Sleepaholic88 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello, it's me again, the Perl Newbie with the aim-bot =). This time, I want the bot to get a zipcode from the message from the user, 
$zip =~ s/\/accuweather //ig;

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of course, then it forms this link:
http://beta1.accuweather.com/beta1/dtwx_initialize.asp?zipcode=$zip where $zip, of course, is the zipcode. Then on that page, it finds what is in between <UFDB> and </UFDB> and uses that in this url:
http://beta1.accuweather.com/beta1/dtwx_curcon.asp?ufdb=$ufdb where $ufdb is what it finds in between <UFDB> and </UFDB> in the first site. Then, it finds what is in between different tags in the second page, such as <Temperature></Temperature>, but i guess that it's the same exact thing as finding whats between <UFDB> and </UFDB>. So, my question is: "How do I find what is in the XML tags?" Thanks.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: AIM-Bot help again, please!
by artist (Parson) on Mar 22, 2003 at 05:19 UTC
    Welcome to the wonderful world of handling XML with perl.

    Observation: Your basic problem is how to parse the XML data and get the desired value for a given tag.
    Pointer:You can use Bundle::XML
    Code: 

    use strict;
use warnings;
use LWP::Simple; 
use XML::Simple;
 my $zipcode = '03054'; 
 my $site1 = get 'http://beta1.accuweather.com/beta1/dtwx_initialize.a
+sp?zipcode='.$zipcode;
 my $DTWXSetup = XMLin($site1); 
 my $Location =  $DTWXSetup->{Location}; 
 my $UFDB = $Location->{UFDB};
 my $site2 = get 'http://beta1.accuweather.com/beta1/dtwx_curcon.asp?u
+fdb='.$UFDB;
 my $CurrentConditions = XMLin($site2);
 my $Temperature = $CurrentConditions->{Temperature};
 print "ZIP:$zipcode\nTemperature:$Temperature\n";
 XMLout();

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    Few Liner: 
    use LWP::Simple; 
use XML::Simple;
 my $zipcode = shift;
print XMLin(get 'http://beta1.accuweather.com/beta1/dtwx_curcon.asp?uf
+db='.     XMLin(get 'http://beta1.accuweather.com/beta1/dtwx_initiali
+ze.asp?zipcode='.$zipcode)->{Location}->{UFDB})->{Temperature};

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    Point: I wish that you will make a point to learn more XML, from sites like XML Perl.

    artist

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      It says that $zipcode requires explicit package name. Not exactly sure what that means.... And I would learn some XML, but homework, mostly, keeps me from that =(
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        That error means that you are using strict (which is good) and you didn't declare $zipcode with my. If $zipcode is a global variable then put my $zipcode; at the top of your program somewhere. If its in a sub then put my $zipcode; in the sub somewhere before you use it or when you assign it (my $zipcode = ....)

        Hope that helps
        Chris

        Lobster Aliens Are attacking the world!
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      Thank you very much!!!! I used the first code, and it worked perfectly! The bot now returns values for:
      Current Condition
      Temperature
      ReelFeel
      Humidity
      UV Index
      Wind Direction and Speed
      Percipitation Thank you very much!
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Re: AIM-Bot help again, please!
by DarknessX (Scribe) on Mar 22, 2003 at 20:37 UTC
    IMHO, this entire problem would be more easily solved with Geo::Weather. As soon as you have the zip code, no XML parsing, though I agree completely with point 
    -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GPA/P/S d+ s++:+ a--- C++ UL++ P++>++++ L++ E W++ N o? K? w-- !O M- V?
+ PS++ PE- Y PGP- t 5- X+ R* tv-- b++ !DI D---(+) G e- h-- r++ y? 
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK-----

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