For easy XML access try wxXML class

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dsilvia
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For easy XML access try wxXML class

Post by dsilvia »

wxXML is a class for accessing well formed XML documents. It makes use of the
wxXmlDocument, wxXmlNode, and wxXmlProperty classes of the standard wxWidgets
distribution. It's a simpler interface making usage in applications more
readily implemented.

If you've tried working with the standard wxWidgets distribution classes but
found it a bit daunting, you may well find wxXML class useful.

With its subclasses, wxXML is contained in a library, wxLib_wxXML. It also has
a fairly rigorous demo illustrating the usage of the 'workhorse' functions of
the class.

If you've wanted to use XML with your wxWidgets applications for storing user
preferences and other settings, this will make the task easier. Or even if you
would just like to explore XML a bit to find out what it might have to offer,
this could well be the tool for you.

There is a wxWidgets style manual page for the library classes included. Have
a look at that HTML document to see particulars.

This package may be downloaded in .zip and .7z format from:

http://www.wxCodex.net

The top directory has the library. Below this directory is one named demo
which has the demo. Below the top directory and the demo directory is a
directory named doc which has the HTML page for the library and the demo,
respectively.
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Re: For easy XML access try wxXML class

Post by Mojo »

dsilvia wrote:wxXML is a class for accessing well formed XML documents. It makes use of the
wxXmlDocument, wxXmlNode, and wxXmlProperty classes of the standard wxWidgets
distribution. It's a simpler interface making usage in applications more
readily implemented.

If you've tried working with the standard wxWidgets distribution classes but
found it a bit daunting, you may well find wxXML class useful.

With its subclasses, wxXML is contained in a library, wxLib_wxXML. It also has
a fairly rigorous demo illustrating the usage of the 'workhorse' functions of
the class.

If you've wanted to use XML with your wxWidgets applications for storing user
preferences and other settings, this will make the task easier. Or even if you
would just like to explore XML a bit to find out what it might have to offer,
this could well be the tool for you.

There is a wxWidgets style manual page for the library classes included. Have
a look at that HTML document to see particulars.

This package may be downloaded in .zip and .7z format from:

http://www.wxCodex.net

The top directory has the library. Below this directory is one named demo
which has the demo. Below the top directory and the demo directory is a
directory named doc which has the HTML page for the library and the demo,
respectively.
Nice work! How can I download wxLib_wxXML lib?
http://www.wxCodex.net has unintelligible interface...
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upCASE
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Re: For easy XML access try wxXML class

Post by upCASE »

Hi!
Mojo wrote: Nice work! How can I download wxLib_wxXML lib?
http://www.wxCodex.net has unintelligible interface...
Next to the descriptions "Select: wxLib_wxXML Library in 7z archive" and "Select: wxLib_wxXML Library in Zip archive" there is a dropdown box. Set it to "dnld" and then click "Download Selections" on top of the page.
Took me some time to figure that out :-)
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Re: For easy XML access try wxXML class

Post by dsilvia »

Mojo wrote: Nice work! How can I download wxLib_wxXML lib?
http://www.wxCodex.net has unintelligible interface...
Hmm... I access it with Firefox 3, Safari 5, IE 7 or 8, Google Chrome 6, and Opera 10 just fine. It's a safe surfing site. In order to make it so, I had to use the latest browsers to take advantage of PHP/HTML/CSS current levels. I don't recall if I used IE6 on it, but I believe it works there, too. And with Firefox 2.5-ish? But to be sure everything works as designed, the latest browsers are best. There is no client side code involved, everything is server side...

