Play framework: parse XML to model

Question

I have simple entity in webapp driven by Play framework. It looks like this:

case class MyItem(id: Option[Long] = None, name: String, comments: List[Comment])
case class Comment(commentDate: Date, commentText: String)

And I get the XML from DB that looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<item>
    <id>1</id>
    <name>real item</name>
    <comments> 
        <comment>
            <comment_date>01.01.1970</comment_date>
            <comment_text>it rocks</comment_text>
        </comment>
        <comment>
            <comment_date>02.01.1970</comment_date>
            <comment_text>it's terrible</comment_text>
        </comment>      
    </comments>
</item>

And now I have no idea with parsing it to the model and form mapping.

My form mapping just in case (doesn't compile now):

  val itemForm = Form(
    mapping(
      "id" -> optional(longNumber),
      "name" -> nonEmptyText,
      "comments" -> list(mapping(
          "commentDate" -> date("dd.mm.yyyy"),
          "commentText" -> text
      )(Comment.apply)(Comment.unapply))
    )(MyItem.apply)(MyItem.unapply)
  )

Answer 1

Here is the sample code for the first part of the question:

import scala.xml.{Comment => _, _}


case class Comment(commentDate: String, commentText: String)
case class MyItem(id: Option[Long] = None, name: String, comments: List[Comment])

object MyParser {
  def parse(el: Elem) =
    MyItem(Some((el \ "id").text.toLong), (el \ "name").text,
      (el \\ "comment") map { c => Comment((c \ "comment_date").text, (c \ "comment_text").text)} toList)

}

And the result from REPL:

scala> MyParser.parse(xml)
MyParser.parse(xml)
res1: MyItem = MyItem(Some(1),real item,List(Comment(01.01.1970,it rocks), Comment(02.01.1970,it's terrible)))

I took the freedom to change the commentDate to String as I wanted to make the program look simpler. Parsing the Date is quite simple and it's enough to read the Joda Time library documentation.