I need help speeding up parsing

[handspringz]

I need help improving the speed of my XML parsing and display of information.

I need to display hierarchical data generated from a live datasource. I wasn't satisfied with the look and feel I got using HTML so I turned to Flash and XML.

Right now it takes the parser about 10 secs to load and parse the data regardless of the size of the XML. Any suggestions as to how I might improve performance would be greatly appreciated

Below is a brief summary and links to the movie and data

Thanks in advance for any help!
-H


Here is the Flash movie
http://www.arts.uci.edu/jvaldry/jv2/remote.html

Here is the XML
http://www.arts.uci.edu/jvaldry/jv2/writexml.asp


I need the display to be dynamic so I decided to loop thru the xml and dynamically create an array of variables in flash that appends the xml elements

if the xml reads

<P>&lt;tabledef&gt;</P>
<P> &lt;column&gt;one&lt;/column&gt;</P>
<P> &lt;column&gt;two&lt;/column&gt;</P>
<P> &lt;column&gt;three&lt;/column&gt;</P>
<P>&lt;/tabledef&gt;</P>
<P>&lt;tabledata&gt;</P>
<P> &lt;data&gt;A&lt;/data&gt;</P>
<P> &lt;data&gt;B&lt;/data&gt;</P>
<P> &lt;data&gt;C&lt;/data&gt;</P>
<P> &lt;data&gt;D&lt;/data&gt;</P>
<P> &lt;data&gt;E&lt;/data&gt;</P>
<P> &lt;data&gt;F&lt;/data&gt;</P>
<P>&lt;/tabledata&gt;</P>

The flash script creates three variables for the three columns and then appends the data tags to their respective columns. so the variables will looks like this

array[0]:AD
array[1]:BE
array[2]:CF

------------------------------------------------
Here is the Script I run to parse the data
------------------------------------------------

urlXML = new XML();
arrRecordData= new array();
arrRecordIDs= new array();

intLeftVisibleColumn=3;


urlXML.onLoad = convertXML;

urlXML.load("http://www.arts.uci.edu/jvaldry/jv2/writexml.asp");


InitializeRecords();


SwitchButtons(1);

stop ();



function convertXML() {
mainTag = new XML;
elementTag = new XML;
TableElements = new Array;
DefList = new Array;
elementList = new Array;
strAppend = "";
strFormat = "";
strNodeType="";

colname=0;
i=0;
j=0;
k=0;
m=0;
n=0;

total_cols=12;

//first get a handle on the first actual element in the document.
//note we skip to the nextSibling element, since the first element
//is a document definition tag.

mainTag = this.firstChild.nextSibling;

//make sure we have the right parent tag. Do this by looking at the nodeName property
//for this object. This will correspond exactly to the <nodeName>, where nodeName is replaced
//with the name of your xml tag

if(mainTag.nodeName.toLowerCase() == "contractsdiscussion") {

//if we have a match, create variables for the columns
TableElements = mainTag.childNodes;
//now we loop over all the elemetnts, tabledefs and table data...

for(i=0;i<=TableElements.length;i++){
//initialize variables to hold xml data we want displayed
if(TableElements[i].nodeName.toLowerCase() == "tabledef") {
//we get the child node array element
DefList = TableElements[i].childNodes;
//and loop through that looking for the data we need

for(j=0;j<=DefList.length;j++) {

}
}else{


//table data


elementList = TableElements[i].childNodes;

//and loop through that looking for the data we need

for(k=0;k<=elementList.length;k++){

elementtag=elementlist[k];
strNodeType=elementtag.nodename.tolowercase()

if(strNodeType=="data"){
if (strformat <> "") {

strAppend = "<p>" + "<" + strFormat + ">" + elementtag.firstchild.nodeValue +"</" + strformat + ">" + "</p>";
strFormat = "";

} else {
strAppend = "<p>" + elementtag.firstchild.nodeValue +"</p>";
}

arrRecordData[colname] = arrRecordData[colname] + strAppend;
strAppend="";

if (colname>=total_cols){
colname=0;
}else{
colname=colname+1;
}

} else if(strNodeType=="format"){
strFormat = elementtag.firstchild.nodeValue

} else if(strNodeType=="skip"){
for(m=0;m<=total_cols;m++){
arrRecordData[m] = arrRecordData[m] + "<p></p>";
}
} else if(strNodeType=="font"){
for(n=0;n<=total_cols;n++){
arrRecordData[n] = arrRecordData[n] + "<" + elementtag.firstchild.nodeValue + ">";
}
}else if(strNodeType=="relid"){
arrRecordIDs.push( elementtag.firstchild.nodeValue )
}

}
}

}


PlaceData(intLeftVisibleColumn);

delete(urlxml);


}
}



function PlaceData(intArrayColumn) {


intCurrentArray=intArrayColumn;
strArrayContent="";

visible_col_1 = arrRecordData[0];
visible_col_2 = arrRecordData[1];
visible_col_3 = arrRecordData[2];

for (i=4; i<=8; i++ ) {
if (intcurrentarray<= arrRecordData.length-1) {
strArrayContent=arrRecordData[intcurrentarray]
}else{ strArrayContent = ""
}

eval("visible_col_" + i)=strArrayContent

intCurrentArray=intCurrentArray+1
}
}

[VAYKENT]

Before I trudge through all of your code...

You don't need new XML objects to store node data, if you'r only grabbing info from them, and discarding them.

In the end I bet you've made this a lot harder than it needs to be.

If your XML looks like this:

< tabledef>
< column > one < / column >
< column > two < / column >
< column > three < / column >
< / tabledef >
< tabledata >
< data > A < / data >
< data > B < / data >
< data > C < / data >
< data > D < / data >
< data > E < / data >
< data > F < / data >
< / tabledata >

I'd redo it. I'd write it much shorter. Like this:

< tableDef column="3" data="A|B|C|D|E|F" />

That is a much nicer way - for human eyes, and for Flashs built in parser. (personally I think its light-years more efficient as well... )

Then your code only has to look like this:

myXML = new XML;
myXML.onLoad = handleLoad;
myXML.load("whateverURL/yourScript.asp");

function handleLoad(status){
status ? parseXML(myXML.childNodes[0]) : trace("XML error: "+myXML.status);
}

function parseXML(currentNode){
// Are we at the right node??
if(currentNode.nodeName=="tableDef"){
// How many columns do we need?
totalColumns = currentNode.attributes['column'];
// Let's take our data and put it in an array
dataArray = currentNode.attributes['data'].split("|");
// Let's figure out data per column
dataMultiplier = dataArray.length / totalColumns;
// Let's loop through each column
for(var i = 0; i < totalColumns; i++){
// Let's loop through the number of data we need in each column
for(var j = 0; j < dataMultiplier; j+=totalColumns){
// Let's grab from the correct position in our data array
// Then let's add it all together
// spacing added on the 'i' to avoide italics...
holdArray [ i ] += dataArray[j];
}
}
}


I haven't actually tried out that code, but the concept is good... you can trace your array to see if it's right.

P.s. - That was kinda fun!