# Rails magic for MySQL -\> XML file -\> MySQL and back again?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-magic-for-mysql-xml-file-mysql-and-back-again/59047>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [April 28, 2006, 5:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-magic-for-mysql-xml-file-mysql-and-back-again/59047 "2006-04-28T05:54:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wpwood)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 5:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-magic-for-mysql-xml-file-mysql-and-back-again/59047/1 "2006-04-28T05:54:47Z")

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Greetings!

My little app collects data from the user, persists it in about a dozen  
tables during the session, writes out / saves an XML file that’s  
downloaded to the user’s PC when they’re done, then clears the db of all  
data entered, and deletes the XML file from the server.

Now I need to allow the user to upload the same XML file they created  
earlier and put it back in the database so that, using the same app they  
used to create it, they can edit / update it and save / download it to  
their PC again.

Can somebody point me in the right direction here, please? What’s the  
Rails way of approaching this? Is there some way to ‘bind’ (don’t know  
if that’s the right word here) the XML file to the db? Some Rails  
magic, maybe?

Thanks in advance,  
Bill

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**Author:** ![wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wpwood)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 8:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-magic-for-mysql-xml-file-mysql-and-back-again/59047/2 "2006-04-28T08:04:47Z")

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Bill W. wrote:

> Greetings!
> 
> My little app collects data from the user, persists it in about a dozen  
> tables during the session, writes out / saves an XML file that’s  
> downloaded to the user’s PC when they’re done, then clears the db of all  
> data entered, and deletes the XML file from the server.
> 
> Now I need to allow the user to upload the same XML file they created  
> earlier and put it back in the database so that, using the same app they  
> used to create it, they can edit / update it and save / download it to  
> their PC again.
> 
> Can somebody point me in the right direction here, please? What’s the  
> Rails way of approaching this? Is there some way to ‘bind’ (don’t know  
> if that’s the right word here) the XML file to the db? Some Rails  
> magic, maybe?
> 
> Thanks in advance,  
> Bill

Bill,

Not to sure of Rails magic but you could use an xslt stylesheet to  
transformt he xml into an sql insert query then run that to populate the  
db.

Hope this helps  
Danny

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**Author:** ![wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wpwood)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 1:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-magic-for-mysql-xml-file-mysql-and-back-again/59047/3 "2006-04-28T13:56:55Z")

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Hi Danny,

Danny Malone wrote:

> > their PC again.
> > 
> > Can somebody point me in the right direction here, please? What’s the  
> > Rails way of approaching this? Is there some way to ‘bind’ (don’t know  
> > if that’s the right word here) the XML file to the db? Some Rails  
> > magic, maybe?
> 
> Not to sure of Rails magic but you could use an xslt stylesheet to  
> transformt he xml into an sql insert query then run that to populate the  
> db.

Thanks for the suggestion! Any example / tutorial links you could point  
me  
to?

Best regards,  
Bill

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**Author:** ![wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wpwood)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-magic-for-mysql-xml-file-mysql-and-back-again/59047/4 "2006-08-15T14:12:00Z")

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Bill,

this thread seems to have stopped, but I wonder how far you got with  
your  
application. I have been googling for some time now and the  
information on  
handling xml files in rails is sparse. (To be fair, rails is aimed at  
database apps.) .

I wanted to do something very much along the same lines, although not  
quite so complex as your requirement. After entering data into tables,  
I  
want to save the summary (an order with customer detailsm and order  
information) in fairly simple xml format on the (intanet) server where  
it  
can be separately accessed as required. Then I want to allow the user  
to  
reload the xml file at a later date, be able to modify it and save it  
back.

If you had any helpful examples, I would be most grateful. I am not  
an  
xml or xslt expert, but I need to grapple with this. I have done some  
xml  
file handling/editing in php, but managing something similar from rails  
does  
not seem to be quite so obvious.

Once I have my xml file, I thought I could build an xslt to allow it to  
be  
later viewed in a browser. And I am also thinking towards providing the  
ability to import it into OpenOffice for off line editing.

I would be grateful for any useful links or advice you might be able to  
offer.

Tony

Bill W. wrote:

> > > 
> > 
> > Not to sure of Rails magic but you could use an xslt stylesheet to
> 
> * * *
> 
> Rails mailing list  
> removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
> [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails)

–  
View this message in context:  
[http://www.nabble.com/Rails-magic-for-MySQL--\>-XML-file--\>-MySQL-and-back-again----tf1522315.html#a5713999](http://www.nabble.com/Rails-magic-for-MySQL--%3E-XML-file--%3E-MySQL-and-back-again----tf1522315.html#a5713999)  
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**Author:** ![wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wpwood)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-magic-for-mysql-xml-file-mysql-and-back-again/59047/5 "2006-08-15T14:22:10Z")

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Hey Tony,  
Sorry to jump into your thread un-invited, but, getting information  
from a Rails application, loading ‘into’ it an xml document from  
‘intranet’ … call me crazy (ishmael) but, doesn’t this scream XMLRPC ?  
XMLRPC methods should be fairly easy to knock up to export a record  
and/or update from the database in conjunction with AR. Jst a thought,  
feel free to ignore it as you feel appropiate 🙂

```
Regards
Stef
```

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**Author:** ![wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wpwood)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-magic-for-mysql-xml-file-mysql-and-back-again/59047/6 "2006-08-15T14:17:16Z")

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Hi Tony,

Tony Martin wrote:

> I wonder how far you got with your application. I have  
> been googling for some time now and the information on  
> handling xml files in rails is sparse.

