# Xampl project - Is it still alive

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/xampl-project-is-it-still-alive/120380>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [November 16, 2007, 11:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/xampl-project-is-it-still-alive/120380 "2007-11-16T11:35:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zxem](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/a9adbd/32.png) [@zxem](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zxem)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 11:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/xampl-project-is-it-still-alive/120380/1 "2007-11-16T11:35:28Z")

</div>

Hi all,

I trying to use a Ruby XML binding tool. XAMPLE seems the only  
choice.

The last update for this project [http://rubyforge.org/projects/xampl/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/xampl/)  
is at Nov, 2005. Is this project dead?

Or could you suggest another xml binding lib?

Cheers!

Xin Zhao

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zxem](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/a9adbd/32.png) [@zxem](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zxem)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 1:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/xampl-project-is-it-still-alive/120380/2 "2007-11-16T13:45:38Z")

</div>

Hi,

On 16-Nov-07, at 5:35 AM, zxem wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I trying to use a Ruby XML binding tool. XAMPLE seems the only  
> choice.
> 
> The last update for this project [http://rubyforge.org/projects/xampl/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/xampl/)  
> is at Nov, 2005. Is this project dead?

No it isn’t, though I can understand how you might get that  
impression 🙂 I haven’t been exactly evangelising it.

BTW, I’m the guy that wrote it.

There are a few people using it, not many.

The documentation is rudimentary, mostly a walk-through tutorial,  
though that’s been enough to get people going and keep them going –  
it would probably help if you knew Ruby reasonably well, especially  
what monkey-patching is and how modules can be used to approximate  
multiple inheritance. There are a bunch of postings on my weblog (link  
below, not the tumblelog) – there is a category for them. I’m going  
to have to re-format them at some point, maybe I should do that today.

I’ve used it as a replacement for ActiveRecord, in several Rails and  
Merb products, and a lot of utilities that I use every day. I’m able  
to whip off a fairly complex program in Ruby very quickly. There is  
also a Java version that is being used in a number of systems. There’s  
even a Common Lisp version that I’m overhauling right now.

There is a bit of history to xampl. It started as a Java project for  
me to learn how to use a SAX parser, this was a couple of days after  
James Clark’s parser came out for Java – maybe 10 years ago. It has  
grown through several stages starting with a re-formatter for XML,  
through to one of the first XML binding tools. It doesn’t take the  
same point of view as any of the other binding tools that I know of.  
For two _big_ reasons: it does not use a schema; it has definite  
opinions about how you should be designing your XML. There are big  
implications to this, some of which I’m just recently understanding…  
maybe a blog post is in order.

If you have any questions about it, I’ll be happy to answer them.  
Perhaps I should release another version of xampl, it has come along  
quite nicely since that release.

Cheers,  
Bob

> Or could you suggest another xml binding lib?
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> Xin Zhao

* * *

Bob H. – tumblelog at  
[http://www.recursive.ca/so/](http://www.recursive.ca/so/)  
Recursive Design Inc. – weblog at  
[http://www.recursive.ca/hutch](http://www.recursive.ca/hutch)  
[http://www.recursive.ca/](http://www.recursive.ca/) – works on  
[http://www.raconteur.info/cms-for-static-content/home/](http://www.raconteur.info/cms-for-static-content/home/)