If you still have problems, email [email protected] with somewhere I might be able to email an archive to you?
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Re: For easy XML access try wxXML class

Post by dsilvia »

upCASE wrote:Hi!
Mojo wrote: Nice work! How can I download wxLib_wxXML lib?
http://www.wxCodex.net has unintelligible interface...
Next to the descriptions "Select: wxLib_wxXML Library in 7z archive" and "Select: wxLib_wxXML Library in Zip archive" there is a dropdown box. Set it to "dnld" and then click "Download Selections" on top of the page.
Took me some time to figure that out :-)
Yes, well, I admit it's not a common interface. I needed the functionality of a shopping cart so folks could make all their selections first, then download. Unfortunately, most shopping carts use client side code (JavaScript mostly) which was not part of the philosophy of a safe surfing site. Given the tools, it was the best that could be done. I'm working on a new safe surf site paradigm for another site so maybe in the future a slightly more intuitive interface may be forthcoming?!:)
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Re: For easy XML access try wxXML class

Post by upCASE »

dsilvia wrote:I'm working on a new safe surf site paradigm for another site so maybe in the future a slightly more intuitive interface may be forthcoming?!:)
Granted that I don't have JavaScript enabled and don't like it by the way, but I still think it's more than confusing to have a dropdown to select something. Implement it using a checkbox for example and label it accordingly.
The other thing is: Why would I need the selection mechanism anyway? I select multiple items, hit download and get a site that lists the links, which I have to click manually to download. Wouldn't it be easier to just have a download button next to each item (that's what people look for) :-)
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Re: For easy XML access try wxXML class

Post by dsilvia »

upCASE wrote:
dsilvia wrote:I'm working on a new safe surf site paradigm for another site so maybe in the future a slightly more intuitive interface may be forthcoming?!:)
Granted that I don't have JavaScript enabled and don't like it by the way, but I still think it's more than confusing to have a dropdown to select something. Implement it using a checkbox for example and label it accordingly.
The other thing is: Why would I need the selection mechanism anyway? I select multiple items, hit download and get a site that lists the links, which I have to click manually to download. Wouldn't it be easier to just have a download button next to each item (that's what people look for) :-)
Not all people... I tried checkboxes, they won't work. It all has to do with keeping track. It's a bit hard to explain, but if you tried to implement the same thing yourself you'd see all the problems there are. That's why people take the path of least resistance, i.e., they use client side programming (which I absolutely hate!). There are enough problems with Apple, Oracle, Microsoft, and others trying to get into your pants without everyone who decides to have a website hiring some clown who doesn't really know what they're doing, they just imitate what they see (or think they see) and the security just isn't there. I only wanted to supply the wxWidgets community with nice clean code to use which they could get from a reputable site (i.e., a site that didn't try to get into their drawers to mess around with things they don't really know about!)

I understand your frustration. You'd like it to look like and act like what you are used to. But think about what you are used to... Sites that scroll headings for listings off the top of the screen so you have to memorize which column holds what. Sites that laboriously page you through their wares a screen at a time and when you get to the end you have 2 choices, laboriously page backward, or go to the beginning and start again! Sure, some of them give you a few pages of 'history' so that you can flip backward in jumps, but you cannot pick anywhere at all in the listing and just go there (sure alphabet listings, or numbered, but they're all half measures). Why shouldn't a site let you scroll right through the listing and have it wrap? Why shouldn't a site let you pick just exactly which of a couple of hundred pages you wish to go to? There's really no reason, besides the one you said yourself, "that's what people look for". Well, why should that be the way it is? This way and no other? No innovation, no experimentation? No trying to give users the same things you'd like to see yourself, just because it's not what is expected?

Granted, it's not perfect, but it's got a lot more nice features than most. And, as I said, there are improvements in the works. I didn't really like the selection method I finally came up with, but my alternative was to have people download one at a time, then take them back to who knows where in the listing... If you've tried to address any of these issues with building a website, you'd know it's not that easy. But with a will and an idea there can be better paradigms out there. And without having to invade the users privacy to accomplish it...

Sorry, I got a bit wordier than I intended... But, as you can see, it is something I've put some time and thought into to try to make a website reach the goal of all software: To be more user friendly... So, a dropdown list is not readily expected, but it wasn't really that hard to ferret out,now, was it? I mean, you did figure it out... And as far as the download method, well, I think it's one step better to do all downloads (even if one at a time) at the same time from the same location, instead of jumping out of the flow to download them in the 'normal' fashion. It always struck me like going to the store and, instead of gathering everything you wanted to buy all at once, you go to the cashier with each item and pay for it and get it packaged up to go, then return to shop some more?! It's not what I do when I shop! And if you really think about it, isn't that what you do at the store? Don't you present each item, one at a time, to the cashier from your cart? Doing the downloads from wxcodex's download page is really not that different!;)
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Re: For easy XML access try wxXML class

