RE: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML
HOW DO I JOIN THE FLEX.NET ALPHA/BETA TEST GROUP? J From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:flexcoders@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Scott Barnes Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 5:13 AM To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML heheheheheheh thats funny. I had to do a double take and thought am i reading the right list here or... Nice work ;) On 5/18/05, Hans Omli [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I don't suppose we'll be reading part 2 of this email via FlexCoders then. ;-) From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:flexcoders@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Gordon Smith Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 5:15 PM To: 'flexcoders@yahoogroups.com' Subject: RE: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML Oops... I meant to send this to an internal group, not to flexcoders. Enjoy the information, but, for now, don't expect this level of detail about our future plans. Of course, we do want your feedback on features for the next release, and we'll be sharing more plans with you in the future, as we get closer to the next release. Sorry, Gordon -Original Message- From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:flexcoders@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Gordon Smith Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 4:54 PM To: 'flexcoders@yahoogroups.com' Subject: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML As you may have gathered, we've been spending a lot of time lately leveraging the new features of the Flash Player in the new Flex application model. Naturally, you'll also be able to leverage those same new features, so we thought we'd start giving you a run down of what's new. Of course we don't have beta software for you to play with yet, so for now, we'll provide a lot of detail so you can evaluate these new features and give guidance for us. XML manipulation in Flex 2.0 is going to get a lot more powerful, as well as faster. By the time that Flex 2.0 ships, the Flash Player will support E4X (ECMAScript for XML), a set of programming language extensions adding native XML support to ECMAScript. The player team is busy implementing Standard ECMA-357 as described in http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-357.htm. Here's how the spec describes what this feature offers: E4X adds native XML datatypes to the ECMAScript language, extends the semantics of familiar ECMAScript operators for manipulating XML objects and adds a small set of new operators for common XML operations, such as searching and filtering. It also adds support for XML literals, namespaces, qualified names and other mechanisms to facilitate XML processing. Lets take a look at a few examples of how you can read XML data using E4X. As in the current player, you'll be able to create variables of type XML by parsing a String. But XML literals will now be supported as well: var employees:XML = employees employee ssn=123-123-1234 name first=John last=Doe/ address street11 Main St./street citySan Francisco/city stateCA/state zip98765/zip /address /employee employee ssn=789-789-7890 name first=Mary last=Roe/ address street99 Broad St./street cityNewton/city stateMA/state zip01234/zip /address /employee /employees; Instead of using DOM-style APIs like firstChild, nextSibling, etc., with E4X you just dot down to grab the node you want. Multiple nodes are indexable with [n], similar to the elements of an Array: trace(employees.employee[0].address.zip); --- 98765 To grab an attribute, you just use the .@ operator: trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]); --- 789-789-7890 If you don't pick out a particular node, you get all of them, as an indexable list: trace(employees.employee.name); --- name first=John last=Doe/ name first=Mary last=Roe/ (And note that nodes even toString() themselves into formatted XML!) A handy double-dot operator lets you omit the path down into the XML _expression_, so you could shorten the previous three examples to trace(employees..zip[0]); trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]); trace(employees..name); You can use a * wildcard to get a list of multiple nodes or attributes with various names, and the resulting list is indexable: trace(employees.employee[0].address.*); --- street11 Main St./street citySan Francisco/city stateCA/state zip98765/zip trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]); --- Doe You don't have to hard-code the identifiers for the nodes or attributes... they can themselves be variables: var whichNode:String = zip; trace(employees.employee[0].address[whichNode]); --- 98765 var whichAttribute:String = ssn; trace([EMAIL
Re: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML
You have to know the secret handshake, aswell as perform a series of trials ..i call them rights of flex-passage :) heh, umm i think they aren't even at the stage of Alpha yet, let alone any secret squiirel groups. :) ... or are they...hrmm! ;) -- Regards, Scott Barnes http://www.mossyblog.com http://www.flexcoder.com (Coming Soon) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flexcoders/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
RE: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML
There is nothing active in our Flex.NET forums right now so dont worry about it J From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:flexcoders@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Scott Barnes Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 2:37 AM To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML You have to know the secret handshake, aswell as perform a series of trials ..i call them rights of flex-passage :) heh, umm i think they aren't even at the stage of Alpha yet, let alone any secret squiirel groups. :) ... or are they...hrmm! ;) -- Regards, Scott Barnes http://www.mossyblog.com http://www.flexcoder.com (Coming Soon) Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flexcoders/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
RE: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML
Title: Message
This is very exciting! Im
especially excited about the double-dot and wildcard operators. Thanks for
this update, as itll help with planning for future projects. Keep em
coming!
