NSDictionary XML

[jelkimantis]

Here is what I am trying to do. Please help me understand what I'm doing wrong!

I have an XML file that I want to parse. I want to be able to parse this somewhat dynamically, given that we'll be using it for various archives of the same format. Given this idea, I want to put each tag into an NSDictionary.

Since I'm parsing XML, I need to build the results, which I am doing like this:

-(void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser foundCharacters:(NSString *)string {
	[results appendString:string];
}

When the element ends, I have an if-else chain that assigns results to the appropriate NSDictionary:

-(void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser didEndElement:(NSString *)elementName namespaceURI:(NSString *)namespaceURI
	qualifiedName:(NSString *)qName {
	if (currentProperty) {
		//set the idTag for the entry and appent the idTag to the array of Entries.
		if ([currentProperty isEqualToString: @"Thumb"]) {
			[thumbURL setObject:results forKey:idTag];
			[results setString:@""];
		} else if ([currentProperty isEqualToString: @"Path"]) {
			[pathURL setObject:results forKey:idTag];
			[results setString:@""];
		} else if ([currentProperty isEqualToString: @"Transcription"]) {
			[transcription setObject:results forKey:idTag];
			[results setString:@""];
		} else if ([currentProperty isEqualToString: @"Meta"]) {
			//Haven't written this yet.
			[results setString: @"" ];
		} else if ([currentProperty isEqualToString: @"Context"]) {
			[context setObject:results forKey:idTag];
			[results setString:@""];
		} else if ([currentProperty isEqualToString: @"Inferences"]) {
			[inferences setObject:results forKey:idTag];
			[results setString:@""];
		}
	}
	if ([currentProperty isEqualToString:@"Entry"]) {
		[meta setObject:individualMeta forKey:idTag];
		[individualMeta removeAllObjects];
	}
	//reset current properties
	currentProperty = nil;
	attributeValue = nil;
}

The problem seems to be that when I set my dictionary entries, it's maintaining a persistent connection to 'results'. I tested this theory by putting:

NSLog(@"transcription %@", [transcription objectForKey:idTag]);

both before and after the

[results setString:@""];

before that line of code, it returns what I want, after, it returns nothing.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm just overlooking some detail, but any help would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if you need any other information about my code.

[jelkimantis]

Don't you love when you fix your own code before anyone else does?

So, since I knew that I was just referencing objects, I decided to try to copy them into my dictionary.

so I changed:

[thumbURL setObject:results forKey:idTag];

to

[thumbURL setObject:[results copy] forKey:idTag];

And now it works like a top! :-) I have a feeling that this app will get refactored pretty heavily when I get it working, but that's life, right? Thanks for being here! :-)

If this solution is lame and absolutely moronic, please let me know, otherwise, I hope this helps someone else! :-)

[Benoit Caccinolo]

To easily convert XML to NSDictionary, here is a little lib to do this conversion:

XML to NSDictionary Converter bcaccinolo's blog

The code is on Github.

Cheers,