Hi Nick, Don't forget, XML is merely a representation of the data. If you can hack apart the XML file for the stuff you want, then go for it.
In regards to your other comments, I would firstly recommend Python, of course, and the built-in DOM. I first learned how to play with this from the book 'Dive Into Python' http://www.diveintopython.org/ Hopefully you have time to dabble to get what you want. Please read chapters 9 & 10. The topics dart about a bit, but persevere. I'm afraid the URL you gave doesn't work for me, but in Python you should be able to create an XML document object and parse the data from the URL directly (see example 10.2 in 'Dive Into Python') The other stuff you mention is easily handled in Python (string handling/parsing, mySQL link, etc.), but if you want to try Ruby or something else then go ahead. Once you have grokked some of the XML concepts you should be able to see how they are manifested in other languages. Have fun. Andrew PS There is no tool for XML. You have to know what you are expecting, and then look for it. The 'tools' such as they are just make this process easier. On Mon, October 29, 2007 12:16, Nick Rout wrote: > I wamt to make an application that takes some text input and then does > some queries on a web page to get some results (which are returned in xml). > > > The xml must then be parsed and that will likely result in another query > (ie you parse the results of query 1 for one of the terms of query 2.) > > > The queries are in the form: > > > http://site.com/interfaces/GetEpisodes.php?seriesid=72449&season=8&episod > e=8 > > I know this stuff is probably really old hat to many of you pros out > there, but I am not sure where to start or which libraries/extensions to > use. I am probably more proficient at python than anything else, but I > recently got a book out of the library on Ruby (but have only opened it > once). There will be some string processing too, parsing filenames to get > the initial query, and then some database writing to get the resulting > info into a mysql database. I guess I am looking for a quick pointer to a > tutorial on web/xml/sax(?) programming, or a pointer to the easiest > tool. > > Cheers. > > > > -- > Nick Rout > > >
