website XML feed into FM database

[Karlos2121]

I have an addiction. It's Halo 2 on xbox live. I'd like to pull the XML feed of my game stats from bungie.net

I go to open file, I select "show: XML sourc..." and paste in my xml feed (http://www.bungie.net/stats/halo2rss.ashx?i=366142&k=559558504) It works fine as a 'live bookmark' in firefox.

Then the dialog box always comes up "parsing error...unkown element:'description'...Line: ## Row: ##"

I have access to both FM 6 and 7 (i'm at work right now - slow day) currently on Jag, but we have a couple computers on panther.

I've searched around on a few different web sites, looking for help, but I didn't have any luck.

any help would be appreciated. I'd like to be able to keep a database of my stats (and eventually my friends as well). Also any help would increase my knowledge of filemaker, which we use here for our customer database/invoicing.

Thanks,

K.

[beverly]

It may depend upon whether it allows "non-secure" requests. But if you can just point to the URL in your browser and do not need to enter User Name and Password, then you probably can IMPORT the XML. Likely, you'll need an XSLT to transform the source into the XML that FMP will import (FMPXMLRESULT).

It looks lik an RSS feed. Check the FMI website for the XSLT library and some great RSS XSLT.

I've checked your link "http://www.bungie.net/stats/halo2rss.ashx?i=366142&k=559558504" and when I view the source on MAC 10.3.8, I also get the error. It's probably the way the XML is sent and the browser can't interpret the BOM (byte order mark) at the beginning of the XML document.

If you have real trouble with it, maybe you can save the file, open it with something like BBEdit and delete the invisible characters (BOM) before the "<?xml...". Saving this document should allow you to use the RSS XSLT for import.

Sure this is a pain and a work-around, but maybe the only way it works until all the computers in the world use the same BOM. <grin />

[Fenton]

[i began to look at this earlier, after downloading the xml as a file. But it was rather difficult. Here is what I came up with.]

It appears to me that they are using XML in order to organize their RSS feed. But it is not really broken down in a way that is easy for you to get your scores out. Most of the data is in a single <description> element, separated by &lt;br/&gt; tags, which are converted to <br/> (html).

In other words, it's xml to produce html, not xml for application parsing. The game itself, its time, etc., is well done and easy to get. The scores are not. This is what 1 game actually is:

<item>

<title>Minor Clanmatch: Team Slayer on Ascension</title>

<link>http://www.bungie.net/stats/gamestats.aspx?gameid=167415121&amp;player=Karlos2121</link>

<pubDate>Tue, 10 May 2005 08:46:49 GMT</pubDate>

<guid>http://www.bungie.net/stats/gamestats.aspx?gameid=167415121&amp;player=Karlos2121</guid>

<description>Team game played at Tue, 10 May 2005 08:46:49 GMT&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Playlist: Minor Clanmatch&lt;br/&gt;Team Slayer on Ascension&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;b&gt;Gamertag (Team) Score, Kills, Deaths, Assists&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt;k1n3t1c (0): 20, 20, 13, 4&lt;br/&gt;y0uR531f (0): 16, 17, 11, 6&lt;br/&gt;SKA MERCENARY (0): 14, 14, 13, 6&lt;br/&gt;Duck8U (1): 14, 14, 16, 4&lt;br/&gt;Strafeman (1): 11, 11, 14, 6&lt;br/&gt;Karlos2121 (1): 11, 11, 21, 2&lt;br/&gt;</description>

</item>

You can fairly easily get the whole <description>. But then you would still have to parse the data. There are some labels:, and it has a uniform structure, so it could be done. But it would be some work.