iPhone NSXMLParse for .asx files

Question

I'm totally new to XML.

Does anyone have a sample code to help me build a custom class that would parse Microsoft .asx files to play mms streams in sequence on the iPhone?

Some Googling revealed to me that .xml and .asx are somewhat related, though the second one is very limited if compared to the first.

I need to play three streams in sequence, inside an .asx container like this:

<asx version="3.0">
<TITLE>MYSONGS</TITLE>
<entry>
<TITLE>www.mysite.com</TITLE>
<ref href="mms://mysite.com/musicFolder/song1.wma" />
</entry>
<entry>
<TITLE>MYSONGS</TITLE>
<ref href="mms://mysite.com/musicFolder/song2.wma" />
</entry>
<entry>
<TITLE>www.mysite.com</TITLE>
<ref href="mms://mysite.com/musicFolder/song3.wma" />
</entry>
</asx>

I'm already able to parse the mms stream, decode and play the wma file. I'm just not able yet to parse .asx content, to play the streams in sequence. Thanks!

Answer 1

In my case I've been able to successfully parse .asx files using TouchXML, using this code (that I modified from the original version available at http://foobarpig.com/iphone/parsing-xml-element-attributes-with-touchxml.html):

         //  we will put parsed data in an a array
        NSMutableArray *res = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
        NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString: @"http://www.yoursite.com/WindowsMediaDotCom/theFileToParse.asx"];

        /* have TouchXML parse it into a CXMLDocument */
        CXMLDocument *document = [[[CXMLDocument alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:url options:0 error:nil] autorelease];

        NSArray *nodes = NULL;
        //  searching for piglet nodes
        nodes = [document nodesForXPath:@"//ref" error:nil];

        for (CXMLElement *node in nodes) {
            NSMutableDictionary *item = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
            int counter;
            for(counter = 0; counter < [node childCount]; counter++) {
                //  common procedure: dictionary with keys/values from XML node
                [item setObject:[[node childAtIndex:counter] stringValue] forKey:[[node childAtIndex:counter] name]];
            }

            //  and here it is - attributeForName! Simple as that.
            [item setObject:[[node attributeForName:@"href"] stringValue] forKey:@"href"];  // <------ this magical arrow is pointing to the area of interest

            [res addObject:item];
            [item release];
        }

        //   and we print our results
        NSLog(@"%@", res);