how to extract the values of the "For" attribute using E4X and Flex / Flash ActionScript

Question

I have an XML document that looks like this

<someRoot xmlns:ix="someURL.com">
  <ns:InventoryPage Title="something">
    <ns:Inventory Id="inventory">
      <ns:InventoryView ID="inventoryView">
        <Menu>
          <ns:GridCreateActionLink Override="true" Visible="false" runat="server"/>
        </Menu>
        <Columns>
          <ns:Column For="IncidentNo" LinkTo="default"/>
          <ns:Column DisplayAs="string" For="Location"/>
          <ns:Column For="DateaTimeOccur" Format="d"/>
          <ns:Column For="Description"/>
          <ns:Column For="Workflow.PersonResponsible" displayas="string"/>
          <ns:Column For="Workflow.DueDate" Format="d"/>
          <ns:Column For="DateClosed" Format="d"/>
          <ns:Column DisplayAs="string" For="Workflow.Status"/>
    </Columns>
  </ns:InventoryView>
</ns:Inventory>

My objective is simple, I am coding with Adobe Flex / AS3 and want to retrieve all the values of the FOR attributes in the column tags and store them in an array.

Assuming the code above is in an XML object called xmlObj, I did the following

var xmlObj:XML = new XML(theXMLAbove);

var someXMLList:XMLList = new XMLList(xmlObj);

This is where I was scratching my head. I tried using e4x to retrieve the values. For example

trace (xmlObj.InventoryPage.Inventory.InventoryView.Columns.column[0].(@For));

or trace (xmlObj.column[0].(@For));

trace (someXMLList:XMLList .InventoryPage.Inventory.InventoryView.Columns.column[0].(@For));

or trace (someXMLList:XMLList .column[0].(@For));

I keep on getting an empty XMLList. or null. Am I going about this all wrong? Would appreciate some help in proceeding. thanks - Edward

The most trivial thing is that this is case sensitive and according to your XML file column[0] must be Column[0] — C.O., Jul 17 '13 at 18:03

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 17 '13 at 18:57

You need to be extra careful when using namespaces.

var xmlObj:XML = new XML(
    <ns:someRoot xmlns:ns="http://www.someURL.com/ns-someRoot">
        <ns:InventoryPage Title="something">
            <ns:Inventory Id="inventory">
                <ns:InventoryView ID="inventoryView">
                    <Menu>
                        <ns:GridCreateActionLink Override="true" Visible="false" runat="server"/>
                    </Menu>
                    <Columns>
                        <ns:Column For="IncidentNo" LinkTo="default"/>
                        <ns:Column DisplayAs="string" For="Location"/>
                        <ns:Column For="DateaTimeOccur" Format="d"/>
                        <ns:Column For="Description"/>
                        <ns:Column For="Workflow.PersonResponsible" displayas="string"/>
                        <ns:Column For="Workflow.DueDate" Format="d"/>
                        <ns:Column For="DateClosed" Format="d"/>
                        <ns:Column DisplayAs="string" For="Workflow.Status"/>
                    </Columns>
                </ns:InventoryView>
            </ns:Inventory>
        </ns:InventoryPage>
    </ns:someRoot>
);


var theNameSpace:Namespace = xmlObj.namespace();
var columns:XMLList = xmlObj.theNameSpace::InventoryPage.theNameSpace::Inventory.theNameSpace::InventoryView.Columns.theNameSpace::Column;

trace(columns.@For.length() )
var somelist:XMLList = columns.@For
var arr:Array = []
for each( var someFor:String in somelist){
    arr.push(someFor)
}
trace(arr)

how to extract the values of the "For" attribute using E4X and Flex / Flash ActionScript

1 Answers1