How to load XML file data into a UITableView? - objective-c

Question

I am retrieving an XML document from a server and would like to display it in a UITableView in my application. I have the following code so far:
#implementation textxmlViewController
#synthesize tableviews;
-(void)viewDidLoad{
[super viewDidLoad];
NSURL *url = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString:#"http://theserver.com/demo.xml"];
NSXMLParser *xmlParser = [[NSXMLParser alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:url];
[xmlParser setDelegate:self];
BOOL success = [xmlParser parse];
if(success)
NSLog(#"success");
else
NSLog(#"Error");
}
- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser foundCharacters:(NSString *)string {
NSLog(string);
}
- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser didEndElement:(NSString *)elementName
namespaceURI:(NSString *)namespaceURI qualifiedName:(NSString *)qName {
if (qName) {
elementName = qName;
}
}
- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser didStartElement:(NSString *)elementName
namespaceURI:(NSString *)namespaceURI qualifiedName:(NSString *)qName
attributes:(NSDictionary *)attributeDict {
if (qName) {
elementName = qName;
}
if ([elementName isEqualToString:#"text"]) {
}
}
I already have a UITableView in this view, my question is how can I display the XML's content in the table view?
My XML data looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Answers>
<Answer>
<Result>it's good</Result>
<Evaluate>can you tell me why?</Evaluate>
</Answer>
<Answer>
<Result>about 5 hours</Result>
<Evaluate>it's too long</Evaluate>
</Answer>
</Answers>
So how can I do it? Thanks

Answer 1

I would recommend to use another XML parser instead of using NSXMLParser.
Ray Wenderlich wrote a good article about the different XML parsing possibilities on the iPhone(iOS): http://www.raywenderlich.com/553/how-to-chose-the-best-xml-parser-for-your-iphone-project
I think it'd be easier for you using a DOM based XML parser. you could use the indexPath to get the data right out of the parsed xmlData.
For example: if your using GDataXML you just need to call the method
+ (GDataXMLElement *)elementsWithName:(NSString *)name;
with name = 'Answers' which returns the Node for all the answer.
on this GDataXMLElement call the method
- (NSArray *)elementsForName:(NSString *)name;
with name = 'Answer' which gives you all the answers as a NSArray.
You can use this array as datasource for you UITableView by returning numberOfRowsInSection with [answersArray count]. And in the cellForIndexPath method get the GDataXMLElement for the answer by calling
GDataXMLElement * answerElement = [answersArray objectAtIndex: indexPath.row];
Just parse the answerElement for the elements 'name' and 'value' to show the data in your UITableView.

Answer 2

It depends on how you want the info to be displayed. At least you should implement cellForRowAtIndexPath: to return the UITableViewCell to be displayed.
According to your XML structure, you can have cells for answers, each having two UITextFields to display the result and evaluate.
Please take a look at http://adeem.me/blog/2009/05/19/iphone-programming-tutorial-part-1-uitableview-using-nsarray/ for a tutorial.