I’m a Flash Developer, and I parse XML all the time. Your a Flash Developer, and you potentially parse XML all the time.
I’m not sure how you handle schema’s, but typically I’m making up the XML format as I go, and since the structure isn’t memorized, I’ll typically either open it up on Dreamweaver or Notepad, start coding my parser in Flash, and toggle back and forth when I need to refresh my memory on what the XML I’m parsing looks like.
For smaller chunks, I can just paste an example in my code, and refer to it that way.
…both ways suck. So, I created this panel that allows you to load text into it. I then can load my XML file into it, dock the panel, and refer to it while I’m coding. You can load any text file, but typically one would use it for XML files.
I hope this helps your productivity, too!
JXL XML and Text Viewer Panel – MXP | ZIP
Maybe make it parse the xml and give you the actionscript to refer to certain elements. That would be schweeet!
hey, couldn’t you turn that into an editable panel, and save the cahnges to the xml file? Good idea too.
Just as a side note, the reason I didn’t just open the XML file in Flash, and toggle between the tabs, or minimize the open docs, and size it so I could see 2 is I’m still lacking in the required screen real-estate I want. XML doesn’t need to be all big and pretty like Dreamweaver makes it if your just reading it.
As far as editing changes, I actually had a need to do that, so I’ll definately add that.
As for the ActionScript to access the XML, the only problem I have with solving that is developer expectations. Some developers like keeping XML native …weirdo’s, others like clear and concise paths via the XML object’s methods; people like me like nodes clearly given to references in a node by node basis for easier to read code (sort of), and quicker childNode access, while even others like Darron Schall like using nextChild vs. childNodes for efficiency… It’s a case of pleasing everyone all the time. Got any expectations?
Nice work Jesse – not to distract from your efforts, but my personal pref. for coding XML in Flash is the XML panel in SEPY Actionscript Editor (http://www.sephiroth.it/python/sepy.php).
You can view and fold the XML nodes, and selecting a node will generate the correct Actionscript for inserting in the code.
Three years later after this post I come with a reaction …
It’s because I want to thank you for creating ‘XML and Text Viewer Panel’ and sharing the source with the rest of the world.
This was in fact NOT what I was looking for, but it send me on my way for creating what I really wanted: a sort of wysiwyg xml viewer.
I used to use the xml-reader from SE|PY for this, but it creates some errors.
So based upon your work (and some other developers) I created a XML Reader Flash panel
there is more explanation about XML Reader Flash panel at my blog, if you’re interested
Matthijs Kamstra aka [mck]
I’d really like to try this out, but the links aren’t working for me. Any chance to get those working again? Thanks.
is the extension available? The Links result in a 404 Error. Thanks