XML in Cinder

Features Of Cinder

Cinder provides the following features:

💁Libraries for math.

💁Media (Video, Audio, OpenCV).

💁Integrate ImGUI( Immediate Mode Graphic User Interface).

💁Platform essentials (IO, networking, touch, etc.)
💁3D graphics (OpenGL).

💁2D graphics (SVG, Fonts, Image Handling).

Let us now discover XML.

What is XML? 

The term "XML" stands for "eXtensible Markup Language." It is a type of data storage format.

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a widely used, straightforward text-based language that may be used for inter-application communication. It is regarded as a standard method of storing and moving the data. Some programming languages offer first-rate assistance and a comprehensive library collection to parse, alter, or research XML documents.

XML in Cinder

We can process XML in Cinder using the XmlTree class. The XmlTree class is designed to parse and represent an XML document hierarchically. This class is recursive, which means an XmlTree can contain other XmlTrees as its offspring(children). This design is similar to XML, where an element can contain children elements in a hierarchical format.

XmlTree Guide

The root item is at the top of an XML document's tree structure, and the child elements are related to it in the same way that leaves nodes are connected to trees by branches. We'll first look at an example of an XML document before drawing a tree structure based on it.

Example of XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding= " UTF-8"?>
<company>
  <employee>
    <name>Manju</name>
    <age>21</age>
    <email>Manju34@gmail.com</email>
    <address>
      <city>Chandigarh</city>
      <state>Punjab</state>
      <pin>126471</pin>
      <landmark>XYZ</landmark>
    </address>
  </employee>
</company>

Output

Tree Structure

Parsing

XML parsing is the process of reading an XML document. It provides an interface for the user application to access the document. 

An XML parser is a tool that scans XML files and makes the data contained in those files available to programs and computer languages, generally through a well-known interface like the DOM (Document Object Model).

Generally, XML documents have some type of data storage. You must parse the data, which involves reading each line or node and collecting information bits to include it in your software.

🫵 loadFile(): It is used to create an XML tree from a data source to write an XML block.
🫵 loadUrl(): The HTTP Server is parsed using it.
🫵 loadResource(): It is utilized to parse XML-containing resources.

Iterating XmlTrees

The XmlTree::getChild() method can be used to retrieve a specific child of a node by name:

An XmlTree::ExcChildNotFound exception is triggered if the child is missing. Use the function XmlTree::hasChild() to determine whether a child exists.

std::string manjuXml( '<?xml version="1.0"?> <library><owne...' );
XmlTree doc( manjuXml);

Values & Attributes

🫵 As previously mentioned, calling getTag will return a node's tag (or name). 
🫵getValue can be used to obtain a node's value as a string. 
🫵 A string of any type that implements the istream>> XmlTree can automatically parse the operator as it becomes easy. 
🫵The XmlTree allows checking and going through the node's characteristics. You can use the function getAttributeValue() to obtain an attribute's value as a string.
🫵In the case that a node lacks some certain attribute, you can also provide a default value. It  The following will be done if we desire the default size for nodes without a size attribute to be 1.

float age= myNode.getAttributeValue<float>( "size", 1.0f );

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between C++ based openFrameworks and Cinder?

Cinder uses system-specific libraries for better performance, while openFrameworks affords better control over its underlying libraries.

What is OpenGL?

Open Graphics Library (OpenGL) is a cross-platform and cross-language API for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics.

Why use Cinder?

A combination of Cinder with the speedy C++ makes the library appropriate for heavily abstracted projects, including art installations, commercial campaigns, and other advanced animation work.

What if Cinder is not running on my system?

Cinder depends on a few submodules. It supports macOS, Windows, Linux, and iOS. It requires Xcode 11.3.1 or later for development on the Mac and Visual C++ 2019 or later on Windows.

Conclusion

This article taught you what Cinder is and the XML in Cinder. We also discussed why to use Cinder and what all functions are provided for XML in Cinder. 

Read the other related articles:

• Cinder-Windows Platform.
• Graphics in Cinder.
• Logging in Cinder.

Don’t stop here. Check out our Data Structures and Algorithms-guided path to learn Data Structures and Algorithms from scratch. Also, check out some of the Guided Paths, Contests, and Interview Experiences to gain an edge only on Coding Ninjas Studio.

Happy Learning :)