New to XML. Have a couple basic questions

sswingle · April 21st, 2006, 08:41 PM

I am trying to learn XML, and am working on an application while learning. I currently have a XML file with all my data, and am displaying it with a XSL file, and with vbscript.
Displaying the data works ok, but I am completely lost where to even start when it comes to updating the data file.

XML:
<breaks>
    <slot>
        <slotno>1</slotno>
        <time>0:00</time>
        <status>open</status>
        <available>3</available>
        <counter>0</counter>
        <name>
            <user>sswingle</user>
            <type>lunch</type>
        </name>
        <name>
            <user>user2</user>
            <type>break</type>
        </name>
    </slot>
    <slot>
        <slotno>2</slotno>
        <time>0:15</time>
        <status>closed</status>
        <available>3</available>
        <counter>0</counter>
        <name>
            <user>sswingle</user>
            <type>lunch</type>
        </name>
        <name>
            <user>user3</user>
            <type>break</type>
        </name>
        <name>
            <user>user4</user>
            <type>rr</type>
        </name>

    </slot>
    <slot>
        <slotno>3</slotno>
        <time>0:30</time>
        <status>closed</status>
        <available>3</available>
        <counter>0</counter>

    </slot>
    <slot>
        <slotno>4</slotno>
        <time>0:45</time>
        <status>open</status>
        <available>3</available>
        <counter>0</counter>

    </slot>
</breaks>

My XSL File:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
  <html>
<script language="vbscript">
Sub B1_OnClick
Dim slot
Dim name
Dim typeofbreak

    slot= InputBox("What time slot")
    name= InputBox("Your Name")
    typeofbreak = InputBox("Restroom, Break, or LUnch")
    Msgbox ("Thank you, your break has been scheduled")

End Sub

</script>
  <body>
    <h2>Breaks</h2>
    <table border="1">
      <tr>
        <td bgcolor="#3399ff">Time</td>
        <td>Status</td>
    <td>Legend</td>
    <td bgcolor="ff9933">Short Break</td>
    <td bgcolor="3399ff">Break</td>
    <td bgcolor="ffff00">Lunch</td>
      </tr>
      <xsl:for-each select="breaks/slot">
      <tr>
        <td><xsl:value-of select="time" /></td>
    <xsl:choose>
        <xsl:when test="status='open'">
                <td bgcolor="00ff00">
        <xsl:value-of select="status" /></td>
            <td><form><input type="submit" value="Request" name="B1"></input></form></td>
        </xsl:when>
    <xsl:otherwise>
        <td bgcolor="ff3300"><xsl:value-of select="status" /></td>
    </xsl:otherwise>
    </xsl:choose>
        <xsl:for-each select="name">
        <xsl:choose>
            <xsl:when test="type='rr'">
                <td bgcolor="ff9933"><xsl:value-of select="user" /></td>
            </xsl:when>

            <xsl:when test="type='break'">
                <td bgcolor="3399ff"><xsl:value-of select="user" /></td>
            </xsl:when>

            <xsl:when test="type='lunch'">
                <td bgcolor="ffff00"><xsl:value-of select="user" /></td>
            </xsl:when>

        </xsl:choose>

        </xsl:for-each>
      </tr>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </table>
  </body>
  </html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

What I cannot figure out are two parts.
1. Needing the program to know which button is clicked so the slot is known automatically
2. Being able to add the given information to the XML file and resaving the XML file.

Im sorry if this is too complicated. If someone can give me an example of saving information to an XML file that would be great. My only requirement is that I DO NOT use asp, everything needs to be client side processing.

Thanks!!

mhkay · April 22nd, 2006, 04:03 AM

The way you update the XML document is to write a bit of Javascript that responds to the button click and fires off an XSL transformation to do the update, creating a new document. You can use the Microsoft API or the Sarissa cross-browser API. Writing the XML document back to filestore is more difficult. You don't say whether it's client filestore or server filestore, but either way, there are security issues. This isn't directly an XML problem and it's not an area where I claim any expertise. I would normally assume some kind of servlet, ASP page, or similar on the server.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
Author, XSLT Programmer's Reference and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference

sswingle · April 22nd, 2006, 07:13 AM

I just want to save the XML back to the local client, C:\temp will be fine. Wanting to use the Microsoft API. vbscript is preferred over javascript, but if you can give an example of how to do either that would be great.
I cannot do any server side processing, so ASP is impossible in this situation.

Thanks