XML and flash is something that always seemed to be more complicated than it needed to be. Then I had an idea to parse the xml nodes into actionscript as objects, that would make working with xml tons easier for me, I could just parse it once and then forget about the xml, I could refer to something with the familiar dot syntax rather than worry about firstChild and nextChild and so forth…
And then I found someone who’d already done that with XML2Object.as, here it is:
XML@Object.as Class
Actionscript Class:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 | ////////////////// // - Derived from code written by Alessandro Crugnola - http://www.sephiroth.it/file_detail.php?id=129# // - Refactored and documented by Phil Powell - http://www.sillydomainname.com // - 25 July 2006 - Added helper method to sanitize Windows line breaks. ////////////////// // Convert an XML object to an object with nested properties. // // Example usage: // // import net.produxion.util.XML2Object; // var contentObj:Object; // var xml:XML = new XML(); // var xmlLoaded = function( success:Boolean ) // { // if( success ) // { // contentObj = XML2Object.deserialize( this ); // this['timeline'].play(); // } // } // // xml.ignoreWhite = true; // xml['timeline'] = this; // xml.onLoad = xmlLoaded; // xml.load( 'some.xml' ); // ///////////////// // What do you get back? // // <content created="22-May-2006"> // <title>My Title</title> // <links> // <heading>Here be links!</heading> // <link>http://somewhere.com</link> // <link>http://somewhere-else.com</link> // </links> // </content> // // Becomes: // // contentObj.content.title.data => "My Title" // contentObj.content.links.title.data => "Here be links!" // contentObj.content.links.link => [Array] // contentObj.content.links.link[0].data => "http://somewhere.com" // contentObj.content.attributes.created => "22-May-2006" ///////////////// class XML2Object {private var _result:Object; private var _xml:XML; private var _path:Object; private static var xml2object:XML2Object;public function XML2Object() { this._result = new Object(); } public static function deserialize( xml:XML ):Object { xml2object = new XML2Object(); xml2object.xml = xml; return xml2object.nodesToProperties(); } public function get xml():XML { return _xml; } public function set xml( xml:XML ):Void { this._xml = xml; } private function nodesToProperties( parent:XMLNode, path:Object, name:String, position:Number ):Object { var nodes:Array; var node:XMLNode; path == undefined ? path = this._result : path = path[name]; if( parent == undefined) parent = XMLNode( this._xml ); if( parent.hasChildNodes() ) { nodes = parent.childNodes; if (position != undefined) path = path[position]; while( nodes.length > 0 ) { node = XMLNode( nodes.shift() ); if ( node.nodeName != undefined ) { var obj = new Object(); obj.attributes = node.attributes; obj.data = sanitizeLineBreaks( node.firstChild.nodeValue ); if( path[node.nodeName] != undefined ) { if( path[node.nodeName].__proto__ == Array.prototype ) { path[node.nodeName].push( obj ); } else { var copyObj = path[node.nodeName]; delete path[node.nodeName]; path[node.nodeName] = new Array(); path[node.nodeName].push( copyObj ); path[node.nodeName].push( obj ); } position = path[node.nodeName].length - 1; } else { path[node.nodeName] = obj; position = undefined; } name = node.nodeName; } if( node.hasChildNodes() ) { this.nodesToProperties( node, path, name, position ); } } } return this._result; } private function sanitizeLineBreaks( raw:String ) { if( raw.indexOf( "\r\n" ) > -1 ) { return raw.split( "\r\n" ).join( "\n" ); } return raw; } } |
Example:
Source:
Here is my example file. But since you cant really see Objects in the code on the stage, I’ve included a recursive trace function to loop through the object and print the data.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 | import XML2Object; var xmlObject:Object; var xml:XML = new XML(); var xmlLoaded = function( success:Boolean ){ if( success ) { xmlObject = XML2Object.deserialize( this ); this['timeline'].play(); recurseTrace(xmlObject, " "); myTrace("\n\n") myTrace("xmlObject.catagories.catagory[10].name.data = "+xmlObject.catagories.catagory[10].name.data); } } xml.ignoreWhite = true; xml.onLoad = xmlLoaded; xml.load( 'sampleXML.xml' ); function recurseTrace(info:Object, indent:String) { for (var i in info) { if (info[i] == null){} else if (typeof info[i] == "object") { myTrace(indent + i + " -"); recurseTrace(info[i], indent); } else { myTrace(indent + i + " = " + info[i] +", "); } } } function myTrace(myLine:String){ feedback.text += "|"+myLine; trace(myLine); } |
And here’s my sample xml file: (it’s the same one I use in my Dynamic Flash Scrolling Link List files)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 | <catagories> <catagory> <name>3D</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/3d/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>abstract</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/abstract/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>actionscript</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/actionscript/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>animation</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/animation/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>blog</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/blog/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>book</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/book/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>CG</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/cg/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>charcoal</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/charcoal/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>circle cube</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/circle-cube/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>collage</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/collage/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>color</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/color/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>css</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/css/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>drawing</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/drawing/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>dreamweaver</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/dreamweaver/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>experiment</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/experiment/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>film</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/film/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>final cut</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/final-cut/</url> </catagory> <catagory> <name>flash</name> <url>http://blog.circlecube.com/tag/flash/</url> </catagory> </catagories> |
Download:
Here’s the XML2Object.as class: XML2Object.as class
Here’s a zip containing everything and the working example: xmlToObject.zip
13 COMMENTS
11 Apr 2008
