Chapter 4: XML and Ruby

Introduction

Since its inception, Extensible Markup Language (XML) has been turning heads in the programming and development world. It used to be that creating a database required pre-made and sometimes costly tools, such as MySQL or Microsoft Access; but the advent of XML, with its open architecture and extremely supple simplicity, has completely changed that.

If you know what you are doing, you can have Ruby take advantage of its own architecture and apply it to XML fairly simply. If you are new to Ruby, you can always spend time by yourself, learn Ruby, and create a parser by yourself. However, XML has simple needs; all it requires from a parser is that it reads and formats the file nothing more.

Instead of working with our own parser, let's take a look at some of the more popular parsing options available for Ruby and XML. Remember, all we are doing here is looking at and understanding XML parsers which you can always use to develop a more robust engine, if that's what you need.

Why XML?

XML is the frequent subject of both marketing hyperbole and heated predictions of its imminent decline, but at heart it's a very straightforward and useful technology: Plain text files are combined with a simple but powerful markup scheme. Much of XML's appeal to programmers lies...