/**
* Jeff Beeman
**/
From:
flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gordon Smith
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 4:54
PM
To: 'flexcoders@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex
2.0, part 1: Reading XML
As you may have gathered, we've been spending a lot of time lately
leveraging the new features of the Flash Player in the new Flex application
model. Naturally, you'll also be able to leverage those same new features, so
we thought we'd start giving you a run down of what's new. Of course we don't
have beta software for you to play with yet, so for now, we'll provide a lot of
detail so you can evaluate these new features and give guidance for us.
XML manipulation in Flex 2.0 is going to get a lot more
powerful, as well as faster.By the time that Flex 2.0 ships, the Flash
Player will support E4X (ECMAScript for XML), a set of programming
language extensions adding native XML support to ECMAScript.The player
team is busy implementing Standard ECMA-357 as
described in http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-357.htm.
Here'show the spec describes whatthis feature
offers:E4X adds native XML datatypes to the ECMAScript language,
extends the semantics of familiar ECMAScript operators for manipulating XML
objects and adds a small set of new operators for common XML operations, such
as searching and filtering. It also adds support for XML literals, namespaces,
qualified names and other mechanisms to facilitate XML processing.
Lets take a look at a few examples of how you can read XML
data using E4X.
As in the current player, you'll be able to create variables
of type XML by parsing a String. But XML literals will now be supported as
well:
var employees:XML =
employees
employee
ssn=123-123-1234
name first=John last=Doe/
address
street11 Main St./street
citySan Francisco/city
stateCA/state
zip98765/zip
/address
/employee
employee
ssn=789-789-7890
name first=Mary last=Roe/
address
street99 Broad St./street
cityNewton/city
stateMA/state
zip01234/zip
/address
/employee
/employees;
Instead of using DOM-style APIs like firstChild,
nextSibling, etc., with E4X you just dot down to grab the node you
want.Multiple nodes are indexable with [n], similar to the elements of an
Array:
trace(employees.employee[0].address.zip);
---
98765
Tograb an attribute, you just use the .@ operator:
trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]);
---
789-789-7890
If you don't pick out a particular node, you get all of
them, as an indexable list:
trace(employees.employee.name);
---
name first=John
last=Doe/
name first=Mary last=Roe/
(And note that nodeseven toString() themselves into
formatted XML!)
A handy double-dot operator lets you omit the
path down into the XML _expression_, so you could shorten the
previous three examples to
trace(employees..zip[0]);
trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]]);
trace(employees..name);
You can use a * wildcard toget a list of multiple
nodes or attributes with various names, and the resulting list is indexable:
trace(employees.employee[0].address.*);
---
street11 Main St./street
citySan Francisco/city
stateCA/state
zip98765/zip
trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]);
---
Doe
You don't have to hard-code the identifiers for the nodes or
attributes... they can themselves be variables:
var whichNode:String = zip;
trace(employees.employee[0].address[whichNode]);
---
98765
var whichAttribute:String =
ssn;
trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]);
---
789-789-7890
Anew for-each loop lets you loop over multiple nodes
or attributes:
for each (var ssn:XML in [EMAIL PROTECTED])
{
trace(ssn);
}
---
123-123-1234
789-789-7890
Most powerful of all, E4X supports predicate
filtering using the syntax .(condition),which lets you pick out
nodes or attributes that meet a condition you specify using a Boolean
_expression_. For example, you can pick out the employee with a particular social
security number like this, andget her state:
var ssnToFind:String =
789-789-7890;
trace(employees.employee.(@ssn == ssnToFind)..state);
---
MA
Instead of using a simple conditional operator like ==, you
can also write a complicated predicate filtering function to pick out the data
you need.