Post by upCASE »

Hi!
dsilvia wrote:Not all people... I tried checkboxes, they won't work.
O.k., I don't know how you coded that part. Still, I think that if it works with a dropdown used to check the selection in it, then it should work with a checkbox as well. But as I said: I don't know how you implemented the rest of the code.
dsilvia wrote:I understand your frustration. You'd like it to look like and act like what you are used to.
Yes, in a way. It's not about the underlying techniques or how you handle stuff like selections, but about understanding what I am supposed to do to achieve what I want.
dsilvia wrote:There's really no reason, besides the one you said yourself, "that's what people look for". Well, why should that be the way it is? This way and no other? No innovation, no experimentation? No trying to give users the same things you'd like to see yourself, just because it's not what is expected?
I didn't say that it should be "that" way, or that there is only one way. My input was based on my experience and on what Mojo said. In no way am I stopping you from experimenting and being creative and innovative.
dsilvia wrote:So, a dropdown list is not readily expected, but it wasn't really that hard to ferret out,now, was it? I mean, you did figure it out...
Yes, I did. Apparently Mojo had some problems with that :-)
And like I said, it took me some time to figure it out.
dsilvia wrote:It's not what I do when I shop! And if you really think about it, isn't that what you do at the store? Don't you present each item, one at a time, to the cashier from your cart? Doing the downloads from wxcodex's download page is really not that different!;)
Correct.
Yet I expected something else to happen: Select my choices, hit download and get a zipped up archive containing all stuff I selected. So I'd have my ready packed bag and leave the shop :-)

Let me state this clearly: I did not intend in any way to offend you.
I think we have a different thing in mind when defining "user friendliness". I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with being creative and innovative, exploring new way to do stuff. But IMHO there are things that have already been implemented and proven to be good, because people think they are intuitive and easy to use.
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Re: For easy XML access try wxXML class

Post by dsilvia »

upCASE wrote: O.k., I don't know how you coded that part. Still, I think that if it works with a dropdown used to check the selection in it, then it should work with a checkbox as well. But as I said: I don't know how you implemented the rest of the code.
It really has nothing to do with how I did the rest of the code, it has to do with states. Checkboxes are stateless. You have to see if they are checked or not at the time they are visible, as in a <form></form>. They were not designed with the idea in mind to have them retain state, rather they were designed to work with an http post. That's why you will see so many entry forms written in JavaScript (Ajax, whatever), so the client side code can retain the user's state.
upCASE wrote: My input was based on my experience and on what Mojo said.
You must have a personal insight into what the problem was with Mojo. I guess I did not get that the dropdown selection was a problem from "has unintelligible interface...". I got that the whole display was somehow scrambled. That has happened to folks in the past who used older browsers (IE5 or Netscape) since those browsers really had no concept of PHP and or CSS. Based on that, I assumed it was a browser problem...
upCASE wrote: Apparently Mojo had some problems with that :-)
Again, I guess I did not see the apparency...
upCASE wrote: Yet I expected something else to happen: Select my choices, hit download and get a zipped up archive containing all stuff I selected. So I'd have my ready packed bag and leave the shop :-)
I thought about that, but at the time, I was trying to give people the format they wanted. That's why, on older items, you see things like tar.gz, tar.bz, tar.bz2, zip, etc. If I "zipped the zips" I'd have to ask which kind of zip they wanted...
upCASE wrote: I think we have a different thing in mind when defining "user friendliness".
...
But IMHO there are things that have already been implemented and proven to be good
I guess, imho, being led around by the nose because no one chooses to tackle a problem, else be forced to allow client side machinations to get a marginally better interface are things that I do not consider as "proven to be good" or "user friendliness"! "That's how we designed it, take it or leave it", is not my idea of trying to define and address what a user wants. That may be the Apple way or the Microsoft way, but it's the way that spawned, of necessity, things like BSD, Linux, Qt, and wxWidgets... Trying to offer the user a better alternative.

