How to parse a incomplete xml file

[praveenss]

I have to write a program where we get the xml file incrementally. i.e the file is constantly updated in the form of xml feed. Thus the first chunk will not be a well formed xml document. However i need to parse the feeds regularly and display the parsed result.

How can this be achieved.?

Eg...

xml field can be following

First chunk is as follows: We can see it is not well formed

<xml> 
<results> 
<result1> 
</result1? 
<result2> 
</result2> 

The next chunk will be

<result3> 
</result3> 
<result4> 
</result4> 
</results> 
</xml> 

Please help!! I would be greatful if you could provide me with sample code or some links which i can follow.

TIA

[Dormilich]

any reasonable xml parser will throw an error if the document is not well-formed. however, there are ways to extend an xml file with additional data (I'm speaking of DOM) without ever using invalid xml, although that depends on the structure of the chunks.

I recommend changing the update process, since xml processing will be much easier on well formed xml.

if there is absolutely no other way, you can try to parse the file tag-wise (like the PHP xml_parse() function).

regards

[praveenss]

@Dormilich

Hi Dormilich,

The problem is the xml feed is retrieved from the server and is constantly updated on the user screen. So i have to parse the given feed and then update the user screen as and when the xml feed is got.

Can you provide me with the sample code to do the same?

[Dormilich]

if you get a feed from a server, it is mostly well-formed. in which way is the feed processed to show up on screen?

[praveenss]

@Dormilich
Hi,
A well formed xml document is got in chunks and when we get all the chunks we get a well formed xml document. But it can happen that we get a chunk and there will be a delay before we get another chunk of data. But the initial chunk received has to be parsed. Currently for parsing a well formed xml body i am using libxml2.

[Dormilich]

@praveenss
do you have to parse the chunk immediately? otherwise I'd wait until the document is complete.

@praveenss
If you must parse the chunk, consider sending chunks that are well formed. although it will result in more program code when it comes to putting the document together...

[praveenss]

@Dormilich


Yes exaxtly. I have to parse the chunk immediately. As i mentioned the entire document is got as follows

First chunk is:

<result>
<result1> .... </result1>
<result2>...... </result2>

Next chunk is :

<result3>....</result3>
<result4> .... </result4>

Finally the feed is terminated

</result>

If we concatenate the chunks then we get a well formed xml. But the problem arises that we get the xml in chunks and with different delays.

[Dormilich]

@praveenss
then there will be no other option than to parse it peace-by-piece. that is, treating the chunks as string and applying string functions to get the data you need.

I still recommend sending the chunks as well-formed xml (unless that's impossible).

[jkmyoung]

You should be able to use an event driven XML parser, (eg SAX). If you treat the incoming data as a stream as opposed to one file it might be possible to do. The trick would be dealing with the EOF token, ignoring it so that the parser does not throw an error. Then you'd have to route the new input into the stream as it comes.

[praveenss]

@jkmyoung

Can you please tell me how can we route the new input to the stream. The SAX parser xmlSAXUserParse Memory API can be called for every chunk. But the final output is the parsed content for the complete feed.

The requirement is that i need to refresh the UI with the parsed content of every chunk as and when it arrives.
It would be of great help if you provide some sample code or some link to follow.
TIA