Rails - Apr 2006 - XML output

Hi,

Sorry abt the half finished post that I sent out earlier.

The idea is to generate an output xml response as such:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<response status=''NOT_AVAILABLE''>
   <message>Some text</message>
   <from>Me</from>
</response>

I make a request like such

http://localhost:3000/manager/shome_xml?from=Me

The page i get back is blank.

I have a method showme_xml in my controller manager_controller.rb

class ManagerController < ApplicationController
   def shome_xml
   	@from = params[:from]
	render :action => "showme_xml", :layout => nil
   end
end

I have got a shome_xml.rxml template in my view section.

xml = Builder::XmlMarkup.new
xml.response(:status => "NOT_AVAILABLE")
   xml.message("Some text")
   if @from != "none"
      <from>@from</from>
   end

Am i understanding the use of Builder right? I am new to this and would 
love some feedback and/or pointers.

Thanks.

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Mufaddal Khumri wrote:
> The idea is to generate an output xml response as such:
> 
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
> <response status=''NOT_AVAILABLE''>
>    <message>Some text</message>
>    <from>Me</from>
> </response>
> 
> I have got a shome_xml.rxml template in my view section.
> 
> xml = Builder::XmlMarkup.new
> xml.response(:status => "NOT_AVAILABLE")
>    xml.message("Some text")
>    if @from != "none"
>       <from>@from</from>
>    end
This is almost correct. The following should generate what you are after:

xml.instruct! :xml, :version=>"1.0", :encoding =>
''ISO-8859-1''

xml.response(:status => "NOT_AVAILABLE") {
   xml.message("Some text")
   if @from != "none"
     xml.from(@from)
   end
}

The XmlMarkup object gets created automatically, so your first line is 
unnecessary. To create child nodes under response, you have to use a 
block and nest the contents. To get the <?xml ?> directive, use the 
xml.instruct! method.


-- 
Philip Ross
http://tzinfo.rubyforge.org/ -- DST-aware timezone library for Ruby

Thanks . After I got my syntax right it worked. The last question I have 
is if there is a way to escape the xml data? one of my xml nodes has a 
url. Something like this:

<url>
    http://myfavouritecartoon.com/manager/view?option=x&water=yes
</url>

Is there a way to encode such data in rails so that the xml output is 
welformed?

Thanks.

Philip Ross wrote:
> Mufaddal Khumri wrote:
>
>> The idea is to generate an output xml response as such:
>>
>> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
>> <response status=''NOT_AVAILABLE''>
>>    <message>Some text</message>
>>    <from>Me</from>
>> </response>
>>
>> I have got a shome_xml.rxml template in my view section.
>>
>> xml = Builder::XmlMarkup.new
>> xml.response(:status => "NOT_AVAILABLE")
>>    xml.message("Some text")
>>    if @from != "none"
>>       <from>@from</from>
>>    end
>
>
> This is almost correct. The following should generate what you are after:
>
> xml.instruct! :xml, :version=>"1.0", :encoding =>
''ISO-8859-1''
>
> xml.response(:status => "NOT_AVAILABLE") {
>   xml.message("Some text")
>   if @from != "none"
>     xml.from(@from)
>   end
> }
>
> The XmlMarkup object gets created automatically, so your first line is 
> unnecessary. To create child nodes under response, you have to use a 
> block and nest the contents. To get the <?xml ?> directive, use the 
> xml.instruct! method.
>
>

Mufaddal Khumri wrote:
> Thanks . After I got my syntax right it worked. The last question I have 
> is if there is a way to escape the xml data? one of my xml nodes has a 
> url. Something like this:
> 
> <url>
>    http://myfavouritecartoon.com/manager/view?option=x&water=yes
> </url>
> 
> Is there a way to encode such data in rails so that the xml output is 
> welformed?
XML text nodes are properly escaped by Builder when you do something 
like xml.url(@url).

Note that the version of Builder used by Rails 1.1 and earlier does not 
escape attribute values (see http://dev.rubyonrails.org/ticket/3354). 
This is fixed in the Rails SVN trunk.

-- 
Philip Ross
http://tzinfo.rubyforge.org/ -- DST-aware timezone library for Ruby