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readming xml from formAPI

rpatiban

I am looking for a way to read an xml file from formAPI. I saw some of the posts discussing in this regard, where it was suggested to use <inline>. But that was in 2002. Now we are using 6.1. I wonder if there is any latest in this regard, facilitated this in formAPI methods?

BTW, I found that this can be done using ActiveXObject("Msxml2.DOMDocument.4.0"), but that is in MS JScript.

Any input in this regard is greatly appreciated.

Thanks much,

Raghu

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Adam Stoller

Can you provide a bit more detail about what you are trying to accomplish?

FormAPI is javascript - as such, if there's a way to have javascript read and XML file you should be able to do it it FormAPI -- the question remains though, what are you attempting to accomplish by doing so? Because it's possible that your ultimate objective may *not* be possible - or there may be a *better* way to achive the ultimate objective.

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

rpatiban

Thanks for the immediate response Fish.

Here is what is the situation.

We have formAPI code with all sorts of validation in it. Also it does have server calls to number of ipls. And we have 3+ number of TS environments where we need this formapi to implement. The paths of ipls is different in each environment. So whenever we want to release the latest formAPI script, we have to edit the file to change those hard coded paths. So this is one of the reason, why we would like to make a config(xml) file, and have the formAPI read from it for the info.

Another reason is, we have whole lot of templates, almost every single template is using formAPI validation. And as I mentioned in the above, there is some specific info, which need to be vary depending the on environment, brach and template info. So my idea is to define all that config info in one place and have the formAPI get that info from there.

BTW, There are some common validation (Ex. Date validation) functions, which are used in everywhere. Currently, in every formAPI script those functions are listed to be available. Is there a common place to define those functions where all teamplates can access those Javascript functions (just like perl core modules)?

Hope this answers your question.

Thanks and regards,

Raghu

Adam Stoller

I'd suggest putting your FormAPI code into easily located files - and separate out the generic routines from the specific ones.

You might be able to use some of the FormAPI / JavaScript code to determine what branch you're in (assuming this is an existing DCR rather than a not-yet-ever-saved-DCR) that you could then use to further refine what javascript module you loaded.

If you have to deal with not-yet-ever-saved-DCRs it becomes more complex, as I'm not sure if there's anyway to determine what the current vpath of the DCT is. If you can, great, if not - well....

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

Dwayne

As Fish said, separating out the generic from the specific will help with some of what you're after.

As far as the orginal request goes, of parsing XML: since it appears that your goal os to set various flags, constants, etc, to alter the behavior of the JavaScript in your FormAPI code, I might suggest using callServer, instead of attempting to parse the XML directly with JavaScript. Use Perl on the server side to parse your XML, and have that CGI generate JS code to set the appropriate values in the DCT's script frame.

--

Current project: TS 5.5.2/6.1 W2K

rpatiban

Thanks much for the response.

Well, first of all I wanted this config file because of the server calls. The ipls may not be in the same paths in all environments.

Also, calling server ipl to parse xml might be a good idea, bBut how do you have it back to read it from formAPI, especially when I want to read multiple nodes at the same time? Just fyi: My purpose is not just to popup the dropdown lists.

For example: If I would like to read all attributes or child nodes, in perl we can handle them with Hash data structure. But how do you pass it back to formAPI?

If anyone does have an example in this regard and pass it to here, that would be great.

Thanks much again

Raghu

Dwayne

I don't have a working example to give you, but you typically do something like this:

Perl code builds a hash

Perl code spits out JavaScript code which will be executed on the target browser to populate a data structure. Something like this:


# Perl
my %hash = &subWhichParsesData
print <<EOF;
<script language="JavaScript">
    var myData = new Array();
EOF

my $i = 0;
foreach my $key (keys %hash) {
    print <<EOF;
    myData[$i] = new Object();
    myData[$i].key = "$key";
    myData[$i].value = "$hash{$key}";
EOF
}

You now have a JavaScript array of objects which mirrors the perl hash, but it will exist on the client side, where FormAPI can get to it.

--

Current project: TS 5.5.2/6.1 W2K

rpatiban

Thank you much. I will try that.