help needed for correct tools

[GeorgeAtkins]

I am using VS2003 and VB.NET.

My project is to locate book titles within a library collection exported
into an XML file and edit quiz information related to that book's library
record. The "quiz information" originates in another text file containing
book titles and quiz information.

-The quiz file is a plain text file that I will iterate through in code.
-The XML file is a collection of thousands of "MARC records" that need to be
updated. Each MARC record is a collection of fields representing a particular
book.

Here is an abbreviated example of one MARC record in XML, leaving out
several child siblings for clarity:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<mrcbfile>
<mrcb format-type="bd"> //the beginning of a specific marc record
<mrcbldr-bd>
<mrcbldr-bd-18 value="blank"/>
<mrcbldr-bd-19 value="blank"/>
</mrcbldr-bd>
<mrcb-control-fields>
<mrcb005>20021225124740.57</mrcb005>
<mrcb008-bk>
<mrcb008-bk-38 value="|"/>
<mrcb008-bk-39 value="u"/>
</mrcb008-bk>
</mrcb-control-fields>
<mrcb-title-and-title-related>
<mrcb245 i1="i1-1" i2="i2-4">
<mrcb245-a>The boy who lost his face /</mrcb245-a>
<mrcb245-c>Louis Sachar.</mrcb245-c>
</mrcb245>
</mrcb-title-and-title-related>
<mrcb-notes>
<mrcb526 i1="i1-8" i2="i2-blank">
<mrcb526-a>Accelerated Reader AR</mrcb526-a>
<mrcb526-z>29999</mrcb526-z>
</mrcb526>
</mrcb-notes>
<mrcb-notes>
<mrcb590 i1="i1-blank" i2="i2-blank">
<mrcb590-a>Quiz owned by: NEILL, SANDBURG</mrcb590-a>
</mrcb590>
<mrcb590 i1="i1-blank" i2="i2-blank">
<mrcb590-a>Quiz owned by: NEILL, SANDBURG</mrcb590-a>
</mrcb590>
<mrcb595 i1="i1-blank" i2="i2-blank">
<mrcb595-a>Accelerated Reader AR</mrcb595-a>
</mrcb595>
</mrcb-notes>
<mrcb-location>
<mrcb852 i1="i1-blank" i2="i2-blank">
<mrcb852-a>PLYMOUTH</mrcb852-a>
<mrcb852-9>$3.95</mrcb852-9>
</mrcb852>
</mrcb-location>
</mrcb>

My problem:
I am not sure what XML tools to use to locate AND edit the XML data. Using
an XML parser, I learned I can "find" a particular book title using the
following (xpath?) syntax:
/mrcbfile/mrcb/mrcb-title-and-title-related/mrcb245 [mrcb245-a="The boy who
lost his face /"]

Having foud a specific book title, I need to locate the mrcb590-a child
element containing the sub string "Quiz owned by" and append a library name
to the end of the existing string. Then I need to repeat this for every other
MARC record in the XML file.

The particular elements/nodes I will work with are:
<mrb245-a> (the book title) - to match against the quiz text file
<mrcb590-a> (the quiz info) - to edit

So:
1) what are the best tools to use for finding and editing XML data (DOM,
XPATH, XmlReader,XPathNavigator, et al.)?
2) can somebody provide a (pseudo)-code snippet of how it should look?

XML seems straightforward enough, but the many tools are confusing to me. I
hope I've explained my situation clearly enough.

Thanks very much!

George

[chris yoker via DotNetMonster.com]

hi George,
this is not the best answer you'll get, but in the meantime, this is a good
article that tells you what to use in specific scenarios:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/is...T/default.aspx

Sonu Kapoor has lots of how to's that will fit your scenaio:
http://weblogs.asp.net/sonukapoor/category/5175.aspx

altova's xmlSpy is a good free tool.You can do xslt transforms without
having to write the code.
hopefully you'll get a better answer from the gurus on this forum :-)

yogi

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Message posted via http://www.dotnetmonster.com

[GeorgeAtkins]

Hmmmm, why do I need to do xlst transformations? THat is, what do they do for
me? I'll check out your links, too. Thanks.
George

"chris yoker via DotNetMonster.com" wrote:

hi George,
this is not the best answer you'll get, but in the meantime, this is a good
article that tells you what to use in specific scenarios:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/is...T/default.aspx

Sonu Kapoor has lots of how to's that will fit your scenaio:
http://weblogs.asp.net/sonukapoor/category/5175.aspx

altova's xmlSpy is a good free tool.You can do xslt transforms without
having to write the code.
hopefully you'll get a better answer from the gurus on this forum :-)

yogi

--
Message posted via http://www.dotnetmonster.com

[GeorgeAtkins]

Yes, I like these links. Thanks!
George

"chris yoker via DotNetMonster.com" wrote:

hi George,
this is not the best answer you'll get, but in the meantime, this is a good
article that tells you what to use in specific scenarios:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/is...T/default.aspx

Sonu Kapoor has lots of how to's that will fit your scenaio:
http://weblogs.asp.net/sonukapoor/category/5175.aspx

altova's xmlSpy is a good free tool.You can do xslt transforms without
having to write the code.
hopefully you'll get a better answer from the gurus on this forum :-)

yogi

--
Message posted via http://www.dotnetmonster.com