How is the request XML parsed

makire · November 22, 2008, 3:58pm

Hi all

When one sends for example a POST request with an XML body Rails
parses this into a hash with a corresponding structure. How is this
conversion done and where? Which XML library is used? Any pointers on
where in the Rails source this is done would be helpful.

Kindest regards

Erik

makire · November 22, 2008, 4:04pm

On Nov 22, 2:57 pm, Erik L. [email protected] wrote:

Hi all

When one sends for example a POST request with an XML body Rails
parses this into a hash with a corresponding structure. How is this
conversion done and where? Which XML library is used? Any pointers on
where in the Rails source this is done would be helpful.

See

github.com

rails/rails/blob/v2.2.2/actionpack/lib/action_controller/request.rb#L490


      
          private
            def content_type_from_legacy_post_data_format_header
              if x_post_format = @env['HTTP_X_POST_DATA_FORMAT']
                case x_post_format.to_s.downcase
                  when 'yaml';  'application/x-yaml'
                  when 'xml';   'application/xml'
                end
              end
            end
          
          
  def parse_formatted_request_parameters
              return {} if content_length.zero?
          
          
    content_type, boundary = self.class.extract_multipart_boundary(content_type_with_parameters)
          
          
    # Don't parse params for unknown requests.
              return {} if content_type.blank?
          
          
    mime_type = Mime::Type.lookup(content_type)
              strategy = ActionController::Base.param_parsers[mime_type]

You can override what happens with

ActionController::Base.param_parsers[Mime::Type.lookup
(‘some_mime_type’)] = Proc.new do |data|
#turn data into a hash of attributes
end

Fred

makire · November 24, 2008, 6:08pm

Worked like a charm, thanks.

/Erik