delphi 7 reading and processing xml file how and which component - update

Question

I have a client who is supplying a file with mixed comma seperated data and xml. The comma seperated is not a problem but the xml is all new to me.

I have tried to find a component to do what i need (omnixml -abandoned - using delphi built in xml component) seems possible...

I have data like the following :

<Passengers>
  <Passenger>
<No>1</No>
<Title>mrs</Title>
<ForeName>Anne</ForeName>
<SurName>XXXXXXXX</SurName>
<Age>33</Age>
<UWStatus>accept</UWStatus>
<Screening>
  <ScreeningData>
    <ScreeningPath SL="2.2" DATA="1">
      <MedicalRisk>4.01</MedicalRisk>
      <rootConditionId>1292</rootConditionId>
      <isAMT>false</isAMT>
      <regionId>4</regionId>
      <isWinterSport>false</isWinterSport>
      <isRetScheme>false</isRetScheme>
      <isPair>false</isPair>
      <LinkedCondition>3</LinkedCondition>
      <LinkedConditions>
        <LinkedCondition Name="High blood pressure" ICD="401.9" Type="D"/>
        <LinkedCondition Name="Renal failure" ICD="586" Type="D"/>
        <LinkedCondition Name="Abdominal aortic aneurysm" ICD="441.4" Type="I"/>
        <LinkedCondition Name="Peripheral vascular disease" ICD="443.9" Type="I"/>
        <LinkedCondition Name="Angina" ICD="414.9" Type="IS"/>
        <LinkedCondition Name="Enlarged heart" ICD="425" Type="IS"/>
        <LinkedCondition Name="Heart attack" ICD="414.9" Type="IS"/>
        <LinkedCondition Name="Heart failure" ICD="428.0" Type="IS"/>
        <LinkedCondition Name="Mini stroke" ICD="435.9" Type="IS"/>
        <LinkedCondition Name="Stroke" ICD="434" Type="IS"/>
      </LinkedConditions>
      <ScreeningHistory>
        <DeclaredCondition Score="3.56">
          <conditions>
            <Condition>
              <id>1292</id>
              <parentid>-1</parentid>
              <name>Epilepsy</name>
              <questions>
                <Question>
                  <id>1</id>
                  <Text>If awake#$ do you normally lose consciousness during a fit/seizure?</Text>
                  <currentAnswer>
                    <Text>Yes</Text>
                    <id>1</id>
                  </currentAnswer>
                </Question>
                <Question>
                  <id>2</id>
                  <Text>How many fits/seizures causing loss of consciousness have you had in the last four weeks?</Text>
                  <currentAnswer>
                    <Text>0</Text>
                    <id>1</id>
                  </currentAnswer>
                </Question>
                <Question>
                  <id>3</id>
                  <Text>How many fits/seizures causing loss of consciousness have you had in the last six months?</Text>
                  <currentAnswer>
                    <Text>0</Text>
                    <id>1</id>
                  </currentAnswer>
                </Question>
                <Question>
                  <id>4</id>
                  <Text>How many unplanned hospital admissions have you had for epilepsy/seizures in the last year?</Text>
                  <currentAnswer>
                    <Text>1</Text>
                    <id>2</id>
                  </currentAnswer>
                </Question>
                <Question>
                  <id>5</id>
                  <Text>How many different medicines do you take for your epilepsy/seizures?</Text>
                  <currentAnswer>
                    <Text>1</Text>
                    <id>2</id>
                  </currentAnswer>
                </Question>
                <Question>
                  <id>6</id>
                  <Text>How long ago was your first fit/seizure?</Text>
                  <currentAnswer>
                    <Text>6 to 12 months ago</Text>
                    <id>2</id>
                  </currentAnswer>
                </Question>
                <Question>
                  <id>7</id>
                  <Text>If not already declared to us#$ is your epilepsy/seizures caused by:</Text>
                  <currentAnswer>
                    <Text>None of these</Text>
                    <id>4</id>
                  </currentAnswer>
                </Question>
              </questions>
              <currentQuestionId>7</currentQuestionId>
              <isAMTExclusion>false</isAMTExclusion>
              <isWSExclusion>false</isWSExclusion>
              <Score>3.56</Score>
              <ICD>345.9</ICD>
              <Deterioration>0</Deterioration>
              <isOkForWS>true</isOkForWS>
              <isOkForAMT>true</isOkForAMT>
              <exclusionType>None</exclusionType>
            </Condition>
          </conditions>
        </DeclaredCondition>
        <DeclaredCondition Score="1.45">
          <conditions>
            <Condition>
              <id>1332</id>
              <parentid>-1</parentid>
              <name>Blood pressure</name>
              <questions>
                <Question>
                  <id>1</id>
                  <Text>How many medicines does your doctor advise you to take for high blood pressure?</Text>
                  <currentAnswer>
                    <Text>1</Text>
                    <id>2</id>
                  </currentAnswer>
                </Question>
                <Question>
                  <id>2</id>
                  <Text>Has your dose been increased or have you been prescribed a new tablet in the last six months?</Text>
                  <currentAnswer>
                    <Text>No</Text>
                    <id>2</id>
                  </currentAnswer>
                </Question>
                <Question>
                  <id>3</id>
                  <Text>Have you been advised to take a medication to lower your cholesterol level?</Text>
                  <currentAnswer>
                    <Text>No</Text>
                    <id>1</id>
                  </currentAnswer>
                </Question>
                <Question MQ="2">
                  <id>4</id>
                  <Text>Have you ever been a smoker?</Text>
                  <currentAnswer>
                    <Text>Yes - gave up less than a year ago</Text>
                    <id>3</id>
                  </currentAnswer>
                </Question>
              </questions>
              <currentQuestionId>4</currentQuestionId>
              <isAMTExclusion>false</isAMTExclusion>
              <isWSExclusion>false</isWSExclusion>
              <Score>1.45</Score>
              <ICD>401.9</ICD>
              <Deterioration>1</Deterioration>
              <isOkForWS>true</isOkForWS>
              <isOkForAMT>true</isOkForAMT>
              <exclusionType>None</exclusionType>
              <LinkedConditions>
                <LinkedCondition Name="High blood pressure" ICD="401.9" Type="D"/>
                <LinkedCondition Name="Renal failure" ICD="586" Type="D"/>
                <LinkedCondition Name="Abdominal aortic aneurysm" ICD="441.4" Type="I"/>
                <LinkedCondition Name="Peripheral vascular disease" ICD="443.9" Type="I"/>
                <LinkedCondition Name="Angina" ICD="414.9" Type="IS"/>
                <LinkedCondition Name="Enlarged heart" ICD="425" Type="IS"/>
                <LinkedCondition Name="Heart attack" ICD="414.9" Type="IS"/>
                <LinkedCondition Name="Heart failure" ICD="428.0" Type="IS"/>
                <LinkedCondition Name="Mini stroke" ICD="435.9" Type="IS"/>
                <LinkedCondition Name="Stroke" ICD="434" Type="IS"/>
              </LinkedConditions>
            </Condition>
          </conditions>
        </DeclaredCondition>
      </ScreeningHistory>
    </ScreeningPath>
  </ScreeningData>
</Screening>

