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WolfShade
WolfShade
Legend
February 23, 2017
Answered

ColdFusion and XML - what am I doing incorrectly??

  • February 23, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 2296 views

Hello, all,

I've been handed a project - a very simple one - that involves uploading an XML document, parsing the data, and then populating a database with the results.

However, what isn't simple is the XML document.  It's slightly over 3mb in size.

I'm setting a variable with the XML document contents (XmlParse()), and am using (successfully, for the most part) XmlSearch() to get the data.

However, I have run into a bit of a snag; and I'm not having much luck on Google.

The data is for locations around the US - each location has one ID, one Name, one City, one State, one Zip code.  But each location has multiple phone numbers and email addresses.  I'm trying to parse the data in such a way as I can loop through child nodes of the main information and grab only one email address and one phone number.

But no matter what I do, I cannot seem to extract a "length" or structcount of the child nodes that contain the email and phone contact information.  I have tried StructCount(), ArrayLen(), xmlElement.length, and other things to no avail.  Most of the error messages are: "element is undefined in Java object of type class coldfusion.xml.XmlNodeMap referenced as ''"  Huh? 

Anyhoo.. it's almost time to go home, but I'll try to get some code examples up, when I can.

V/r,

^_^

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer haxtbh

    *headdesk*  *headdesk*  *headdesk*

    I just searched the XML document.  Out of the slightly-more-than 1000 records, not all of them have "email_org_id".  WTF??

    Sorry.. we are getting this XML from the customer, who (apparently) doesn't understand what we mean when we ask "Do all orgs within record have all elements, even if empty, in the XML data?"  (As you suggested in #7.)

    Which brings me to my next question.. how do I check if the XML element exists before checking for length???  I know how to check CF elements (StructKeyExists(scope,'variable')), but not XML from XmlSearch().

    V/r,

    ^_^


    You should be able to do something like StructKeyExists(DATA_ARRAY[idx].g_org_id.list_g_info.g_info, "email_org_id")

    1 reply

    WolfShade
    WolfShadeAuthor
    Legend
    February 24, 2017

    Okay.. I have some pseudo-code samples.

    Here is a basic XML structure that I'm working with:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="WINDOWS-1252" ?>
    <contact_info>
        <list_g_org_id>
            <g_org_id>
                <org_id1>1000</org_id1>
                <list_g_info>
                    <g_info>
                        <country>UNITED STATES</country>
                        ...
                        <pp_org_id>543</pp_org_id>
                        ...
                        <email_org_id>
                            <org_id>
                                <org_idp>234</org_idp>
                                <org_email>
                                    <pp_email>
                                        <email_type>Customer Service</email_type>
                                        <email_address>john.doe@this.org</email_address>
                                    </pp_email>
                                    <pp_email>
                                        <email_type>Distribution</email_type>
                                        <email_address>jane.doe@this.org</email_address>
                                    </pp_email>
                                    <pp_email>
                                        <email_type>Billing</email_type>
                                        <email_address>jacob.doe@this.org</email_address>
                                    </pp_email>
                                </org_email>
                            </org_id>
                        </email_org_id>
                    </g_info>
                </list_g_info>
            </g_org_id>
        </list_g_org_id>
        <list_g_org_id>
        ... repeat 1000x
        </list_g_org_id>
    </contact_info>

    Truncated because it's just too freakin' long, but this is the basic layout.

    Now, I set a variable with the XML document object as the value.

    thisXML = XmlParse(xmlObj);
    DATA_ARRAY = XmlSearch(thisXML,'/contact_info/list_g_org_id');

    This can get me most of the information that I need to work with.  I can get the org_id (1000) by using:

    DATA_ARRAY[idx].g_org_id.org_id1.XmlText;
    DATA_ARRAY[idx].g_org_id.list_g_info.g_info.country.XmlText;

    etc and so on..

    But when I try to get a length of how many email addresses an org has (it won't always be a set number), I keep getting error messages about something being undefined.  What is the proper CF method of accessing XML node children/information?

    V/r,

    ^_^

    H
    haxtbh
    Inspiring
    February 24, 2017

    What code are you using to retrieve the email count?

    I assume when you dump it all out you can see it all there?

    WolfShade
    WolfShadeAuthor
    Legend
    February 24, 2017

    Hi, haxtbh​,

    What code are you using to retrieve the email count?

    I've forgotten all the different things I've tried, but the ones I remember:

    EMAIL_count = DATA_ARRAY[idx].g_org_id.list_g_info.g_info.email_org_id.org_id.org_email.length
    EMAIL_count = DATA_ARRAY[idx].g_org_id.list_g_info.g_info.email_org_id.org_id.org_email.XmlChildren.length
    EMAIL_count = ArrayLen(DATA_ARRAY[idx].g_org_id.list_g_info.g_info.email_org_id.org_id.org_email)
    EMAIL_count = StructCount(DATA_ARRAY[idx].g_org_id.list_g_info.g_info.email_org_id.org_id.org_email)
    EMAIL_count = ArrayLen(DATA_ARRAY[idx].g_org_id.list_g_info.g_info.email_org_id.org_id.org_email.XmlChildren)
    EMAIL_count = StructCount(DATA_ARRAY[idx].g_org_id.list_g_info.g_info.email_org_id.org_id.org_email.XmlChildren)

    I assume when you dump it all out you can see it all there?

    Yep, yep.

    V/r,

    ^_^

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