# Using XmlSimple to parse XML strings **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [June 17, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-xmlsimple-to-parse-xml-strings/190169 "2010-06-17T16:22:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![djames](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@djames](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/djames)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-xmlsimple-to-parse-xml-strings/190169/1 "2010-06-17T16:22:08Z")
I am using XmlSimple to parse an XML string received from a remote host. I am getting the error message, “File does not exist: .”. I am fairly well convinced that the problem is that XmlSimple is not recognizing the received XML string as being valid XML and is therefore looking for a file by that name (which, of course, does not exist). The XmlSimple documentation says that it recognizes an XML string by the presence of ‘\<’ and ‘\>’ characters. I interpret that to mean that XmlSimple does not perform any sort of exhaustive XML validity check; but, rather just looks for the presence of those opening and closing characters to make the determination. The received string meets that requirement. Any suggestions on what I might do? Thanks for any input. ``` ... doug ``` ---
**Author:** ![djames](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@djames](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/djames)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-xmlsimple-to-parse-xml-strings/190169/2 "2010-06-17T16:22:33Z")
I wanted the list to know that I resolved this issue. My problem related to my poor understanding of sockets (but I’m learning). I didn’t realize that reading from a socket is destructive. That is (apparently) once the data is read from the socket, it is gone. In a backhanded sort of way, that is what was causing my problem. Thanks. ``` ... doug ```