The xml is all supplied in one field no spaces (i have formatted this) and where there is more than one person it appears this appears as a new passenger record.

I need to be able to process this and extract things like

Title/Forename/Surname fields from the passenger record and then from the branch and from the and which it relates to that is repeated for each answer to each condition.

I think it is fairly easy but I am struggling.

Code I have so far....

The first person is correct the 2nd one looses one of its siblings? Is there a bug or is it me?

StartItemNode:=XMLDoc.DocumentElement.ChildNodes.First;
ANode := StartItemNode;

repeat
  Title := ANode.ChildNodes['Title'].Text;
  Forename := ANode.ChildNodes['ForeName'].Text;
  Surname := ANode.ChildNodes['SurName'].Text;
  Age:=Anode.ChildNodes['Age'].Text;
  memo1.Lines.Add(Title+' '+Forename+' '+Surname+' '+Age);

  CNode:=Anode.ChildNodes.FindNode('Screening');
  CNode:=CNode.ChildNodes.FindNode('ScreeningData');
  CNode:=CNode.ChildNodes.FindNode('ScreeningPath');
  CNode:=CNode.ChildNodes.FindNode('ScreeningHistory');
  CNode:=Cnode.ChildNodes.FindNode('DeclaredCondition');
  CNode:=Cnode.ChildNodes.FindNode('conditions');
  CNode:=Cnode.ChildNodes.FindNode('Condition');
  (* Missing the 2nd illness on the 2nd node - but why *)

  repeat
   ill:=Cnode.ChildNodes['name'].text;
   memo1.Lines.add(ill);
   Unode:=Cnode;
   CNode:=Cnode.NextSibling;
  until cnode=nil;

