Need help in parsing XML file

madhi · 07-09-2009, 12:38 AM

Hi,

Need help in parsing xml file using shell script and generate report in a PDF file

Xml file input

<report>
<student name="x" father name="x1" class="first" Address="xyz">
<property name="sports" value="yes"/>
<property name="drawing" value="no"/>
</student>
<student name="y" father name="y1" class="first" Address="zxy">
<property name="sports" value="yes"/>
<property name="drawing" value="no"/>
</student>
<student name="z" father name="z1” class="second" Address="yzx">
<property name="sports" value="no"/>
<property name="drawing" value="yes"/>
<property name="singing" value="yes"/>
</student>
</report>

There might be n number of records

Output format (in PDF)

1. student name
x
Address
xyz
sports
Yes
drawing
No
singing
Na
2.student name
y
Address
zxy
sports
Yes
drawing
No
singing
Na
3.student name
z
Address
yzx
sports
No
drawing
Yes
singing
yes

Thanks in advance

PMP · 07-09-2009, 12:56 AM

What i will suggest you is if you have access to perl use perl to parse this XML. With shell script you need to do a good amount a calculation, almost a parser in shell script

madhi · 07-09-2009, 01:13 AM

Thanks PMP for your reply,

Do we need parser stuff to be installed in perl module
can i have some points from you

Thnaks
Madhi

PMP · 07-09-2009, 01:22 AM

Yes, there is module called XML::Simple which can make your life much easier.

check this link http://search.cpan.org/~grantm/XML-S.../XML/Simple.pm

In case you dont have this module installed, install it on your machine along with dependecies.

madhi · 07-09-2009, 02:45 AM

Hi PMP,

I have installed XML::Simple module from the link but how to i get the dependecies installed.

Thanks,
Madhi

PMP · 07-09-2009, 03:08 AM

It it gets installed successfully Then all the required dependcies are already present;

Try writing a simple code as there in the example. It should work.

madhi · 07-09-2009, 03:32 AM

Hi PMP,

I am running perl(5.8 version) on suse linux 10 with XML-Simple-2.18, when i run sample code i am getting error as:
not well-formed (invalid token) at line 2, column 25, byte 34 at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/i586-linux-thread-multi/XML/Parser.pm line 187
code:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use XML::Simple;
$xml = new XML::Simple;
$data = $xml->XMLin("data.xml");
use Data:

umper;
print Dumper($data);

Thanks
Madhi

PMP · 07-09-2009, 04:15 AM

Seems like your XML is not valid try running xmllint on it. In case you do not have xmllint try out with simple XML. This seems a problem with the XML file.

madhi · 07-09-2009, 04:50 AM

xmllint soved the problem, The code is running as expected

Thanks for guiding me to write first perl program

-Madhi

theNbomr · 07-09-2009, 08:15 AM

I would guess that it doesn't like the attribute name 'father name', due to the embedded whitespace.
--- rod.

chrism01 · 07-10-2009, 12:23 AM

If you're going to do more Perl (and you probably will), you'll need this: http://perldoc.perl.org/

madhi · 07-10-2009, 01:26 AM

Thanks chris,

I need to work on multilevel xml parsing stuff, do you have any source/links where i can get some inputs on complex parsing, right now i am using XML::LibXML module.

Thanks
Madhi

PMP · 07-10-2009, 01:36 AM

You are parsing XML, hence you are reading XML not writing, what i will suugest you is to stick to XML::Simple it is far easier wrapper thats gives you a perfect data structure from the XML