Getting Started with TinyXml

Step 1: Download and install TinyXML Download and extract the library from http://www.grinninglizard.com/tinyxml/ TinyXML source files as shown: Step 2: Configure Visual Studio In Visual Studio select File > New > Project. Select Empty Project: Then copy the following files to your project folder • tinystr.h • tinyxml.h • tinyxmlparser.cpp • tinystr.cpp • tinyxml.cpp • tinyxmlerror.cpp From solution explorer you can then add these file to your project. Right-click the project folder and select Add > Existing Item... Step 3: Try it! That is all there is to it. You should now be in a position to try some examples. For example, consider the following example XML: [code lang="xml"] <?xml version="1.0" ?> <file> <people> <person> <forename>Andrew</forename> <surname>Jones</surname> </person> <person> <forename>David</forename> <surname>Matthews</surname> </person> <person> <forename>Jason</forename> <surname>Perkins</surname> </person> </people> </file> [/code] We may wish to interrogate the XML and read the values inside the tags it contains. This can be a straightforward matter of using calls to the the FirstChildElement method. Notice the use of checking for NULL values when using every method call, for additional robustness: [code lang="cpp"] TiXmlDocument doc( "test1.xml" ); doc.LoadFile(); TiXmlElement *l_pRootElement = doc.RootElement(); if( NULL != l_pRootElement ) { // set of &lt;person&gt; tags TiXmlElement *l_pPeople = l_pRootElement->FirstChildElement( "people" ); if ( NULL != l_pPeople ) { TiXmlElement *l_pPerson = l_pPeople->FirstChildElement( "person" ); while( l_pPerson ) { TiXmlElement *l_pForename = l_pPerson->FirstChildElement( "forename" ); if ( NULL != l_pForename ) { std::cout << l_pForename->GetText(); } TiXmlElement *l_pSurname = l_pPerson->FirstChildElement( "surname" ); if ( NULL != l_pSurname ) { std::cout << " " << l_pSurname->GetText(); } std::cout << std::endl; l_pPerson = l_pPerson->NextSiblingElement( "person" ); } } } [/code] Giving the following output: As an alternative, handles have been introduced to make the reading of XML values little cleaner. Thus our code for reading the set of persons reduces to: [code lang="cpp"] TiXmlDocument doc( "test1.xml" ); doc.LoadFile(); TiXmlHandle docHandle( &doc ); TiXmlElement* l_pPerson = docHandle.FirstChild( "file" ).FirstChild( "people" ).Child( "person", 0 ).ToElement(); while( l_pPerson ) { TiXmlElement *l_pForename = l_pPerson->FirstChildElement( "forename" ); if ( NULL != l_pForename ) { std::cout << l_pForename->GetText(); } TiXmlElement *l_pSurname = l_pPerson->FirstChildElement( "surname" ); if ( NULL != l_pSurname ) { std::cout << " " << l_pSurname->GetText(); } std::cout << std::endl; l_pPerson = l_pPerson->NextSiblingElement( "person" ); } [/code] That gives us exactly the same result but with using less code: Download the Visual Studio 2010 project from here. Programmatically create and save an XML Same example as given at the Grinning Lizard site, "Writing a document to a file": [code lang="cpp"] #include "tinyxml.h" int main(void) { TiXmlDocument doc; TiXmlElement* msg; TiXmlDeclaration* decl = new TiXmlDeclaration( "1.0", "", "" ); doc.LinkEndChild( decl ); TiXmlElement * root = new TiXmlElement( "MyApp" ); doc.LinkEndChild( root ); TiXmlComment * comment = new TiXmlComment(); comment->SetValue(" Settings for MyApp " ); root->LinkEndChild( comment ); TiXmlElement * msgs = new TiXmlElement( "Messages" ); root->LinkEndChild( msgs ); msg = new TiXmlElement( "Welcome" ); msg->LinkEndChild( new TiXmlText( "Welcome to MyApp" )); msgs->LinkEndChild( msg ); msg = new TiXmlElement( "Farewell" ); msg->LinkEndChild( new TiXmlText( "Thank you for using MyApp" )); msgs->LinkEndChild( msg ); TiXmlElement * windows = new TiXmlElement( "Windows" ); root->LinkEndChild( windows ); TiXmlElement * window; window = new TiXmlElement( "Window" ); windows->LinkEndChild( window ); window->SetAttribute("name", "MainFrame"); window->SetAttribute("x", 5); window->SetAttribute("y", 15); window->SetAttribute("w", 400); window->SetAttribute("h", 250); TiXmlElement * cxn = new TiXmlElement( "Connection" ); root->LinkEndChild( cxn ); cxn->SetAttribute("ip", "192.168.0.1"); cxn->SetDoubleAttribute("timeout", 123.456); // floating point attrib doc.SaveFile( "appsettings.xml" ); return 0; } [/code] Which will generate the "appsettings.xml" file: [code lang="xml"] <?xml version="1.0" ?> <MyApp> <!-- Settings for MyApp --> <Messages> <Welcome>Welcome to MyApp</Welcome> <Farewell>Thank you for using MyApp</Farewell> </Messages> <Windows> <Window name="MainFrame" x="5" y="15" w="400" h="250" /> </Windows> <Connection ip="192.168.0.1" timeout="123.456" /> </MyApp> [/code] Setting the attribute can be applied anywhere, as in this similar example: [code lang="cpp"] #include "tinyxml.h" int main(void) { TiXmlDocument doc; TiXmlElement* msg; TiXmlDeclaration* decl = new TiXmlDeclaration( "1.0", "", "" ); doc.LinkEndChild( decl ); TiXmlElement * root = new TiXmlElement( "MyApp" ); root->SetAttribute("name", "MainFrame"); root->SetAttribute("x", 5); root->SetAttribute("y", 15); root->SetAttribute("w", 400); root->SetAttribute("h", 250); doc.LinkEndChild( root ); TiXmlComment * comment = new TiXmlComment(); comment->SetValue(" Settings for MyApp " ); root->LinkEndChild( comment ); TiXmlElement * msgs = new TiXmlElement( "Messages" ); root->LinkEndChild( msgs ); msg = new TiXmlElement( "Welcome" ); msg->LinkEndChild( new TiXmlText( "Welcome to MyApp" )); msgs->LinkEndChild( msg ); msg = new TiXmlElement( "Farewell" ); msg->LinkEndChild( new TiXmlText( "Thank you for using MyApp" )); msgs->LinkEndChild( msg ); doc.SaveFile( "appsettings.xml" ); return 0; } [/code] Which produces the xml file as shown: [code land="xml"] <?xml version="1.0" ?> <MyApp name="MainFrame" x="5" y="15" w="400" h="250"> <!-- Settings for MyApp --> <Messages> <Welcome>Welcome to MyApp</Welcome> <Farewell>Thank you for using MyApp</Farewell> </Messages> </MyApp> [/code]