Forum OpenACS Q&A: Deleting XML nodes using ns_xml

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1: Deleting XML nodes using ns_xml
Posted by Steffen Tiedemann Christensen on 12/31/02 02:54 PM
Hi,

I have a rather simple question, but I couldn't solve is searching Google, so here it goes: How do a delete an XML node (and it's siblings) using ns_xml?

Thanks and a happy new year to you...
Steffen

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2: Re: Deleting XML nodes using ns_xml (response to 1)
Posted by Dave Bauer on 12/31/02 03:05 PM
ns_xml does not allow manipulation of the XML document. You can add nodes, but deleting is not implemented.

This is another reason to move to using tdom istead of ns_xml.

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3: Re: Deleting XML nodes using ns_xml (response to 1)
Posted by Steffen Tiedemann Christensen on 12/31/02 04:52 PM
:(

Is there a reason for this lacking? I've found ns_xml to be rather helpful in my current project and only need the delete feature to complete it.

Is there any "nice" way to go around this? Someone who have invented some brilliant regsub?

Thanks,
Steffen

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4: Re: Deleting XML nodes using ns_xml (response to 1)
Posted by Steffen Tiedemann Christensen on 01/02/03 12:44 AM
I fixed up a temporary solution. It's not pretty but it gets the job done: 

set node_name [ns_xml node name $node_id]
ns_xml node setattr $node_id "delete_this_node_now" "true"

set xml_data [ns_xml doc render $mod(doc_id)]

regsub -all -- "<\/${node_name}>" $xml_data \x81 xml_data
regsub -all -- "<${node_name}\[^>\]+delete_this_node_now=\"true\"\[^>\]*>\[^\x81\]*\x81" $xml_data "" xml_data
regsub -all -- "\x81" $xml_data "" xml_data
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5: Re: Deleting XML nodes using ns_xml (response to 1)
Posted by Jamie Rasmussen on 01/03/03 05:16 PM
Have you tried the version of nsxml from SourceForge (1.5)? It is newer than the OpenACS version. According to the source code comments you can delete a node with:
ns_xml node delete node_id
I haven't used it, so I don't know if it breaks anything in OpenACS (there were API changes).