Parse XML AppleScript

Hi,

I'd suggest that you sort out the AppleScript itself, in Script Editor, before trying to run it in Automator. The Automator error is a generic "This AppleScript doesn't work, I'm giving up now"-type message.

I know very little about XML, and the System Events XML suite is not well documented beyond what can be found in SE's AppleScript dictionary.

However, I think you have two problems. First, you're not telling System Events that you want it to deal with XML data. Second, once that bit's fixed, I don't think that <Question Parameters> is a valid XML tag (it's got a space in it.)

Save the following into a text-only file:

<xml>
<Question_parameters>
<Question>Which of these two colours do you like most?
</Question>
<Response1>Red</Response1>
<Response2>Blue</Response2>
<Filename>Choose A Colour</Filename>
</Question_parameters>
</xml>

What you've got there is three levels of xml data, and you have to do some digging through the elements to get the information you require (and you have to know the structure of your data file).

Try this Applescript:

set the_file to ((choose file without invisibles) as string) -- navigate to and choose the file you just saved
tell application "System Events"
set xml_data to contents of XML file the_file
tell xml_data to set level_1 to XML element 1 -- the "xml" level
tell xml_data to set level_2 to XML element 1 of level_1 --the "Question_parameters" level
tell xml_data to set level_3 to XML elements of level_2 -- level 3 is the level you're after
tell xml_data to set data_count to count level_3
display dialog data_count -- level 3 has four xml elements
set value_1 to value of item 2 of level_3 -- value of Response1
set value_2 to value of item 3 of level_3 -- value of Response2
set the_question to value of item 1 of level_3
display dialog "Response 1 is " & value_1 & return & "Response 2 is " & value_2 with title the_question
end tell

Look in Script Editor's Event Log to see what's going on.

Hope this helps a bit. Can you provide a link to your tutorials?

H

Message was edited by: HD

An improvement on the script:

set the_file to ((choose file without invisibles) as string) -- navigate to and choose the file you just saved
tell application "System Events"
set xml_data to contents of XML file the_file
tell xml_data to set level_1 to XML element 1 -- the "xml" level
tell xml_data to set level_2 to XML element 1 of level_1 --the "Question_parameters" level
tell xml_data to set level_3 to XML elements of level_2 -- level 3 is the level you're after
tell xml_data to set data_count to count level_3
display dialog data_count -- level 3 has four xml elements
set value_1 to value of item 2 of level_3 -- value of Response1
set value_2 to value of item 3 of level_3 -- value of Response2
set question_list to {value_1, value_2}
set the_question to value of item 1 of level_3
choose from list question_list with prompt the_question
end tell

H