By the way, although none ofmy examples use XML
namespaces, E4X has complete support for them.
RE: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML
ROFL! Come on Gordon! If you are going to accidentally leak info, can you make it a bit juicier? ;) Maybe something about some super-secret project or the Adobe buyout or Flex 2 release dates. This is good info, but not *that* exciting! Still laughing... :) -James On Tue, 2005-05-17 at 17:15 -0700, Gordon Smith wrote: Oops... I meant to send this to an internal group, not to flexcoders. Enjoy the information, but, for now, don't expect this level of detail about our future plans. Of course, we do want your feedback on features for the next release, and we'll be sharing more plans with you in the future, as we get closer to the next release. Sorry, Gordon -Original Message- From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gordon Smith Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 4:54 PM To: 'flexcoders@yahoogroups.com' Subject: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML As you may have gathered, we've been spending a lot of time lately leveraging the new features of the Flash Player in the new Flex application model. Naturally, you'll also be able to leverage those same new features, so we thought we'd start giving you a run down of what's new. Of course we don't have beta software for you to play with yet, so for now, we'll provide a lot of detail so you can evaluate these new features and give guidance for us. XML manipulation in Flex 2.0 is going to get a lot more powerful, as well as faster. By the time that Flex 2.0 ships, the Flash Player will support E4X (ECMAScript for XML), a set of programming language extensions adding native XML support to ECMAScript. The player team is busy implementing Standard ECMA-357 as described in http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-357.htm. Here's how the spec describes what this feature offers: E4X adds native XML datatypes to the ECMAScript language, extends the semantics of familiar ECMAScript operators for manipulating XML objects and adds a small set of new operators for common XML operations, such as searching and filtering. It also adds support for XML literals, namespaces, qualified names and other mechanisms to facilitate XML processing. Lets take a look at a few examples of how you can read XML data using E4X. As in the current player, you'll be able to create variables of type XML by parsing a String. But XML literals will now be supported as well: var employees:XML = employees employee ssn=123-123-1234 name first=John last=Doe/ address street11 Main St./street citySan Francisco/city stateCA/state zip98765/zip /address /employee employee ssn=789-789-7890 name first=Mary last=Roe/ address street99 Broad St./street cityNewton/city stateMA/state zip01234/zip /address /employee /employees; Instead of using DOM-style APIs like firstChild, nextSibling, etc., with E4X you just dot down to grab the node you want. Multiple nodes are indexable with [n], similar to the elements of an Array: trace(employees.employee[0].address.zip); --- 98765 To grab an attribute, you just use the .@ operator: trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]); --- 789-789-7890 If you don't pick out a particular node, you get all of them, as an indexable list: trace(employees.employee.name); --- name first=John last=Doe/ name first=Mary last=Roe/
RE: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML
OK, OK. Next time I'll try to leak something that will get me fired. Somebody on the list can give me a job as a Flex developer. - Gordon -Original Message- From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of James Ward Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 5:24 PM To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML ROFL! Come on Gordon! If you are going to accidentally leak info, can you make it a bit juicier? ;) Maybe something about some super-secret project or the Adobe buyout or Flex 2 release dates. This is good info, but not *that* exciting! Still laughing... :) -James On Tue, 2005-05-17 at 17:15 -0700, Gordon Smith wrote: Oops... I meant to send this to an internal group, not to flexcoders. Enjoy the information, but, for now, don't expect this level of detail about our future plans. Of course, we do want your feedback on features for the next release, and we'll be sharing more plans with you in the future, as we get closer to the next release. Sorry, Gordon -Original Message- From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gordon Smith Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 4:54 PM To: 'flexcoders@yahoogroups.com' Subject: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML As you may have gathered, we've been spending a lot of time lately leveraging the new features of the Flash Player in the new Flex application model. Naturally, you'll also be able to leverage those same new features, so we thought we'd start giving you a run down of what's new. Of course we don't have beta software for you to play with yet, so for now, we'll provide a lot of detail so you can evaluate these new features and give guidance for us. XML manipulation in Flex 