Generating an XML file

[Arukas]

I am trying to generate an XML file using the xml streaing classes in Qt. I running into a problem. Qt's XML writer's documentation is too technical for me. I can write a XML file by brute force but I rather not.

So my question, anyone know where I can get a pragmatic tutorial on XML? I did some searching around and have not found anything useable yet.

Thanks,
Arukas

[fixed typo in title, Eddy]

[Arukas]

Let me add some more to that. I have read some more tutorials and I'm finding that I am thinking I am having more problems with the XML Streaming than the actual XML.

I found some XML streaming examples, and they don't do what I am looking for. It's putting everything on the same line. I'd like the tags and comments to be on their own line. I like to add roots, but I can't figure that out.

About all I can do is start an XML document and add an element. I can't really figure anything else out. The XML file I am working on is pretty simple, but I can't figure out how to make XML streaming work for me.

-Arukas

[Arukas]

I found one of the problems to my questions, but it made another problem. There's a setAutoFormatting to true, but it does no autoformating. I also followed the example in the Qt Help file.

I'm still having problem creating roots.

[andre]

Could you show a small sample of the XML you'd like to generate, and the code you are now using to try to generate that?

[Arukas]

Here is a sample XML

@<?xml verision="1.0"?>
<!-- Space for Rent -->
<Forest>
<Number_of_Trees>200</Trees>
<Tree_1 bark="mossy" leaves="none" nest="lots"/>
<Animals>
<!-- Legally distinguable from Bambi -->
<Rabbit>Thumperette</Rabbit>
<Skunk>Rose</Skunk>
</Animals>
</Forest>@

Here is how I started with the code:

@QXmlStreamWriter writer(&file);
writer.setAutoFormatting(true);
writer.writeStartDocument("1.0");
writer.writeComment("Space for Rent);@

That is as far as I have gotten. I can't figure out how to make the <Forest> and <Animals> parts. I don't know what function covers that. I played around with the functions and still haven't figured out how to make it what I want to do.

When I open it up in a text editior, everything is on the same line, which will ultimately make it hard to read for humans. And I haven't messed with the other stuff much because if I can't do the roots and sub roots, I'll have to use another method.

-Arukas

[andre]

Well, you could continue like this:
@
writer.writeStartElement("Forest");
writer.writeTextElement("Number_of_Trees", QString::number(200));
writer.writeStartElement("Tree_1");
writer.writeAttribute("bark", "mossy");
writer.writeAttribute("leaves", "none");
writer.writeAttribute("nest", "lots");
writer.writeEndElement(); //Tree_1
//...
writer.writeEndElement(); //Forest;
writer.writeEndDocument(); // End of document
@

Note: code not tested, just typed into the forum reply...

[Arukas]

I appreciate the help. That got me started on what I need to do, and works great. However, I still have one problem.

This line
@writer.setAutoFormatting(true);@

The description says it suppose to add line breaks to add to the readability. However, it does not add any line breaks. All I can figure out is how to adjust the number of spaces.

Thanks,
Arukas

[andre]

That is strange... I have no clue what is going wrong for you then. It works for me.

[Arukas]

I see the standard 4 spaces which is the default. Maybe I'm doing something wrong when I open the files, but I really doubt it.

Is there a way I can force those line breaks?

[goetz]

writer.setAutoFormatting(true) works for me.

The lines are separated by a single newline, maybe your editor does not recognize that as a line break.

[Arukas]

I've been using notepad to open files. I tried wordpad and it works fine.

Now that I'm thinking, I had a problem like this before. My understanding, in the past you needed two things to get to the next line. You needed a carriage return to get back to the beginning of the line and a line feed to start a new line. Although, I'm not sure how to correct it. Only reason I think I know this is I was doing something in Linux and tried it in Windows and wondered why it didn't work.

I think it, is how I am opening the file. This is the only way I know how to open files in Qt. Is a different way to correct the problem.

@ QString filename="F.xml";
QFile file;
file.setFileName(filename);@

[goetz]

There are three kinds of marking a new line:

• LF (\n)
  a single newline character
  the usual way on Unix, Linux and Mac OS X
• CRLF (\r\n)
  a carriage return followed by a newline
  that's commonly used on Windows
• CR (\r)
  a single carriage return
  that was used by Mac OS up to version 9

See wikipedia on "Newline":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline for some more details.

Notepad is known to work only with the traditional Windows CRLF line endings, while Wordpad is able to handle pure LF too. I personally avoid Notepad completely for that purpose.

Regarding your QFile questions:

You can combine the first two lines together into one:

@
QFile file("F.xml");
@

A possible solution to the line ending problem could be to open the file in text mode:

@
QFile file("F.xml");
if(!file.open(QIODevice::WriteOnly | QIODevice::Text)) {
// handle the error here
}
@

bq. *The QIODevice::Text docs state:"
When reading, the end-of-line terminators are translated to '\n'. When writing, the end-of-line terminators are translated to the local encoding, for example '\r\n' for Win32.

Make sure that the software/classes reading your XML can handle the CRLF too.

I personally avoid the QIODevice::Text flag, though. It's rarely needed nowadays.

[andre]

[quote author="Arukas" date="1323216964"]I've been using notepad to open files. I tried wordpad and it works fine.[/quote]
Might I suggest you get yourself a decent text editor, like "Notepad++":http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ perhaps?

[fluca1978]

Emacs runs even on Windows!