I'm really having problems getting hierarchical XML values back in a form that I can actually use, so any assistance would be much appreciated. I'm pretty new to Swift and IOS development, so to be honest I do not fully understand the parser, but I am hopeful after this that I will!
Here's an example XML that I am trying to parse, this comes back from a soap web service. All that side in terms of connecting and getting the data works perfectly fine
<s:Envelope
xmlns:s="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<s:Body>
<get_Entry_DetailsResponse
xmlns="http://tempuri.org/">
<get_Entry_DetailsResult>
<ApiResult
xmlns="">
<Status>Success</Status>
<Parameters>
<TotalRecords>1</TotalRecords>
<Records>
<Entry>
<Entry_ID>1234</Entry_ID>
<Title>This is the Title</Title>
<Description>This is a description.</Description>
<Charge_USD>3</Charge_USD>
<Charge_GBP>1.5</Charge_GBP>
<Classifications>
<Classification_Type>No. Of Colours</Classification_Type>
<Description>10</Description>
<Classification_Type>Height</Classification_Type>
<Description>16.712</Description>
<Classification_Type>Width</Classification_Type>
<Description>1.485</Description>
<Classification_Type>Width Count</Classification_Type>
<Description>11</Description>
<Classification_Type>Pages</Classification_Type>
<Description>6</Description>
<Classification_Type>Type</Classification_Type>
<Description>Type Description</Description>
<Classification_Type>Topic</Classification_Type>
<Description>Transport</Description>
<Classification_Type>Item</Classification_Type>
<Description>Shop Item</Description>
<Classification_Type>Material</Classification_Type>
<Description>Metal</Description>
<Classification_Type>Manufacturer</Classification_Type>
<Description>Unknown</Description>
</Classifications>
</Entry>
</Records>
</Parameters>
</ApiResult>
</get_Entry_DetailsResult>
</get_Entry_DetailsResponse>
</s:Body>
</s:Envelope>
So I can get elements like the Entry_ID, Title, Description, Charge_GBP and Charge_USD fine, it's how to get the classifications back into the code so I can actually use it to output it on the page.
So here is my connectionDidFinishLoading, where I start the parser off and running:
func connectionDidFinishLoading(connection: NSURLConnection!) {
var xmlParser = NSXMLParser(data: mutableData)
xmlParser.delegate = self
xmlParser.parse()
xmlParser.shouldResolveExternalEntities = true
}
Then here is the XMLParser Delegate stuff:
var mutableData:NSMutableData = NSMutableData.alloc()
var currentElementName:NSString = ""
var foundCharacters = ""
var appParsedData = [Dictionary<String, String>]()
var currentDataDictionary = Dictionary<String, String>()
func parser(parser: NSXMLParser!, didStartElement elementName: String!, namespaceURI: String!, qualifiedName qName: String!, attributes attributeDict: NSDictionary!) {
currentElementName = elementName
}
func parser(parser: NSXMLParser, didEndElement elementName: String!, namespaceURI: String!, qualifiedName qName: String!) {
if !foundCharacters.isEmpty {
currentDataDictionary[currentElementName] = foundCharacters
foundCharacters = ""
//Last Element so add to main Dictionary
//Cannot find last element yet on XML so use Charge_GBP for testing until fixed
if currentElementName == "Charge_GBP" {
appParsedData.append(currentDataDictionary)
}
}
}
func parser(parser: NSXMLParser, foundCharacters string: String!) {
if (currentElementName == "Entry_ID") || (currentElementName == "Title") || currentElementName == "Description" || currentElementName == "Charge_USD" || currentElementName == "Charge_GBP" || currentElementName == "Classification_Type" {
foundCharacters += string
}
}
func parserDidEndDocument(parser: NSXMLParser!) {
self.setupItemsOnView()
}
Then my setupItemsOnView function which is where I intend to get the values and display them on the view controller so far is:
func setupItemsOnView() {
for (currentElementName) in appParsedData {
println("\(currentElementName):")
}
let test = appParsedData[0] as Dictionary<String, String>
let test_entryid = test["Entry_ID"]
println("Entry ID is \(test_entryid)")
}
Phew, ok, so basically I can get the values Entry_ID, Title, Description, Charge_GBP and Charge_USD in the setupItemsOnView function, but using this method I cannot get the classifications and descriptions values back in a meaningful way from the classifications parent. I'm currently using as you can see a dictionary to store the data, so I wonder if using a Dictionary is the right thing to do or not when you have hierarchical XML, but I have no idea what else to try.
From my background you'd be able to reference the XML with a dot notation and just loop around the parent for all the elements, but I can't get that working in swift, so I just need a usable way to get back the all data in a form that I can then output.
Any code you may offer to help with this would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
D