2.0 is going to get a lot more powerful, as well as faster. By the time that Flex 2.0 ships, the Flash Player will support E4X (ECMAScript for XML), a set of programming language extensions adding native XML support to ECMAScript. The player team is busy implementing Standard ECMA-357 as described in http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-357.htm. Here's how the spec describes what this feature offers: E4X adds native XML datatypes to the ECMAScript language, extends the semantics of familiar ECMAScript operators for manipulating XML objects and adds a small set of new operators for common XML operations, such as searching and filtering. It also adds support for XML literals, namespaces, qualified names and other mechanisms to facilitate XML processing. Lets take a look at a few examples of how you can read XML data using E4X. As in the current player, you'll be able to create variables of type XML by parsing a String. But XML literals will now be supported as well: var employees:XML = employees employee ssn=123-123-1234 name first=John last=Doe/ address street11 Main St./street citySan Francisco/city stateCA/state zip98765/zip /address /employee employee ssn=789-789-7890 name first=Mary last=Roe/ address street99 Broad St./street cityNewton/city stateMA/state zip01234/zip /address /employee /employees; Instead of using DOM-style APIs like firstChild, nextSibling, etc., with E4X you just dot down to grab the node you want. Multiple nodes are indexable with [n], similar to the elements of an Array: trace(employees.employee[0].address.zip); --- 98765 To grab an attribute, you just use the .@ operator: trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]); --- 789-789-7890 If you don't pick
RE: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML
Title: Message
I don't suppose we'll be reading part 2 of this email via
FlexCoders then. ;-)
From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gordon
SmithSent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 5:15 PMTo:
'flexcoders@yahoogroups.com'Subject: RE: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex
2.0, part 1: Reading XML
Oops... I meant to send this to an internal group, not to flexcoders.
Enjoy the information, but, for now, don't expect this level of detail about our
future plans. Of course, we do want your feedback on features for the next
release, and we'll be sharing more plans with you in the future, as we get
closer to the next release.
Sorry,
Gordon
-Original Message-From:
flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
Gordon SmithSent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 4:54 PMTo:
'flexcoders@yahoogroups.com'Subject: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0,
part 1: Reading XML
As
you may have gathered, we've been spending a lot of
time lately leveraging the new features of the Flash Player in the new Flex
application model. Naturally, you'll also be able to leverage those same new
features, so we thought we'd start giving you a run down of what's new. Of
course we don't have beta software for you to play with yet, so for now, we'll
provide a lot of detail so you can evaluate these new features and give
guidance for us.
XML
manipulation in Flex 2.0 is going to get a lot more powerful, as well as
faster.By the time that Flex 2.0 ships, the Flash Player will support
E4X ("ECMAScript for XML"), a set of programming language extensions adding
native XML support to ECMAScript.The player team is busy implementing
Standard ECMA-357 as described in http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-357.htm.
Here'show the spec describes
whatthis feature offers:"E4X adds native XML datatypes to the
ECMAScript language, extends the semantics of familiar ECMAScript operators
for manipulating XML objects and adds a small set of new operators for common
XML operations, such as searching and filtering. It also adds support for XML
literals, namespaces, qualified names and other mechanisms to facilitate XML
processing."
Lets take a look at a few examples
of how you can read XML data using E4X.
As in the current player, you'll
be able to create variables of type XML by parsing a String. But XML literals
will now be supported as well:
var
employees:XML =
employees
employee
ssn="123-123-1234"
name first="John"
last="Doe"/
address
street11 Main
St./street
citySan
Francisco/city
stateCA/state
zip98765/zip
/address
/employee
employee
ssn="789-789-7890"
name first="Mary"
last="Roe"/
address
street99 Broad
St./street
cityNewton/city
stateMA/state
zip01234/zip
/address
/employee
/employees;
Instead of using DOM-style APIs
like firstChild, nextSibling, etc., with E4X you just "dot down" to grab the
node you want.Multiple nodes are indexable with [n], similar to the
elements of an Array:
trace(employees.employee[0].address.zip);
---
98765
Tograb an attribute, you
just use the .@ operator:
trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]);
---
789-789-7890
If you don't pick out a particular
node, you get all of them, as an indexable list:
trace(employees.employee.name);
---
name
first="John" last="Doe"/
name
first="Mary" last="Roe"/
(And note that nodeseven
toString() themselves into formatted XML!)