Please, don't get me wrong. I do appreciate your constructive criticisms! It's just that some of them were not really well founded and I tried to point that out. Your feeling about the dropdown (and, by the way, it was brought up by others, that's why the 'Select' was placed next to the dropdown) is valid in my estimation. It was not obvious to me at first because, being a basically curious person, when I see a dropdown anywhere, I wonder what choices are in it and what it's for, so I click on it! But that's just me!;) The more feedback I get like yours, the more I realize I need an alternative, more intuitive paradigm. And I'm working on that now (among other things, like XML access libraries!;))

In all actuality, I took no offense, I just do get carried away sometimes with explanations!;)
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Re: For easy XML access try wxXML class

Post by upCASE »

Hi!
dsilvia wrote:In all actuality, I took no offense, I just do get carried away sometimes with explanations!;)
O.k., great.
dsilvia wrote:That has happened to folks in the past who used older browsers (IE5 or Netscape) since those browsers really had no concept of PHP and or CSS. Based on that, I assumed it was a browser problem...
Hmmm... I though the entire purpose of having PHP was to have some server-side mechanism to code up a "dynamic" (at least in a way), responsive website without having to bring code to the client. A browser never knows about PHP, never has, never will.
dsilvia wrote:I thought about that, but at the time, I was trying to give people the format they wanted. That's why, on older items, you see things like tar.gz, tar.bz, tar.bz2, zip, etc. If I "zipped the zips" I'd have to ask which kind of zip they wanted...
I wouldn't mind to be asked that question. In addition, there are only IMHO two "major" formats to worry about: zip and tar.gz. I suppose almost all decent (free or commercial) packers can handle both formats.
dsilvia wrote:I guess, imho, being led around by the nose because no one chooses to tackle a problem, else be forced to allow client side machinations to get a marginally better interface are things that I do not consider as "proven to be good" or "user friendliness"!
I'm still not convinced that for a "proper" interface one would need client side technologies and I never said so. "proven to be good" and "user friendliness" have absolutely nothing to do with the technology used to achieve them. I'm pretty sure that for many sites no client side code is used and they still follow "user friendliness" in a common sense.
dsilvia wrote:"That's how we designed it, take it or leave it", is not my idea of trying to define and address what a user wants. That may be the Apple way or the Microsoft way, but it's the way that spawned, of necessity, things like BSD, Linux, Qt, and wxWidgets... Trying to offer the user a better alternative.
Sure, having an alternative is great. But apparently not all people think that way. I'm personally not a fan of Apple, but I do have to admit that they are great at doing one job: Design intuitive interfaces. They spend a lot of time and money on designing interfaces and have the IMHO best paradigm: Leave out what you can. A button you don't show doesn't have to be implemented and users won't have to question themselves: "Why do I need this button?".

"That's how we designed it, take it or leave it". -> Yes, that's what Apple does. And they are pretty successful with that. But think again: Aren't you doing the same thing?
dsilvia wrote:I do not consider as "proven to be good" or "user friendliness".
O.k., that's your choice. Still, the "user" is not you and may have a completely different view on that.
dsilvia wrote:It was not obvious to me at first because, being a basically curious person, when I see a dropdown anywhere, I wonder what choices are in it and what it's for, so I click on it! But that's just me!;)
Right, it's just you :-)
I tend to think of how my father would try to tackle the task of downloading. I think he'd fail. Not because he doesn't know his way around with computers (he does and actually is an Office Wizard), but because he wouldn't see the connection between "selection in combobox", scroll up, hit download button, click download links, because it's not obvious to him.

Let's just say: Designing interfaces is not an easy task and depends on personal likings.
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Re: For easy XML access try wxXML class

Post by Mojo »

upCASE wrote:Hi!
Mojo wrote: Nice work! How can I download wxLib_wxXML lib?
http://www.wxCodex.net has unintelligible interface...
Next to the descriptions "Select: wxLib_wxXML Library in 7z archive" and "Select: wxLib_wxXML Library in Zip archive" there is a dropdown box. Set it to "dnld" and then click "Download Selections" on top of the page.
Took me some time to figure that out :-)
Thanks upCASE it looked like puzzle :)
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