Any help would be grateful received please. Regards Phil

[This question](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3594015/anyone-has-sample-code-to-load-an-xml-using-omnixml) seems to provide all the information you should need for using OmniXML. — Ken White, Jan 25 '12 at 17:36
Hi Ken, I tried this but I am still struggling, my issue is if I do a loop to select the main Passenger Node its how I then sub select the other nodes like — Phil Hutchinson, Jan 25 '12 at 23:18
OK. Try [this link](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6122179/delphi-7-manipulate-xml-file-using-omnixml-library) instead, and see if it makes things clearer. :) — Ken White, Jan 26 '12 at 00:28
Ken tried that would not work for my file basically ended up selecting all the sibling data for each - so if you had 2 person records you would get all the illnesses and questions for the first person. Abadoned and trying the above. — Phil Hutchinson, Jan 26 '12 at 16:05
Could you add another person's XML data to the XML data above? The current example data is for only 1 person (and incomplete!). It would be nice if we can test for more persons since you have trouble with specificly that. — NGLN, Jan 26 '12 at 17:17
See @NGLN's answer. The structure of your XML is nasty to parse with just an XMLDocument interface. The XML Data Binding Wizard makes it extremely simple. I can even post a sample of using most of it with the (almost exact) XML you provided (I had to add the two missing closing elements). Using XMLDocument, I worked a good half hour just getting through a chunk of it; the Wizard's generated classes took less than 5 minutes to accomplish the same thing. — Ken White, Jan 26 '12 at 20:42
Wait... Those of us that are mentioning the Data Binding Wizard are missing that this question is Delphi 7 specific, and the Wizard isn't available in D7 (at least in the Pro SKU). Is it available in other editions (Architect, Enterprise)? — Ken White, Jan 26 '12 at 22:47
Hi, But I have delphi7 pro and no xml binding wizard :-( Would you recommend an update to the latest version of delphi and would this make this project easier? — Phil Hutchinson, Jan 26 '12 at 22:49
As far as the recommendation, yes. :) My comment about the productivity improvement with the Wizard was based on Delphi XE. I'll test tomorrow when I can get to a machine with D2007 installed (don't have one here). The only issue you might have is with the change from AnsiString to UnicodeString as the default string type with XE or XE2, so you should be aware of that issue. A check here of the `delphi-xe` tagged questions should lead you to discussions about that issue. — Ken White, Jan 27 '12 at 00:04
OmniXML abandoned? Last change was 2011-09-01 08:19 - http://www.omnixml.com/download/OmniXML_snapshot.ChangeLog.txt — mjn, Jan 28 '12 at 20:50

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:33

We have used TurboPower XML Partner extensively in older versions of Delphi. (Cannot remember if we used it in Delphi 7). Here is a link to the latest version on SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/tpxmlpartner/. You may be able to find a previous version that will work for you.

You can also use the xml com object found in msxml.dll. It works quite well. Here is some more information about it: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1391413/758074. Apparently "The object TXMLDocument (for delphi 7) located in XMLDoc.pas is a Wrapper of the version MSXML 4 o less.". But if you import version 6, you should be in good shape.

shawnc · Answer 2 · 2016-08-23T19:50:17.747

2

I'm really enjoying using NativeXML by SimDesign. It has decent docs and is open source. http://www.simdesign.nl/nativexml.html

edited Aug 23 '16 at 19:50

answered Jan 25 '12 at 22:42

shawnc

63
1
6

To install it all you need to do is unzip the file you download from SimDesign into a folder, add the "nativexml" and "general" folders to your library path and add NativeXML to your uses clause. – shawnc Jan 26 '12 at 17:19
Whoops, forgot that if you are using XE2 you might need to update the simdesign.inc file. I'm pretty sure it's updated already in SVN. http://www.simdesign.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2097 – shawnc Jan 26 '12 at 17:21

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:33

2

You do not need a separate library: Delphi goes with one already

Create an interface unit for your (unfomatted) XML file by using the XML Data Binding Wizard (for D7 only in enterprise edition), see File > New > Other > New > XML Data Binding. Tweak as you like, but simply passing every wizard page by clicking OK works just fine by default. (Note that the default settings for other Delphi versions might differ from that of mine.) Though the one thing I personally like to get rid of is the "Type" suffix for every interface type. (As well as for the class type names, but that's not an option in the wizard, so you might do that manually.)

