xml problems

freddyfredfredfreddyfredfred
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I need some XML help.



I have data in excel that I need to convert to XML in a particular way, making one column a property of another column.



In this particular case, converting it to XML isn't really the problem; that's done already. The program I'm trying to use this data with does that for me already. What I'm having trouble with is working around a problem that requires me to insert two properties in a tag. I'll give an example:



I have these fields (in excel and in the XML file)...





<myfield1>some data</myfield1>

<myfield2>some data 2</myfield2>



What I need is the following (approximate, I don't remember the exact syntax I need):





<myfield1 property="SomeStaticText" property2="some data 2">some data</myfield1>



How in the world can I do that without having to do it manually?



And once we're on the topic of XML, does anyone have a program they can recommend? Mac or PC at this point.... I can't find anything easy/simple to create XML files and excel seems to export one heck of a mess for XML.



Thanks

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    TextMate has a pretty good XML editing mode. Not free though.



    What you want is an XSLT. It's a ruleset for converting XML formats, and can easily handle what you want. Non-trivial though. You'll also need to get an XSLT engine. I use xsltproc, a command line tool.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    dmzdmz Posts: 5,775member
    Kickaha is right, an XSLT is what you need. Go to Megashaft's site and grab Visual Web Developer Express (free!) it can 'do' your transforms, (you'll just have to write them.)
  • Reply 3 of 3
    freddyfredfredfreddyfredfred Posts: 20member
    I am so smart, S-M-R-T.....



    You guys scared me pretty good with the XSLT stuff. I looked into it, downloaded programs and gave up. I figured it would be faster to do it by hand than to learn what I needed.



    Using my favourite method of solving problems, the kludgy work-around, I think I solved this.



    All my data is in excel so I can create a new field that looks like this:



    parameter="1000-2000" format="static text"abc123



    The 1000-2000 and the abc123 are pulled from other cells so that's easy to do, just one formula with lots of quotation marks



    I import that data into the program then asked it to export an XML file for me.



    I now have a field that looks like this





    <my_field>parameter="1000-2000" format="static text"abc123</my_field>



    I open the XML file in BBEdit and do two find&replaces'.....



    <my_field>parameter -> <my_field parameter



    format="static text" -> format="static text">



    my line now looks like this:

    <my_field parameter="1000-2000" format="static text">abc123</my_field>



    which is exactly what I wanted.



    Other than having to wait for data to import and export a few extra times it's pretty quick and painless.... assuming BBEdit is ok with 50mb file (i've yet to test that part but I don't anticipate a problem doing the search and replace). I can use smaller pieces if need be.



    Thanks for the suggestions though. If I wasn't scared off with the XSLT stuff I might never have found the easier solution (easier for me anyway)
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