Scripting for XML

[Scott Jones]

Hello All,

My group is new to use xml and I am in need of some help.

What I need help with is tcl scripting the same for xml as it would be for HL7?

All that I want to accomplish is to filter on the physician ID and if it is in the table pass the message otherwise suppress it. If it is allowed to pass it would simple pass as raw.

CL vs 5.6.1

AIX platform.

Any help would be appreciated. Resource for scripting or sample code?

Thanks,

Scott

Topic

[David Barr]

I’d take a look at http://tclxml.sourceforge.net/

[Troy Morton]

This is also a very good source for Parsing and Creating XML with Tcl using the DOM (Document Object Model) extension for Tcl.

The Tcl Wiki

[Scott Jones]

Thanks. I’ll take a look and see what I learn. – Scott

[Richard Hart]

Hi Scott.

I’ve been involved with a few Cloverleaf web services projects, with translations

from          to

XML     ->  XML,

XML     ->  HL7,

XML     ->  various and

various->  XML

I’ve been using the Cloverleaf GRM interface within TCL scripts and that works pretty well.  I’ve written some library for most of the operations (unfortunately unable to share).

I’ve found that my testing time is a lot longer when working with XML as the document MUST be valid to extract data.  I’m working with multiple ‘imports’ so management of the XML files can also be tricky!

In my scripts, I’ll validate all the schemas I intend to use at startup.

eg

                   #

                   # Verify that the XML schemas exits prior to using them

                   #

               lappend mySchemaList {GDS-Document      StoreDocument_output}

                                   {GDS-Document       SubmitWorkFlowStatus_output}

                                   {GDS-Document       VoidDocument_output}

                                   {HCAL-Message-Core  HcalFault_soap}

                                   {HCAL-Message-Core  Fault_soap}

               CheckSchema GlobGCDA$HciConnName $mySchemaList

When grabbing elements from an instantiated message, I set a ‘pointer’ and then

                       #

                       # This has a standard structured ‘detail’ so we grab the

                       # elements we are interested in

                       #

                   set myPtr SOAP-ENV:Envelope.SOAP-ENV:Body.SOAP-ENV:Fault.

                   set myFaultCode     [GetElement $myXml ${myPtr}faultcode]

                   set myFaultString   [GetElement $myXml ${myPtr}faultstring]

                   set myFaultActor    [GetElement $myXml ${myPtr}faultactor]

                   set myErrorCode     [GetElement $myXml ${myPtr}detail.core:StandardError.core:errorCode]

                   set myErrorMessage  [GetElement $myXml ${myPtr}detail.core:StandardError.core:message]

with library code below – note that GetElement2 is does not use the ‘catch’, so an errors are found! ….

proc GetElement {aGrmHandle aPtr} {

   set myDat {}

   if {[catch {set myDat [grmfetch $aGrmHandle ${aPtr}.#text]}] == 0} {

       set myDat [datget $myDat VALUE]

   }

   return $myDat

}

proc GetElement2 {aGrmHandle aPtr} {

   set myDat {}

   set myDat [grmfetch $aGrmHandle ${aPtr}.#text]

   set myDat [datget $myDat VALUE]

   return $myDat

}

I hope this helps as bit!

[Scott Jones]

Hi Richard,

Thanks. I appreciate the insight and experience.

I’m hoping that I don’t have to worry about the schema as the messages will be processed raw on the engine. I just have to filter out based on the physician ID’s. So, my hope is that this should be simple. – Scott

[Charlie Bursell]

Unless your XML is pretty complex (like HL7 version 3 UGH!  🙁 ) you can deal with it much easier and faster using regular expressions.

I have tried the DOM and it is incredibly slow.  GRM would still require a schema.

Similar to HL7 if you have a priori knowledge of the structure, you can parse it.

Here is an example script that I present in my Level 3 class

[Scott Jones]

Yes! Thought that I was going crazy. This is much more like what my co-workers and I were talking about.

Thanks Charlie.

Scott

[Richard Hart]

Hi Scott.

If you can do it with regular expressions, it certainly is easier.  

When providing web services, you need to provide the schemas so that applications can call the services and make sure all message are valid – which requires the message to be instantiated.

[Corrie Henry]

@Charlie.

Just want to say thanks.  your post containing the sample XML parsing script helped me out immensely.

[Charlie Bursell]

That was posted a long time ago. Good to know it has not exceed the shelf life.  😆

[Author]

Replies