hey guys thanks for reading.

listen, i am a designer-idiot with a simple problem: i am trying to write a perl script that will generate an xml file based on the contents of a directory. the xml file will then be used in flash for a portfolio site.

basically, i will have a folder full of jpeg's, i want the perl script to generate the xml for flash so that the only thing i have to do to change out the images in flash is to replace the files in the directory.

the only info i really need in the xml file is an id attribute for the files (ie image1, image2 etc) and the url of each image.

so the xml could look like this:

<site>
<item id="1" imageURL="/images/image1.jpg" /> 
<item id="2" imageURL="/images/image1.jpg" /> 
</site>

[download]

i found a perl script that works great, but i cant for the life of me figure out how to get the URL attribute (hey, i'm a designer-idiot, right?)

anyways, here is the perl code i am currently mangling: 

#!/usr/bin/perl

#  -- Perl Dynamic XML directory Content Generator_by SUP@ --
#  --
#  This script is designed to make a dynamic XML file to be used with 
+flash
#  out of a directory that holds jpg files.  I use this so my client m
+ay simply
#  upload files into a ftp directory and the flash page automatically 
+gets
#  updated.  This is the first time i give code to anyone on the net.
#  hope you enjoy it. You must have a little knowledge of perl to make
+ this
#  work for you.  I commented as much as I could.
#  --
#  By : SUP@    mtlelite@hotmail.com
#  --

print "content-type: text/html\n\n";

# show Load data ...
print "<html><body>";
print "<h1>Loading data...\n";

print "</h1></body><html>";

# open xml file to write
open(FIL,">../pub/database.xml");
# lock the file
flock(FIL,2);
# XML intro
print FIL "<?xml version= 1 ?>\n";
# xml category
print FIL "<categoryName>\n";
#  create index var
local $t;
$t=0;

# open image directory to create xml from
opendir(HOMEDIR, "../images/") ||
die ("Unable to open directory");

# loop thru array of directory
while ($filename = readdir(HOMEDIR))
{
        #parce the . .. things from directory array and for jpgs only
        
        if($filename ne "." && $filename ne ".." && substr($filename,l
+ength($filename)-4,4) eq ".jpg")
        {
                #increment index
                $t++;
                my $nfile;
                
                # create and print the jpg xml item into xml file
                $nfile=substr($filename,0,length($filename)-4);
                print FIL "<pic$t name=\"$nfile\"></pic$t>\n";
        }
        # loop
}
closedir(HOMEDIR);

# finish off xml file with end category and close the file
print FIL "</pics>\n";
flock(FIL,8);
close(FIL);



#  --
#  By : SUP@    mtlelite@hotmail.com

[download]

please help an idiot out. in the meantime i will be reading my ass off over at learn.perl.org and trying to end my lamness.

peace!
decerebrate

In reply to creating an xml file from perl by decerebrate

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