Building and XML Document

[dtqbterror]

Just wanted to get peoples options on how best to create a XML Document within a VB6 Application.

I have been tasked with taking a VB6 application and making it communicate with a .NET web service. I have been able using the SOAP Toolkit to get the communications working w/attachments but, I am trying to figure out the best way to create the XML Document that is being consumed by the Service.

The structure of the document is static and the only thing that will change is the data contained within. I have thought about defining the structure of the document in a database table and then building it on the fly or just saving the structure as a txt file and just using the replace function to insert the data into it. What is every ones opinion regarding the best way to do this.

Thanks for any input.

 

[DarenNM]

I don't know about a "best" way, but I used Microsoft's XML SDK to write an application which creates XML documents in a specific format. It took a little while to get my head around first the XML concepts, and then Microsoft's objects and methods, but it was worth it (for me).

You could check out

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/downloads/list/xmlgeneral.asp

as a starting point.

Hope this helps

Regards

Daren


Must think of a witty signature

 

[chiph]

Any chance of non-English text being inside the XML document?

If so, you'll need to use the MSXML 4.0 DOM parser methods to create your document:

Dim MyDoc as New MSXML2.XmlDocument40
Dim MyRoot as MSXML2.IXMLDOMElement
Dim MyElem as MSXML2.IXMLDOMElement
MyRoot = MyDoc.CreateElement("Person")
MyDoc.documentElement.appendChild(MyRoot)
MyElem = MyDoc.CreateElement("FirstName")
MyElem.Text = sFName
MyRoot.appendChild(MyElem)
MyElem = MyDoc.CreateElement("Age")
MyElem.Text = cstr(lAge)
MyRoot.appendChild(MyElem)

Otherwise, it's not totally safe, but you could do string concatenation:

Dim sXML As String
Dim MyDoc As New MSXML2.DOMDocument40
sXML = ""
sXML = sXML & &quot;<?xml version=&quot;&quot;1.0&quot;&quot;>&quot;
sXML = sXML & &quot;<Person>&quot;
sXML = sXML & &quot;<FirstName>&quot; & sFName & &quot;</FirstName>&quot;
sXML = sXML & &quot;<Age>&quot; & cstr(lAge) & &quot;</Age>&quot;
sXML = sXML & &quot;</Person>&quot;
MyDoc.LoadXML(sXML)

IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE:
1) XML doesn't need/use line separators (vbCRLF, etc) or tab characters (vbTab) in order to make it "pretty". That stuff just bulks up your file and encourages people to read the files as if they were flat-files.
2) String concatenation will get you in trouble if someone slips you a non-ANSI character (VB6 doesn't use UTF-16 Unicode throughout -- just in some places).

Chip H.


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