I’m using Builder::XMLmarkup to output the XML files and REXML to read  
them  
back in. Both are slam-dunk simple and both are included in the  
standard  
distro. The documentation for Builder is at  
[http://api.rubyonrails.org/](http://api.rubyonrails.org/).  
The documentation for REXML is at  
[http://www.germane-software.com/software/rexml/](http://www.germane-software.com/software/rexml/).

> If you had any helpful examples, I would be most grateful.

Take a look at the above and let me know if you have any specific  
questions.  
Be glad to try.

> Once I have my xml file, I thought I could build an xslt to  
> allow it to be later viewed in a browser.

I’d be interested in anything you come up with re: XSLT. I’m not using  
it  
at this point, but may have a need on the horizon. I haven’t used it  
yet,  
and it’s not included in the standard distro (yet, I hope), but  
[http://raa.ruby-lang.org/project/ruby-xslt/](http://raa.ruby-lang.org/project/ruby-xslt/) is probably where I’ll  
start if  
I end up going down that path.

hth,  
Bill

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**Author:** ![wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wpwood)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-magic-for-mysql-xml-file-mysql-and-back-again/59047/7 "2006-08-15T14:22:12Z")

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Steff, thanks for your suggestion. however, I am wanting to save and  
reload  
xml files directly from the file system, so will be doing fileio not  
talking  
to another app. My aim is to provide an xml format that can be accessed  
directly from PCs on the network and edited without going through the  
web  
server.

I am however making some progress. this is my first development in  
both  
rails and Ruby so I am feeling my way here… I am building a  
replacement/conversion of an existing MS Access database, and trying to  
emulate fairly closely the original database functionality an view and I  
am  
pleased to say that Rails is generally excelling iteslf.

On the XML side, I notice from Bill’s earlier posts that there is an  
issue  
if I use builder to create and render an rxml view because after the  
render, i will not be able to redirect to a new page. What I am  
proposing  
to do is use Builder to directly create an XML string within the  
controller,  
save it to a file and then redirect to a page that will display the xml  
from  
the file and allow for some editing. If that sounds bizarre please let  
me  
know.

If anyone has any pointers to xml file i/o and parsing I would be  
grateful.

## Thanks Tony

View this message in context:  
[http://www.nabble.com/Rails-magic-for-MySQL--\>-XML-file--\>-MySQL-and-back-again----tf1522315.html#a5730478](http://www.nabble.com/Rails-magic-for-MySQL--%3E-XML-file--%3E-MySQL-and-back-again----tf1522315.html#a5730478)  
Sent from the RubyOnRails Users forum at [Nabble.com](http://Nabble.com).

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**Author:** ![wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wpwood)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-magic-for-mysql-xml-file-mysql-and-back-again/59047/8 "2006-09-04T14:45:35Z")

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Stef,

thanks for the pointers. Webdav is something I hadnt really  
encountered,  
but yes that is the genereal direction. since I am only looking to  
generate  
some very simple and standard file formats, what I am trying to achieve  
is  
much simpler. The files will also be very small.

I have found that using Builder, creating the xml into a Builder object  
is  
really simple, and it should be possible to write this to a file as a  
string.

I have seen reference to Hash.create\_from\_xml, but cannot get rails to  
recognize it. I have also had a quick look at XmlSimple and xml\_in may  
be  
all I need, although it seems to fail if the xml tags do not include  
attributes. i have had a quick look at LibXML, and it should provide  
what  
I need to read the file so I will pursue that and let you know how it  
goes.

## Thanks again. Tony

View this message in context:  
[http://www.nabble.com/Rails-magic-for-MySQL--\>-XML-file--\>-MySQL-and-back-again----tf1522315.html#a5753166](http://www.nabble.com/Rails-magic-for-MySQL--%3E-XML-file--%3E-MySQL-and-back-again----tf1522315.html#a5753166)  
Sent from the RubyOnRails Users forum at [Nabble.com](http://Nabble.com).

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**Author:** ![wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wpwood)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-magic-for-mysql-xml-file-mysql-and-back-again/59047/9 "2006-09-04T14:45:21Z")

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Hey Tony,  
Well, if your wanting to read and write xml files from the file  
system, your best bet is -definitely- libxml. Unlike certain other  
products that I could mention, the documentation is really rather good,  
and gives working examples of how to do this. Url is  
[http://libxml.rubyforge.org/doc/](http://libxml.rubyforge.org/doc/).

```
 Perhaps I am missing something, and thats always possible, but,

```

unless your wanting to write an xml editor that fits -inside- the web  
browser, you have two ways that I see; xml-rpc (think WebDav sort of 😉  
or libxml and command line.

```
Regards
Stef

```