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Update WebParser to have true parsing

Report bugs with the Rainmeter application and suggest features.
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Ytterbium
Posts: 11
Joined: April 8th, 2017, 11:22 am

Update WebParser to have true parsing

Post by Ytterbium »

Hello,

I'm trying to parse some xml with the WebParser but it's very difficult to create some RegEx as it's not really designed for that function.

There was a plugin written as the RegEx became troublesome for this person.

I imagine that most people would prefer a true parser?

using XPath Syntax would be great choice for parser language.

Thanks for consideration
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jsmorley
Developer
Posts: 22628
Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:02 pm
Location: Fort Hunt, Virginia, USA

Re: Update WebParser to have true parsing

Post by jsmorley »

WebParser is not about XML. It is designed to be able to use regular expression to parse any site or text file. While I could see the charm of having some purposeful functionality that is intended to more easily parse properly formatted XML files, that is only a small part of what WebParser is used for by skin authors.

I personally don't see this in the cards. Regular expression is not the easiest thing to use, but is very flexible and powerful, and allows WebParser to be useful in many, many situations. Adding an external parser strictly for XML would be both difficult to implement in the option-driven language of Rainmeter, and not something that there is any great need for. I appreciate that regular expression is challenging, but you can in fact use it perfectly well for parsing any XML.
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