How do I use Nokogiri to parse an XML file?

Question

I'm having some issues with Nokogiri.

I am trying to parse this XML file:

<Collection version="2.0" id="74j5hc4je3b9">
  <Name>A Funfair in Bangkok</Name>
  <PermaLink>Funfair in Bangkok</PermaLink>
  <PermaLinkIsName>True</PermaLinkIsName>
  <Description>A small funfair near On Nut in Bangkok.</Description>
  <Date>2009-08-03T00:00:00</Date>
  <IsHidden>False</IsHidden>
  <Items>
    <Item filename="AGC_1998.jpg">
      <Title>Funfair in Bangkok</Title>
      <Caption>A small funfair near On Nut in Bangkok.</Caption>
      <Authors>Anthony Bouch</Authors>
      <Copyright>Copyright © Anthony Bouch</Copyright>
      <CreatedDate>2009-08-07T19:22:08</CreatedDate>
      <Keywords>
        <Keyword>Funfair</Keyword>
        <Keyword>Bangkok</Keyword>
        <Keyword>Thailand</Keyword>
      </Keywords>
      <ThumbnailSize width="133" height="200" />
      <PreviewSize width="532" height="800" />
      <OriginalSize width="2279" height="3425" />
    </Item>
    <Item filename="AGC_1164.jpg" iscover="True">
      <Title>Bumper Cars at a Funfair in Bangkok</Title>
      <Caption>Bumper cars at a small funfair near On Nut in Bangkok.</Caption>
      <Authors>Anthony Bouch</Authors>
      <Copyright>Copyright © Anthony Bouch</Copyright>
      <CreatedDate>2009-08-03T22:08:24</CreatedDate>
      <Keywords>
        <Keyword>Bumper Cars</Keyword>
        <Keyword>Funfair</Keyword>
        <Keyword>Bangkok</Keyword>
        <Keyword>Thailand</Keyword>
      </Keywords>
      <ThumbnailSize width="200" height="133" />
      <PreviewSize width="800" height="532" />
      <OriginalSize width="3725" height="2479" />
    </Item>
  </Items>
</Collection>

I want all of that information displayed to the screen, that's it. Should be simple right? I am doing this:

require 'nokogiri'

doc = Nokogiri::XML(File.open("sample.xml"))
@block = doc.css("items item").map {|node| node.children.text}
puts @block

Each Items is a node, and under that there are children nodes of Item?

I create a map of this, which returns a hash, and the code in {} goes through each node and places the children text into @block. Then I can display all of the child node's text to the screen.

I have no idea how far or close I am, because I've read so many articles, and am still a little confused on the basics especially since usually with a new language, I read from a file and output to the screen for a basic program.

Answer 1

The nodes in the sample XML are capitalized, so your code should reflect that. For example:

require 'nokogiri'

doc = Nokogiri::XML(File.open("sample.xml"))
@block = doc.css("Items Item").map { |node| node.children.text }
puts @block