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

I have been looking at extracting user_agent information from the wurfl web browsers patch using XML::Simple. I have succeeded in getting the info but it's very explicit - I was hoping that someone might show me how else this could be done. Thanks.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

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

# use module
use XML::Simple;
use Data::Dumper;
use LWP::Simple;

my $url = 'http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/web_browsers_patch.xml';

my $content = get($url);

# create object
my $xml = new XML::Simple;

# read XML file
my $data = $xml->XMLin($content);

# print output

my ($key, $value) = %{ $data }; 
($key, $value) = %{ $value };

my @keys = keys %{ $value };

foreach (@keys) {

  print qq~$data->{devices}->{device}->{$_}->{user_agent}<br>\n~;


}

[download]

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Re: WURFL web browsers patch and XML::Simple
by jethro (Monsignor) on Dec 14, 2009 at 10:01 UTC 
    foreach my $browser ( values %{$data->{devices}->{device}} ) {
  push @agents, $browser->{user_agent};
}

    [download]

    I collected the info into an array, but naturally instead of the push you could just put the print statement as in your example

    UPDATE: After Moritz got through my thick brain on the second try I finally saw the error of my ways and added 'values'

[reply]
[d/l]
      I can't see how that would ever work. for my $browser (%hash) iterates over both keys and values of the hash.

      Since the keys are always strings, I can't see how $browser->{user_agent} works.

      Did I miss something here?

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

        Ah, ok. So what I need to do to make it work is:

        foreach my $browser ( %{$data->{devices}->{device}} ) {
  print "$data->{devices}->{device}->{$browser}->{user_agent}<br>";
}

        [download]

        I think that is an improvement on where I started as it goes into the heart of the data structure rather than disassembling it. However perhaps there is more that can be done?

        Update:The inclusion of values in jethro's update effectively fixes the problem, the solution direct and concise.

[reply]
[d/l]

      That's what I was looking for - much more direct!! Thanks very much.

      Update: Unfortunately including it in the code prints a blank! It makes sense to me looking at it - what has gone wrong???

      Update2:The inclusion of values in jethro's update effectively fixes the problem.

      #!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

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

# use module
use XML::Simple;
use Data::Dumper;
use LWP::Simple;

my $url = 'http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/web_browsers_patch.xml';

my $content = get($url);

# create object
my $xml = new XML::Simple;

# read XML file
my $data = $xml->XMLin($content);

my @agents;

foreach my $browser ( %{$data->{devices}->{device}} ) {
  push @agents, $browser->{user_agent};
}

print @agents;

      [download]
[reply]
[d/l]

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