Converting .xml files to text..how?

loup · 01-06-2007 08:28PM #1

Not sure if this is the right place to post this..apologies if wrong one!

Problem: I have .xml files that I need to convert pretty quickly every month into .txt files or files that mean it is a clean read in Word etc.

Anyone recommend anything? The files are in EditPLus and I've tried to open them directly in Word 2007 but am getting 'Error on linex, column x' etc.

Thanks a mill for any advice!

The Corinthian · 01-06-2007 09:54PM

Change the ending from .xml to .txt or do you want to reformat them again?

Seth Brundle · 01-06-2007 10:46PM

Why would you try and open them in word?

cousin_borat · 02-06-2007 01:27AM

XML Files are machine readable, why would you want to open them in Word!

Maybe if you explain some more

loup · 02-06-2007 08:05PM

HI there..thanks for the replies. Perhaps I didnt explain well enough. I work for an online gaming site and the game schedules are in .xml format. However I need to extract this information in a 'clean' form to give to our moderators so they have a list of the games and what is on when. When I get them from our programmers in .xml format, I would have to go through and Edit/Replace loads of characters, symbols, etc. I was hoping to be able to re-convert them into a Word format which would strip out all the characters and symbols. Hope this makes sense!!:D

is_that_so · 02-06-2007 08:19PM

Perl has an XML Parser to strip out stuff. Here's a link and there are many of them out there. The sample code shows how it works. You should be able to find some scripts to do it. Search for PERL XML parser examples.

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlxml/chapter/ch03.html.

PHP will also let you do it as well.

http://ie2.php.net/xml

There are also PHP XML parsers for RSS feeds that you can hack. Some scripts here.

http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/XML_and_PHP/

You could also download something like XMLFOX which is freeware .

loup · 02-06-2007 08:50PM

Thank you so much! That was exactly what I was looking for..thanks again

damnyanks · 04-06-2007 12:34PM

Also if you are using Word 2007 you can make it readable through word by adding some extra info. The word 2007 document containers are just zip files containing XML files.

loup · 04-06-2007 08:56PM

Ahh thanks damnyanks..I am using Word2007, good to know thanks!

DublinDilbert · 05-06-2007 09:11AM

Why not use XSLT??

This allows XML documents to be converted into different formats, the most popular of which is HTML.

You need to generate an XSLT style sheet which describes which bits of the XML to output as HTML.

There's 2 ways that combining the XML and XSLT can work:-
1) client side transform, where the browser loads both files and generates a nice HTML page with the data in it.
2) server side transform, where an application is used to read in both files and output a HTML page.

The Corinthian · 05-06-2007 10:00AM

You read an article about XSLT once, didn't you?

Evil Phil · 05-06-2007 10:28AM

Now, now. Lets all be nice.

dent · 05-06-2007 11:49AM

You could ask the programmers to extract the relevant information and place it in a nice HTML page that you can print or the moderators can visit.

I'm sure they can automate this.

They will know the best way in your system to do this.

cousin_borat · 05-06-2007 02:09PM

The questions been answered well previously by is_that_so and damnyanks. Give it a rest!

DublinDilbert · 05-06-2007 07:40PM

The Corinthian wrote:

You read an article about XSLT once, didn't you?

Sorry was that aimed at me?? I assume it was...

I know quite a bit about XSLT and the sort of transforms it can perform both binary and text based.

I thought my overview would be helpful to the OP as a brief overview, which he can look at further. I know it wasn't as technical as renaming the extension of the file from .xml to .txt

Whats wrong with me suggesting using XSLT, as no one else did?
Whats wrong with my suggestion?

Mods if this is the attitude of people in this forum, i will stop posting solutions here and helping people... I have always come here and tried to help people, give them ideas and share some of my experience.

Evil Phil · 05-06-2007 09:26PM

Thread locked.

loup if you want to start a new thread feel free to do so. I'll make sure everybody behaves themselves.

Everybody else, please feel free to use the report post button. That this little fellow you see below everybody's avatar ->

. Reported posts will be taken seriously, in-thread spats won't.

Converting .xml files to text..how?

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