Xml newbie

ruby-talk
1

Okay, so I am scraping the FAA site and keeping track of some airplanes.

A lot of the time I get a tail number and I have it already, so I am
going to store the important information in a file that is
{tailnumber}.xml

That way I can add some of my own information (email address of owner,
airport last sighted).

I've never written any xml. But apparently there are gems I could add
to my Ruby installation which would let me write it.

Suggestions for where to start?

I assume I'll wind up with a file that has
<model>DA20</model>
<serial>408.21</serial>

and I can say things like
  serial = xml('serial')
and
  xml(serial) = '408.21'
right?

I can picture writing these things, but I bet someone has already done the work.

Thanks,
--Colin

2

You'll want to take a look at HPricot[0] and/or XML Builder[1]

[0] http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/hpricot/
[1] http://rubyforge.org/projects/builder

···

On 6/22/07, Colin Summers <bladenut@gmail.com> wrote:

Okay, so I am scraping the FAA site and keeping track of some airplanes.

A lot of the time I get a tail number and I have it already, so I am
going to store the important information in a file that is
{tailnumber}.xml

That way I can add some of my own information (email address of owner,
airport last sighted).

I've never written any xml. But apparently there are gems I could add
to my Ruby installation which would let me write it.

Suggestions for where to start?

3

Why bother with xml at all? For something this small YAML would work
just as well and requires less work too.

require 'yaml'
planes = [ {:tailnumber => 'N1234Z', :model => 'DA20', :serial =>
'408.21'},
           {:tailnumber => 'N1234AZ', :model => 'magic happy
plane', :serial => '42'} ]
#write planes
File.open("planes.yaml", "w") { |f| f.puts tree.to_yaml }

#read planes
planes = YAML.load(File.open("planes.yaml"))
puts planes.first[:serial]
#408.21

···

On Jun 22, 7:27 pm, "Colin Summers" <blade...@gmail.com> wrote:

Okay, so I am scraping the FAA site and keeping track of some airplanes.

A lot of the time I get a tail number and I have it already, so I am
going to store the important information in a file that is
{tailnumber}.xml

That way I can add some of my own information (email address of owner,
airport last sighted).

I've never written any xml. But apparently there are gems I could add
to my Ruby installation which would let me write it.

Suggestions for where to start?

I assume I'll wind up with a file that has
<model>DA20</model>
<serial>408.21</serial>

and I can say things like
  serial = xml('serial')
and
  xml(serial) = '408.21'
right?

I can picture writing these things, but I bet someone has already done the work.

Thanks,
--Colin

4

Errr tree.to_yaml should of course be planes.to_yaml. It's late :slight_smile:

···

On Jun 23, 12:16 am, "cardboar...@gmail.com" <cardboar...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Jun 22, 7:27 pm, "Colin Summers" <blade...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Okay, so I am scraping the FAA site and keeping track of some airplanes.

> A lot of the time I get a tail number and I have it already, so I am
> going to store the important information in a file that is
> {tailnumber}.xml

> That way I can add some of my own information (email address of owner,
> airport last sighted).

> I've never written any xml. But apparently there are gems I could add
> to my Ruby installation which would let me write it.

> Suggestions for where to start?

> I assume I'll wind up with a file that has
> <model>DA20</model>
> <serial>408.21</serial>

> and I can say things like
> serial = xml('serial')
> and
> xml(serial) = '408.21'
> right?

> I can picture writing these things, but I bet someone has already done the work.

> Thanks,
> --Colin

Why bother with xml at all? For something this small YAML would work
just as well and requires less work too.

require 'yaml'
planes = [ {:tailnumber => 'N1234Z', :model => 'DA20', :serial =>
'408.21'},
           {:tailnumber => 'N1234AZ', :model => 'magic happy
plane', :serial => '42'} ]
#write planes
File.open("planes.yaml", "w") { |f| f.puts tree.to_yaml }

#read planes
planes = YAML.load(File.open("planes.yaml"))
puts planes.first[:serial]
#408.21

5

Oh, for some reason I thought the OP was scraping XML files and wanted
to keep the structure intact but just change parts. If all that is
needed is data persistence, YAML is a better choice for sure.

···

On 6/23/07, cardboard42@gmail.com <cardboard42@gmail.com> wrote:

On Jun 22, 7:27 pm, "Colin Summers" <blade...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Okay, so I am scraping the FAA site and keeping track of some airplanes.
>
> A lot of the time I get a tail number and I have it already, so I am
> going to store the important information in a file that is
> {tailnumber}.xml
>
> That way I can add some of my own information (email address of owner,
> airport last sighted).
>
> I've never written any xml. But apparently there are gems I could add
> to my Ruby installation which would let me write it.
>
> Suggestions for where to start?
>
> I assume I'll wind up with a file that has
> <model>DA20</model>
> <serial>408.21</serial>
>
> and I can say things like
> serial = xml('serial')
> and
> xml(serial) = '408.21'
> right?
>
> I can picture writing these things, but I bet someone has already done the work.
>
> Thanks,
> --Colin

Why bother with xml at all? For something this small YAML would work
just as well and requires less work too.