See this answer as example or for more instructions.

Note that this wizard is only for convenience: you could also do solely with TXMLDocument (on tab Internet of the component palette). Obtain the root node with ADocument.DocumentElement, obtain child nodes with Node.ChildNodes.FindNode('Node name') and its values with Node.ChildValues['Value name'].

edited May 23 '17 at 10:33

Community

1
1

answered Jan 25 '12 at 22:58

NGLN

43,011
8
105
200

I agree with NGLN. If you already know the exact structure that you'll be dealing with, it's much better to use the auto-created wrapper classes from the XML data binding wizard. The generated code is usually almost unreadable, but the rest of your code becomes much cleaner, and all of the boring chores of creating and populating the XML file into neat Delphi structures and collections and writing them back are being done for you. Somehow the wizard itself still feels a bit 1998, but it's still useful, especially with large structures. If they change, just regenerate the wrapper classes.. – Wouter van Nifterick Jan 25 '12 at 23:09
1

+1. See my comment to the original question about the wizard's classes. I've used the wizard with .xsd files before, but never on the xml itself to generate the classes. I learned something new today about something I thought I already knew - thanks! :) – Ken White Jan 26 '12 at 21:35
Wait. Again, see my comment to the original question. The Wizard isn't available (at least in the Pro SKU) in D7. It might be available in higher SKUs, but Pro is the only one I have installed (in a VM, for supporting a client with older code who won't upgrade). – Ken White Jan 26 '12 at 22:48
Data Binding Wizard never was in the Pro SKU. – mjn Jan 28 '12 at 20:48

Midiar · Answer 4 · 2012-01-26T12:45:19.167

1

For TXmlDocument, Msxml is built-in in D7 (or D6 as I'm using, roughly the same).

There is also an old version of Dieter Köhler's XDOM built-in, or you could download his updated ADOM from www.philo.de/xml/ (with the IDomNode wrapper from github.com/Midiar/adomxmldom). Those are implemented in Pascal - nice for debugging. ADOM gives you XPath functionality.

Edit: Msxml also has XPath (as well as XSLT).

edited Jan 26 '12 at 12:45

answered Jan 26 '12 at 09:35

Midiar

31
3

Yes I am trying to use the delphi built in but it now appears to be loosing a piece of child data for no reason? – Phil Hutchinson Jan 26 '12 at 15:59
TXMLDocument does use MsXML by default, but you can specify another parser with the DOMVendor property. E.g. here in D7 it also presents XercesXML and OpenXML. – NGLN Jan 26 '12 at 17:12

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 28 '12 at 18:29

I did fix the problem and used Delphi7 built in XML object. And for multiple people.

It was alot harder than I first thought.

As on the structure above I found if you declared a medical condition all was well but if the condition is implied e.g you have high blood pressure so therefore you may have raised cholesteral (spelling!) then the subsequent question are not under the main declared conditions branch but under conditions.

The code following does work for this - there is a large part of repeated quote BUT I wanted it to work rather than look pretty..

And I must admit i have learnt more about XML than I wanted to lol... And big thaks :-) to all the help that was offered - a lot of reading on stack overflow and some google searching and I now have a result!

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
 StartItemNode:IXMLNode;
 ANode:IXMLNode;
 CNode:IXMLNode;
 LNode:IXMLNode;
 QNode:IXMLNode;
 UNode:IXMLNode;
 hnode:ixmlnode;
INode:IXMLNode;
number:widestring;  
Title:widestring;
Forename:widestring;
Surname:widestring;
Age:widestring;
ill:widestring;
quest:widestring;
answer:widestring;
first:boolean;
who:string;
begin
 opendialog1.Execute;
 who:=extractfilepath(opendialog1.FileName)+extractfilename(opendialog1.filename)
 +'_TXT.TXT';
 XMLDOC.FileName:=opendialog1.FileName;

