Pascal. These units are called "XMLRead", "XMLWrite" and "DOM" and they are part of the Free Component Library (FCL) from the Free Pascal Compiler. The FCL is already on the default search path for the compiler on Lazarus, so you only need to add the units to your uses clause in order to get XML support. The FCL is not documented currently (October / 2005), so this short tutorial aims at introducing XML access using those units.

The XML DOM (Document Object Model) is a set of standarized objects that provide a similar interface for the use of XML on different languages and systems. The standard only specifies the methods, properties and other interface parts of the object, leaving the implementation free for different languages. The FCL currently supports fully the XML DOM 1.0.

Examples

Bellow there is a list of XML data manipulation examples with growing complexity.

Reading a text node

For Delphi Programmers: Note that when working with TXMLDocument, the text within a Node is considered a separate TEXT Node. As a result, you must access a node's text value as a separate node. Alternatively, the TextContent property may be used to retrieve content of all text nodes beneath the given one, concatenated together.

The ReadXMLFile procedure always creates a new TXMLDocument, so you don't have to create it beforehand. However, be sure to destroy the document by calling Free when you are done.

For instance, consider the following XML:

<xml>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<request>
  <request_type>PUT_FILE</request_type>
  <username>123</username>
  <password>abc</password>
</request>

</xml>

The following code example shows both the correct and the incorrect ways of getting the value of the text node:

<delphi>

var
 PassNode: TDOMNode;
 Doc:      TXMLDocument;
begin
 // Read in xml file from disk
 ReadXMLFile(Doc, 'c:\xmlfiles\test.xml');
 // Retrieve the "password" node
 PassNode := Doc.DocumentElement.FindNode('password');
 // Write out value of the selected node
 WriteLn(PassNode.NodeValue); // will be blank
 // The text of the node is actually a separate child node
 WriteLn(PassNode.FirstChild.NodeValue); // correctly prints "abc"
 // alternatively
 WriteLn(PassNode.TextContent);
 // finally, free the document
 Doc.Free;

end; </delphi>

Printing the names of nodes

The following example shows how to print the names of nodes to a TMemo placed on a form.

Bellow is the XML file called 'C:\Programas\teste.xml':

<xml>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<images directory="mydir">
 <imageNode URL="graphic.jpg" title="">
   <Peca DestinoX="0" DestinoY="0">Pecacastelo.jpg1.swf</Peca>
   <Peca DestinoX="0" DestinoY="86">Pecacastelo.jpg2.swf</Peca>
 </imageNode>
</images>

</xml>

And here the Pascal code to execute the task:

<delphi>

var
  Documento: TXMLDocument;
  i, j: Integer;
begin
  Documento := TXMLDocument.Create;
  ReadXMLFile(Documento, 'C:\Programas\teste.xml');
  Memo.Lines.Clear;
  with Documento.DocumentElement.ChildNodes do
  begin
    for i := 0 to (Count - 1) do
    begin
      Memo.Lines.Add(Item[i].NodeName + ' ' + Item[i].Attributes.Item[0].NodeValue);
      for j := 0 to (Item[i].ChildNodes.Count - 1) do
      begin
        Memo.Lines.Add(Item[i].ChildNodes.Item[j].NodeName + ' '
         + Item[i].ChildNodes.Item[j].FirstChild.NodeValue);
      end;
    end;
  end;
  Documento.Free;
end;

</delphi>

This will print:

imageNode graphic.jpg
Peca Pecacastelo.jpg1.swf
Peca Pecacastelo.jpg1.swf

Populating a TreeView with XML

One common use of XML files is to parse them and show their contents in a tree like format. You can find the TTreeView component on the "Common Controls" tab on Lazarus.

The function below will take a XML document previously loaded from a file or generated on code, and will populate a TreeView with it´s contents. The caption of each node will be the content of the first attribute of each node.

<delphi> procedure TForm1.XML2Tree(tree: TTreeView; XMLDoc: TXMLDocument); var

 iNode: TDOMNode;
 procedure ProcessNode(Node: TDOMNode; TreeNode: TTreeNode);
 var
   cNode: TDOMNode;
 begin
   if Node = nil then Exit; // Stops if reached a leaf
   
   // Adds a node to the tree
   TreeNode := tree.Items.AddChild(TreeNode, Node.Attributes[0].NodeValue);
   // Goes to the child node
   cNode := Node.ChildNodes.Item[0];
   // Processes all child nodes
   while cNode <> nil do
   begin
     ProcessNoDe(cNode, TreeNode);
     cNode := cNode.NextSibling;
   end;
 end;
   

begin

 iNode := XMLDoc.DocumentElement.ChildNodes.Item[0];
 while iNode <> nil do
 begin
   ProcessNode(iNode, nil); // Recursive
   iNode := iNode.NextSibling;
 end;

end; </delphi>

Modifying a XML document

The first thing to remember is that TDOMDocument is the "handle" to the DOM. You can get an instance of this class by creating one or by loading a XML document.

Nodes on the other hand cannot be created like a normal object. You *must* use the methods provided by TDOMDocument to create them, and latter use other methods to put them on the correct place on the tree. This is because nodes must be "owned" by a specific document on DOM.

Below are some common methods from TDOMDocument:

<delphi>

  function CreateElement(const tagName: DOMString): TDOMElement; virtual;
  function CreateTextNode(const data: DOMString): TDOMText;
  function CreateCDATASection(const data: DOMString): TDOMCDATASection;
    virtual;
  function CreateAttribute(const name: DOMString): TDOMAttr; virtual;

</delphi>

And here an example method that will located the selected item on a TTreeView and then insert a child node to the XML document it represents. The TreeView must be previously filled with the contents of a XML file using the XML2Tree function.

<delphi> procedure TForm1.actAddChildNode(Sender: TObject); var

 Posicao: Integer;
 NovoNo: TDomNode;

begin

 {*******************************************************************
 *  Detects the selected element
 *******************************************************************}
 if TreeView1.Selected = nil then Exit;
 if TreeView1.Selected.Level = 0 then
 begin
   Posicao := TreeView1.Selected.Index;
   NovoNo := XMLDoc.CreateElement('item');
   TDOMElement(NovoNo).SetAttribute('nome', 'Item');
   TDOMElement(NovoNo).SetAttribute('arquivo', 'Arquivo');
   XMLDoc.DocumentElement.ChildNodes.Item[Posicao].AppendChild(NovoNo);
   {*******************************************************************
   *  Updates the TreeView
   *******************************************************************}
   TreeView1.Items.Clear;
   XML2Tree(TreeView1, XMLDoc);
 end
 else if TreeView1.Selected.Level >= 1 then
 begin
   {*******************************************************************
   *  This function only works on the first level of the tree,
   *  but can easely modifyed to work for any number of levels
   *******************************************************************}
 end;

end; </delphi>


Create a TXMLDocument from a string

Given al XML file in MyXmlString, the following code will create it's DOM:

<delphi> Var

 S : TStringStream;
 XML : TXMLDocument;

begin

 S:= TStringStream.Create(MyXMLString);
 Try
   S.Position:=0;
   XML:=Nil;
   ReadXMLFile(XML,S); // Complete XML document
   // Alternatively:
   ReadXMLFragment(AParentNode,S); // Read only XML fragment.
 Finally
   S.Free;
 end;

end; </delphi>

External Links