A handy double-dot operator lets
you omit the "path" down into the XML _expression_, so you could shorten the
previous three examples to
trace(employees..zip[0]);
trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]]);
trace(employees..name);
You can use a * wildcard
toget a list of multiple nodes or attributes with various names, and the
resulting list is indexable:
trace(employees.employee[0].address.*);
---
street11 Main St./street
citySan Francisco/city
stateCA/state
zip98765/zip
trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]);
---
Doe
You don't have to hard-code the
identifiers for the nodes or attributes... they can themselves be
variables:
var
whichNode:String = "zip";
trace(employees.employee[0].address[whichNode]);
---
98765
var
whichAttribute:String = "ssn";
trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]);
---
789-789-7890
Anew for-each loop lets you
loop over multiple nodes or attributes:
fo
Re: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML
That is flat out increadible.
I can't wait!
Jeff
http://www.flexauthority.com
- Original Message -
From: Jeff Beeman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 5:04 PM
Subject: RE: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML
This is very exciting! I'm especially excited about the double-dot and
wildcard operators. Thanks for this update, as it'll help with planning
for future projects. Keep 'em coming!
/**
* Jeff Beeman
**/
_
From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Gordon Smith
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 4:54 PM
To: 'flexcoders@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML
As you may have gathered, we've been spending a lot of time lately
leveraging the new features of the Flash Player in the new Flex
application model. Naturally, you'll also be able to leverage those same
new features, so we thought we'd start giving you a run down of what's
new. Of course we don't have beta software for you to play with yet, so
for now, we'll provide a lot of detail so you can evaluate these new
features and give guidance for us.
XML manipulation in Flex 2.0 is going to get a lot more powerful, as
well as faster. By the time that Flex 2.0 ships, the Flash Player will
support E4X (ECMAScript for XML), a set of programming language
extensions adding native XML support to ECMAScript. The player team is
busy implementing Standard ECMA-357 as described in
http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-357.htm.
Here's how the spec describes what this feature offers: E4X adds native
XML datatypes to the ECMAScript language, extends the semantics of
familiar ECMAScript operators for manipulating XML objects and adds a
small set of new operators for common XML operations, such as searching
and filtering. It also adds support for XML literals, namespaces,
qualified names and other mechanisms to facilitate XML processing.
Lets take a look at a few examples of how you can read XML data using
E4X.
As in the current player, you'll be able to create variables of type XML
by parsing a String. But XML literals will now be supported as well:
var employees:XML =
employees
employee ssn=123-123-1234
name first=John last=Doe/
address
street11 Main St./street
citySan Francisco/city
stateCA/state
zip98765/zip
/address
/employee
employee ssn=789-789-7890
name first=Mary last=Roe/
address
street99 Broad St./street
cityNewton/city
stateMA/state
zip01234/zip
/address
/employee
/employees;
Instead of using DOM-style APIs like firstChild, nextSibling, etc., with
E4X you just dot down to grab the node you want. Multiple nodes are
indexable with [n], similar to the elements of an Array:
trace(employees.employee[0].address.zip);
---
98765
To grab an attribute, you just use the .@ operator:
trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]);
---
789-789-7890
If you don't pick out a particular node, you get all of them, as an
indexable list:
trace(employees.employee.name);
---
name first=John last=Doe/
name first=Mary last=Roe/
(And note that nodes even toString() themselves into formatted XML!)
