REGEX and JAVASCRIPT and TAGS 1

[ashthud]

A page on my website uses regex to read an xml file elsewhere on my site.

Example xml:

<favs>
    <title>Main</title>
    <fav>
        <title>facebook</title>
        <url>facebook.com</url>
    </fav>
    <fav>
        <title>hotmail</title>
        <url>hotmail.com</url>
    </fav>

    <title>User</title>
    <fav>
        <title>youtube</title>
        <url>youtube.com</url>
    </fav>
    <fav>
        <title>myspace</title>
        <url>myspace.com</url>
    </fav>
</favs>

What I want to be able to do is to grab text out of the <title> tags inside the <fav> tags.
Ive a while on it so far but this is my nearest working solution:

<script type="text/javascript">
var s = "";
s += "<favs>\n";
s += "  <title>TestMain</title>";
s += "	<fav>\n";
s += "	 <title>Test1</title>\n";
s += "	</fav>\n";
s += "	<fav>\n";
s += "	 <title>Test2</title>\n";
s += "	</fav>\n";
s += "	<fav>\n";
s += "	 <title>Test3</title>\n";
s += "	</fav>\n";
s += "	<fav>\n";
s += "	 <title>Test4</title>\n";
s += "	</fav>\n";
s += "</favs>\n";

var re = new RegExp([red]'((<favs>)(\s*|\S*)*)+((<fav>)((\s*|\S*)*(<\/fav>)+))*(\s*|\S*)*(^<\/favs>)'[/red], 'gi');
var matches = s.match(re);
if (matches && matches.length) {
    for (var x = 0; x < matches.length; x++) {
        document.getElementById('favourites').innerHTML += "<br>matches[" + x + "]=" + matches[x];
    }
}
</script>

I get 1 match... but it is blank so far. My regex feels too complicated (like a snowball down a steep hill and big.

Ashthud

 

[ashthud]

This is embarrassing!!!!

Ive been writing loads and loads of different regex statements, all yielding blank results... and it just dawned on me:
Ive been testing my regex statements by printing my results (inc <tags>) to the innerHTML of a div...
which means that my results were being recognised as html tags (thus not being rendered).

Still, I will post my answer if I get one. =D

Ashthud

 

[ggriffit]

Why use Regular Expressions at all ? if the file is an XML file then you can just load that, see

http://www.w3schools.com/Dom/dom_parser.asp

for an example.

Greg Griffiths
Livelink Certified Developer & ECM Global Star Champion 2005 & 2006

http://www.greggriffiths.org/livelink/

 

[ashthud]

That! Is! Boss!

Why didn't I think of this! This solves my problem and I THANK you.

(note: im still slightly curious what the regex would be)

Ashthud

 

[ashthud]

Oh no! XML DOM works great for every browser I have, accept CHROME!!

...
try{
 xmlDoc.async=false;
 xmlDoc.load(dname);
 return(xmlDoc);
}catch(e){
 var xmlhttp = new window.XMLHttpRequest();
 xmlhttp.open("GET",[red]"favourites.xml"[/red],false);
 xmlhttp.send(null);
 var xmlDoc = xmlhttp.responseXML.documentElement;  
 return(null);
}
...

[red]At this point[/red] chrome doesn't seem to like the local file.

Ashthud

 

[ashthud]

One silly mistake after another... in my catch im returning null GRRR.

Ashthud