# Mapping xml to active record objects **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [February 19, 2007, 6:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mapping-xml-to-active-record-objects/86074 "2007-02-19T18:04:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Marlon_M)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 6:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mapping-xml-to-active-record-objects/86074/1 "2007-02-19T18:04:17Z")
I’ve built a simple service that returns an xml feed like so: blah blah 1 blah blah 2 etc.. What is a quick way to map this result to an array of user objects? Thanks Marlon ---
**Author:** ![Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Marlon_M)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 7:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mapping-xml-to-active-record-objects/86074/2 "2007-02-19T19:02:26Z")
Just to answer my own question: Hpricot! Very, very easy to do this now. Here’s an example. doc = HJpricot(open(“[http://locahost:3000/user/list](http://locahost:3000/user/list)”)) (doc/:user).each do |user| u = User.new u.id = (user/:login).innerHTML u.first\_name = (user:/:first\_name).innerHTML users.push(u) end This has got to be the easiest thing I’ve ever done to consume XML. On 2/19/07, Marlon M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > ``` > blah > > ``` > > Marlon – “They put a hot wire to my head 'Cause of the things I did and said And made these feelings go away Model citizen in every way” ---
**Author:** ![Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Marlon_M)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 7:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mapping-xml-to-active-record-objects/86074/3 "2007-02-20T07:25:38Z")
Here’s another option… If your xml elements match your User model’s attribute names, you can just convert the xml to a hash and loop through its contents: xml = users = [] Hash.from\_xml(xml)[‘users’][‘user’].each { |user\_vals| users \<\< User.new(user\_vals) } b ---
**Author:** ![Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Marlon_M)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 7:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mapping-xml-to-active-record-objects/86074/4 "2007-02-22T07:29:38Z")
I’ve got an almost identical problem, except my data looks like: ... I’m really struggling with Hpricot - my brain just isn’t working today (probably because of the aircon problems at work today…). If someone could show me how to map _this_ to an array of User objects, I’d greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance Dave M. ---
**Author:** ![Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Marlon_M)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 9:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mapping-xml-to-active-record-objects/86074/5 "2007-02-22T09:44:53Z")
Sorry, I think the quick and easy stops once you start having attributes on your elements (or, have elements that don’t match your user’s fields). Take a look at ReXML: [http://www.germane-software.com/software/rexml/docs/tutorial.html](http://www.germane-software.com/software/rexml/docs/tutorial.html) Comes with standard with Ruby, IIRC. b ---
**Author:** ![Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Marlon_M)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 9:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mapping-xml-to-active-record-objects/86074/6 "2007-02-22T21:20:45Z")
Um, that’s not even XML. But if it were XML (e.g. \blah\) you could do something like this: # require ‘rubygems’ # if installed via Gems require ‘xml/libxml’ doc = XML::Document.file(‘users.xml’) doc.find(’//user’).each do |user| u = User.new u.id = user.find\_first(’@id’).content u.first\_name = user.find\_first(‘first\_name’).content u.last\_name = user.find\_first(‘last\_name’).content users.push(u) end ---
**Author:** ![Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Marlon_M)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 8:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mapping-xml-to-active-record-objects/86074/7 "2007-02-22T20:32:39Z")
Yep, that’s kind of what I suspected. Thanks Dave M. ---
**Author:** ![Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Marlon_M)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2007, 4:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mapping-xml-to-active-record-objects/86074/8 "2007-04-19T16:52:08Z")
actually, it is xml the is shorthand for ---
**Author:** ![Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Marlon\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Marlon_M)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 9:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mapping-xml-to-active-record-objects/86074/9 "2007-02-22T21:30:46Z")
yep, that’s what I was thinking about the format, but given that feed, you could also do something ugly like this: require ‘rubygems’ require ‘hpricot’ doc = Hpricot(’ \ \ \ \ ’ ) (doc/“user”).each do |user| puts “user id = #{user.attributes[‘id’]}” puts “first\_name = #{user.children [0].to\_s.scan(/first\_name=”([^“]\*)”/).to\_s}" end On 2/22/07, Mark T. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > ``` > u = User.new > u.id = user.find_first('@id').content > u.first_name = user.find_first('first_name').content > u.last_name = user.find_first('last_name').content > users.push(u) > > ``` > > end > > > – “We all had delusions in our heads, we all had our minds made up for us, we had to believe in something, …so we did.”