A handy double-dot operator lets you omit the path down into the XML
expression, so you could shorten the previous three examples to
trace(employees..zip[0]);
trace([EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ]);
trace(employees..name);
You can use a * wildcard to get a list of multiple nodes or attributes
with various names, and the resulting list is indexable:
trace(employees.employee[0].address.*);
---
street11 Main St./street
citySan Francisco/city
stateCA/state
zip98765/zip
trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]);
---
Doe
You don't have to hard-code the identifiers for the nodes or
attributes... they can themselves be variables:
var whichNode:String = zip;
trace(employees.employee[0].address[whichNode]);
---
98765
var whichAttribute:String = ssn;
trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]);
---
789-789-7890
A new for-each loop lets you loop over multiple nodes or attributes:
for each (var ssn:XML in [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] )
{
trace(ssn);
}
---
123-123-1234
789-789-7890
Most powerful of all, E4X supports predicate filtering using the
syntax .(condition), which lets you pick out nodes or attributes that
meet a condition you specify using a Boolean expression. For example,
you can pick out
Re: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML
heheheheheheh thats funny. I had to do a double take and thought am i reading the right list here or... Nice work ;) On 5/18/05, Hans Omli [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I don't suppose we'll be reading part 2 of this email via FlexCoders then. ;-) From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gordon Smith Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 5:15 PM To: 'flexcoders@yahoogroups.com' Subject: RE: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML Oops... I meant to send this to an internal group, not to flexcoders. Enjoy the information, but, for now, don't expect this level of detail about our future plans. Of course, we do want your feedback on features for the next release, and we'll be sharing more plans with you in the future, as we get closer to the next release. Sorry, Gordon -Original Message- From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gordon Smith Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 4:54 PM To: 'flexcoders@yahoogroups.com' Subject: [flexcoders] E4X in Flex 2.0, part 1: Reading XML As you may have gathered, we've been spending a lot of time lately leveraging the new features of the Flash Player in the new Flex application model. Naturally, you'll also be able to leverage those same new features, so we thought we'd start giving you a run down of what's new. Of course we don't have beta software for you to play with yet, so for now, we'll provide a lot of detail so you can evaluate these new features and give guidance for us. XML manipulation in Flex 2.0 is going to get a lot more powerful, as well as faster. By the time that Flex 2.0 ships, the Flash Player will support E4X (ECMAScript for XML), a set of programming language extensions adding native XML support to ECMAScript. The player team is busy implementing Standard ECMA-357 as described in http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-357.htm. Here's how the spec describes what this feature offers: E4X adds native XML datatypes to the ECMAScript language, extends the semantics of familiar ECMAScript operators for manipulating XML objects and adds a small set of new operators for common XML operations, such as searching and filtering. It also adds support for XML literals, namespaces, qualified names and other mechanisms to facilitate XML processing. Lets take a look at a few examples of how you can read XML data using E4X. As in the current player, you'll be able to create variables of type XML by parsing a String. But XML literals will now be supported as well: var employees:XML = employees employee ssn=123-123-1234 name first=John last=Doe/ address street11 Main St./street citySan Francisco/city stateCA/state zip98765/zip /address /employee employee ssn=789-789-7890 name first=Mary last=Roe/ address street99 Broad St./street cityNewton/city stateMA/state zip01234/zip /address /employee /employees; Instead of using DOM-style APIs like firstChild, nextSibling, etc., with E4X you just dot down to grab the node you want. Multiple nodes are indexable with [n], similar to the elements of an Array: trace(employees.employee[0].address.zip); --- 98765 To grab an attribute, you just use the .@ operator: trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]); --- 789-789-7890 If you don't pick out a particular node, you get all of them, as an indexable list: trace(employees.employee.name); --- name first=John last=Doe/ name first=Mary last=Roe/ (And note that nodes even toString() themselves into formatted XML!) A handy double-dot operator lets you omit the path down into the XML expression, so you could shorten the previous three examples to trace(employees..zip[0]); trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]); trace(employees..name); You can use a * wildcard to get a list of multiple nodes or attributes with various names, and the resulting list is indexable: trace(employees.employee[0].address.*); --- street11 Main St./street citySan Francisco/city stateCA/state zip98765/zip trace([EMAIL PROTECTED]); --- Doe You don't have to hard-code the identifiers for the nodes or attributes... they can themselves be variables
