# Xml-rpc client result **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [December 20, 2007, 7:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/xml-rpc-client-result/123800 "2007-12-20T19:04:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cwd)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 7:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/xml-rpc-client-result/123800/1 "2007-12-20T19:04:03Z")
I posted this on Nabble but don’t think it made it through to the list. Here’s the q: I can use the xmlrpc library to call a remote Web Service, but the results appear always to be returned as an XML stream. The code implies that the xml is parsed, and doing some messing with it in irb shows that at some level, the result value can be treated as a hash. I’m unable to determine to what extent. Consider a result such as: How do I get this into a parsed form such as a hash or array or arrays? Or more correctly, what is the best way of iterating this data? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cwd)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 7:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/xml-rpc-client-result/123800/2 "2007-12-20T19:32:44Z")
On Dec 20, 2007, at 12:03 PM, s.ross wrote: > I can use the xmlrpc library to call a remote Web Service, but the > results appear always to be returned as an XML stream. > This is not a valid XML-RPC response. You can read the spec at: [http://www.xmlrpc.com/spec](http://www.xmlrpc.com/spec) Looks like you are dealing with a custom protocol here. James Edward G. II ---
**Author:** ![cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cwd)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/xml-rpc-client-result/123800/3 "2007-12-20T20:13:46Z")
On Dec 20, 2007, at 10:31 AM, James G. wrote: > > > > This is not a valid XML-RPC response. You can read the spec at: > > [http://www.xmlrpc.com/spec](http://www.xmlrpc.com/spec) > > Looks like you are dealing with a custom protocol here. > > James Edward G. II Well, I abbreviated the actual XML. Really: \ stuff I’m looking at a ruby-debug dump of “data” from the call, parser().parseMethodResponse(data). I think it’s valid XML-RPC. Sorry for the misleading trimming of the response. Thx ---
**Author:** ![cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cwd)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 11:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/xml-rpc-client-result/123800/4 "2007-12-20T23:58:37Z")
As a followup, I can parse the returned XML string using XmlSimple, which works ok. I just thought the parsing took place automagically in the XMLRPC parser. –s ---
**Author:** ![cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cwd)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 12:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/xml-rpc-client-result/123800/5 "2007-12-21T00:36:05Z")
On Dec 20, 2007, at 3:05 PM, James G. wrote: > XML-RPC is just giving you what the XML said it received, a String. > > James Edward G. II No, forgive me for the sort of vague question. The Web Service provider made me sign a contract not to blah, blah, blah… so I felt I should obfuscate a certain amount of this XML response. This is the actual XML with the service provider and member names changed to protect the guilty. Again, when the string is returned, punching it into XmlSimple allows me access to each member of the image collection. However, it would be simpler to stay with one library if possible. \ By the way, is there a better way to get this raw data than in ruby- debug? Thanks again, –s ---
**Author:** ![cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cwd)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 3:40am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/xml-rpc-client-result/123800/6 "2007-12-21T03:40:53Z")
On Dec 20, 2007, at 5:35 PM, s.ross wrote: > > please show the full response, as you receive it? If those item > > codes are returned inside of the … tags you > > showed earlier, XML-RPC is just giving you what the XML said it > > received, a String. > > > > James Edward G. II > > No, forgive me for the sort of vague question. No worries. I get it now. > 777 Building""/\> Yeah, that’s an odd use of XML-RPC structures. Instead of passing you an Array of Structs, which a library could completely extract, they give you a custom XML protocol inside a normal String. Sad really as they clearly don’t understand the point of XML-RPC. There’s no getting around it, you’ll need to make a second XML parsing pass as you have mentioned doing. > By the way, is there a better way to get this raw data than in ruby- > debug? I’m not aware of an easy way to get the data, no. James Edward G. II ---
**Author:** ![cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cwd)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 5:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/xml-rpc-client-result/123800/7 "2007-12-21T05:22:00Z")
On Dec 20, 2007, at 6:40 PM, James G. wrote: > Yeah, that’s an odd use of XML-RPC structures. Instead of passing > you an Array of Structs, which a library could completely extract, > they give you a custom XML protocol inside a normal String. Sad > really as they clearly don’t understand the point of XML-RPC. Thanks so much for your help. At least I’m getting the data. –s ---
**Author:** ![cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cwd)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 12:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/xml-rpc-client-result/123800/8 "2007-12-21T00:06:13Z")
On Dec 20, 2007, at 4:58 PM, s.ross wrote: > As a followup, I can parse the returned XML string using XmlSimple, > which works ok. I just thought the parsing took place automagically > in the XMLRPC parser. OK, forgive me for not getting this, but you’ve shown us two pieces of XML. One look XML-RPCish, but the other did not. Can you please show the full response, as you receive it? If those item codes are returned inside of the … tags you showed earlier, XML-RPC is just giving you what the XML said it received, a String. James Edward G. II