 XMLDoc.Active:=True;

memo1.Clear;
XMLDOC.SaveToFile('c:\philxx.xml');

StartItemNode:=XMLDoc.DocumentElement.ChildNodes.First;
ANode := StartItemNode;

memo1.Lines.add('Filename '+opendialog1.FileName);
if anode<>nil then
begin

repeat
  memo1.Lines.Add('====== New Person ======');
  number :=anode.childnodes['number'].Text;
  Title := ANode.ChildNodes['Title'].Text;
  Forename := ANode.ChildNodes['ForeName'].Text;
  Surname := ANode.ChildNodes['SurName'].Text;
  Age:=Anode.ChildNodes['Age'].Text;
  memo1.lines.add(number);
  memo1.Lines.Add(Title+' '+Forename+' '+Surname+' '+Age);

  CNode:=Anode.ChildNodes.FindNode('Screening');
  CNode:=CNode.ChildNodes.FindNode('ScreeningData');
  CNode:=CNode.ChildNodes.FindNode('ScreeningPath');
  CNode:=CNode.ChildNodes.FindNode('ScreeningHistory');

  HNode:=Cnode.ChildNodes.FindNode('DeclaredCondition');
  while hnode<>nil do
  begin
    unode:=hnode;
  memo1.lines.add('==== Illnesses ===');
  if unode<>nil then
  begin
   UNode:=Unode.ChildNodes.FindNode('conditions');
   Cnode:=Unode;
   Inode:=CNode.ChildNodes.FindNode('Condition');
  while unode<>nil do
  begin
   ill:=Inode.ChildNodes['name'].text;
   memo1.Lines.add(ill);
   lnode:=Unode;
   unode:=unode.nextsibling;
   if unode=nil then
    begin
     unode:=lnode;
     inode:=inode.NextSibling;
     if inode=nil then unode:=nil;
    end
    else
    begin
     CNode:=Unode.ChildNodes.FindNode('conditions');
     Inode:=CNode.ChildNodes.FindNode('Condition');
    end;


  end;

  end;
   hnode:=hnode.nextsibling;
  end;
  CNode:=Anode.ChildNodes.FindNode('Screening');
  CNode:=CNode.ChildNodes.FindNode('ScreeningData');
  CNode:=CNode.ChildNodes.FindNode('ScreeningPath');
  CNode:=CNode.ChildNodes.FindNode('ScreeningHistory');
  HNode:=Cnode.ChildNodes.FindNode('DeclaredCondition');


  while hnode<>nil do
  begin
    unode:=hnode;

  (* Gets all the questions but seems to have same issue with missing questions for 2nd illness *)
  if unode<>nil then
  begin
   UNode:=Unode.ChildNodes.FindNode('conditions');
   Cnode:=Unode;
   Inode:=CNode.ChildNodes.FindNode('Condition');



  while unode<>nil do
   begin
     QNode:=inode.ChildNodes.FindNode('questions');
     if qnode=nil then
      begin
       memo1.lines.add('=== No questions for Illness === ');
      end;
     if qnode<>nil then
      begin
        qNode:=qNode.ChildNodes.FindNode('Question');
        memo1.Lines.add('==== New Questions ====');
        while qnode<>nil do
         begin
          quest:=qnode.ChildNodes['Text'].text;
          memo1.Lines.add(quest);
          answer:=qnode.ChildNodes['currentAnswer'].ChildNodes['Text'].text;
          memo1.lines.add(answer);
          qNode:=qnode.NextSibling;
         end;
      end;
     lnode:=unode;
     unode:=unode.NextSibling;
     if unode=nil then
     begin
       unode:=lnode;
       inode:=inode.NextSibling;
       if inode=nil then unode:=nil;
     end
     else
     begin
      CNode:=Unode.ChildNodes.FindNode('conditions');
      Inode:=CNode.ChildNodes.FindNode('Condition');
     end;
   end;
  end;
   hnode:=hnode.nextsibling;
  end;

  ANode := ANode.NextSibling;
until ANode = nil;
end
  else memo1.lines.Add('No Illness or Questions Found ');
  memo1.Lines.SaveToFile(who);
  showmessage('done');

delphi 7 reading and processing xml file how and which component - update

5 Answers5