Handling XML: Keep it simple
I almost forgot to post about this. While i was setting up this site and playing around with things like Simpleviewer and later on Lightbox, an old “problem” resurfaced when I thought it would be cool fed both apps from the same data source.
“I need to find a simple, and effective XML parser”
I’ve read many a tutorial about how to parse XML, be it method X or method Y, but all of them went yacking on about god and the world without actually getting to the point FAST. This is obviously good for people that want to know every single last thing about a technology they’re using (and don’t get me wrong I’d love to have that much time), but I need to understand it and be able to use it as quickly as possible without much fuss.
There are so many things that I am catching up on at the moment that there is just not enough time for all the gossip.
To my surprise I found a very nice and simple XML parser withina couple of seconds after trawling through Googles results and looking at what was thrown back at me.
My choice in the end fell for Eric Pollmann’s excellent parser script which is exactly how I like code. Simple, fast and to the point.
The parser takes the XML and makes it available as a nested array including all XML items and attributes that are present. This very easy to use piece of code then made it very easy to access the XML data files that Simpleviewer uses to handle it’s photo album information and create Lightbox galleries based of the same XML data files as you can see in this site’s “Lightbox” section.
The added benefit of all of this being the fact that you can make a choice between whichever application you like more and get it to handle your galleries.
With administration applications for Simpleviewer such as Simpleviewer Admin you also have a handy tool available to easily manage your galleries.
In the end it’s really what XML is all about; making data accessible across platforms/applications/languages.
Please note that Simpleviewer is now available in an all new version 1.8, and has been completely rewritten in Actionscript 2. It is available at Airtight Interactive
