-------------------------------------------------------------------- SearchWin2000.com's Developer Tip -------------------------------------------------------------------- TODAY'S DEVELOPER TIP: HTML form data to XML conversion ============================================================ Sponsored by VeriSign - The Internet Trust Company ============================================================ Upgrade your server security to 128-bit SSL encryption! Get VeriSign's FREE guide, "Securing Your Web Site for Business." You will learn everything you need to know about using 128-bit SSL to encrypt your e-commerce transactions for serious online security. Click here! http://www.verisign.com/cgi-bin/go.cgi?a=n046640330014000 ==================================================================== "HTML form data to XML conversion" By Jasmit Kochhar What do you do with data when it has to go to a system based on XML? This tip, excerpted from InformIT at http://www.informit.com/content/index.asp?product_id={916AE4E6-B887-429D-94DB-7C9C039E1F48}, shows how you can easily convert from HTML to XML data. Do you have a tip from your experience? You can easily submit one and enter our tip contest by following this link http://searchwin2000.techtarget.com/tipsSubmit/1,289485,sid1,00.html. _____________________________________________________________________ Our objective in this article is to suggest some simple methods to use HTML forms to construct XML documents, which can then be passed to a database or saved as a file. We will start with a simple XML document. A Simple XML Document In this case, constructing the XML document requires iterating through the form data in the request object and writing the value of each form field as an XML Document Node. To exclude the form fields that we do not wish to include within the XML document, we will append the string "__exclude__" to the field name in the HTML form data. Assume that we have a simple XML document that we need to construct, as follows: <?xml version="1.0"?> <function> <func_name>ADD_USER</func_name> <firstname>Jasmit</firstname> <middlename>Singh</middlename> <lastname>Kochhar</lastname> <address>1234 Some Dr.</address> <city>Pleasant Hill</city> <state>CA</state> <zip>94523</zip> </function> The data is captured using the HTML form given as follows (NewUser.html): <html> <head><title>New User Information</title></head> <body> <form action="ProcessData.asp" method="post" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded"> <h2>Please provide the following information</h2> <input type="hidden" name="func_name" value="ADD_USER"> <table> <tr><td><b>First Name:</b></td> <td><input type="text" name="firstname" size="40"></td></tr> <tr><td><b>Middle Name:</b></td> <td><input type="text" name="middlename" size="40"></td></tr> <tr><td><b>Last Name:</b></td> <td><input type="text" name="lastname" size="40"></td></tr> <tr><td><b>Street Address:</b></td> <td><input type="text" name="address" size="40"></td></tr> <tr><td><b>City, State - Zip:</b></td> <td><input type="text" name="city" size="30">, <input type="text" name="state" size="2"> <input type="text" name="zip" size="10"></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"> <input type="submit" name="__exclude__Submit" value="Submit"> </td></tr> </table> </form> </body></html> The only difference in the preceding HTML form is the form field for the button with the name "__exclude__Submit." We wish to include all other input variables as part of the XML document generated. The form is submitted from a user's Web browser to the Web server that sends the data to the ASP page ProcessData.asp. The details for the page are as follows: <% Option Explicit '-------------------- ProcessData.asp------------------------------- '-------------------------------------------------------------------- ' The Function saveXMLData saves the XML doc in the filename specified. ' The function can be easily adapted to send the data directly to ' a database object '-------------------------------------------------------------------- Function saveXMLData(strPath, strFileName) 'Declare local variables. Dim aXMLDoc Dim aRootNode Dim aFormVar Dim aPI Dim Item 'Create an XMLDOM Object Set aXMLDoc = server.CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM") aXMLDoc.preserveWhiteSpace = True 'Create the root node for the document Set aRootNode = aXMLDoc.createElement("function") aXMLDoc.appendChild aRootNode 'Iterate the Request Object for all form data For Each item in Request.Form 'Do not include the variable if it contains __exclude__ If instr(1,item,"__exclude__") = 0 Then Set aFormVar =aXMLDoc.createElement(item) aFormVar.Text = Request.Form(item) aRootNode.appendChild aFormVar End If Next 'Append the processing instruction Set aPI = aXMLDoc.createProcessingInstruction("xml","version='1.0'") aXMLDoc.insertBefore aPI, aXMLDoc.childNodes(0) 'Save the XML document. aXMLDoc.save strPath & "\" & strFileName 'Release all references. Set aXMLDoc = Nothing Set aRootNode = Nothing Set aFormVar= Nothing Set item = Nothing Set aPI = Nothing End Function ' The page starts here On Error Resume Next ' Save the XML Data SaveXMLData "c:","NewUser.xml" If err.number <> 0 then Response.write("Errors occurred while saving your information."+ Err.Description) Else Response.write("Thank you for submitting your information.") End If %> _____________________________________________________________________ To read this entire tip, click over to InformIT at http://www.informit.com/content/index.asp?product_id={916AE4E6-B887-429D-94DB-7C9C039E1F48}. You have to register there, but the registration is free. ==================================================================== DID YOU LIKE THIS TIP? ==================================================================== Whether you loved it or hated it, why not let us know? Also, let us know what Windows development issues you want to read more about. 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