XML Import

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epiphany - 24 Jul 2008 04:09 GMT

I am running Filemaker 8.5 advanced and am trying to open an XML file.

Done the following:

Open, Click on the file an come to the Select XML and XSL options.

I specify the file and select continue (making no stylesheet selection )
and the receive the following error message:

"XML Parsing Error
Unknown Element “description”

Line number 3380
Column number 16"

If I need to select a style sheet, I am not sure where to find or how
to use the stylesheet.

Thanks for your help.

David Feyrer
Epiphany Enterprises

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Bill Steele - 24 Jul 2008 19:58 GMT

> I am running Filemaker 8.5 advanced and am trying to open an XML file.
>
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
> David Feyrer
> Epiphany Enterprises

Without knowing anything about your setup, I'll guess that the DTD for
the file does not contain a <description></description> definition. Or
maybe that there's no DTD specified in the XML file. Never used an XML
import in Filemaker, but the above is based on the assumption that
Filemaker is set up to use formal XML procedure and check the DTD.

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Lou Lesko - 26 Jul 2008 07:27 GMT

* epiphany <epiphany@optonline.net>:

> I am running Filemaker 8.5 advanced and am trying to open an XML file.
>
> Done the following:
>
> Open, Click on the file an come to the Select XML and XSL options.

Hi there,

Did you create the XML in Filemaker?

lou

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epiphany - 26 Jul 2008 21:18 GMT

> * epiphany <epiphany@optonline.net>:
>> I am running Filemaker 8.5 advanced and am trying to open an XML file.
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> lou

Lou,

Thanks for the reply. I did not create the file from filemaker. I am
trying to bring it into filemaker.

David

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Vandar - 26 Jul 2008 22:05 GMT

> I am running Filemaker 8.5 advanced and am trying to open an XML file.
>
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> If I need to select a style sheet, I am not sure where to find or how
> to use the stylesheet.

Try here
http://www.filemaker.com/products/technologies/xslt_library.html

Near the bottom of the page, look for "XML Examples".

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epiphany - 27 Jul 2008 02:08 GMT

>> I am running Filemaker 8.5 advanced and am trying to open an XML file.
>>
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>
> Near the bottom of the page, look for "XML Examples".

The examples are all download examples not upload. I evidently need to
create a stylesheet that will process the xml file. Any ideas?

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Martin Trautmann - 28 Jul 2008 10:34 GMT

> The examples are all download examples not upload. I evidently need to
> create a stylesheet that will process the xml file. Any ideas?

Learn Perl...

For some XML sources it is a straight forward solution to do
search/replace operations in order to create e.g. a tab separated text
file for an FMP import.

For more complicated tasks maybe some Excel/OpenOffice Calc import
filters may be used in order to convert .xml to .tab

Suited best is a small script that does the conversion for you.
Personally, I'd prefer Perl, while others might use Python, C or
whatever for this task.

I feel that FMP names XML import just for marketing issues. It's less
than useless since it fails on most .xml files (even .xml created by
FMP itself), wasting your time for try and error, fix and fail again.

HTH,
Martin

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epiphany - 29 Jul 2008 03:56 GMT

>> The examples are all download examples not upload. I evidently need to
>> create a stylesheet that will process the xml file. Any ideas?
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
> HTH,
> Martin

Martin,

You have been most helpful. . . Any easy approach to Perl?

Not really a command line person.

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Martin Trautmann - 29 Jul 2008 07:00 GMT

> You have been most helpful. . . Any easy approach to Perl?

The camel books are written very well. AFAIK there's a "Perl for
dummies", while I prefered one of the basic books.

http://www.perl.org/books.html

http://books.perl.org/book/237
Learning Perl (4th edition)
Randal Schwartz and Tom Phoenix and brian d foy
O'Reilly & Associates

or
Programming Perl (my standard book)

or
Perl Cookbook (still the first edition from 1998)

You will learn about cpan.org very soon (the Comprehensive Perl Archive
Network). There are tons of XML modules which will help you to simplify
your work
http://search.cpan.org/search?query=xml&mode=all

Example:
http://search.cpan.org/~pajas/XML-LibXML-1.66/LibXML.pod

HTH,
Martin

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epiphany - 30 Jul 2008 12:48 GMT

>> You have been most helpful. . . Any easy approach to Perl?
>
[quoted text clipped - 24 lines]
> HTH,
> Martin

Martin,
Thanks much. .

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