Question

I am using ElementTree to load up a series of XML files and parse them. As a file is parsed, I am grabbing a few bits of data from it ( a headline and a paragraph of text). I then need to grab some file names that are stored in the XML. They are contained in an element called ContentItem.

My code looks a bit like this:

for item in dirlist:
    newsML = ET.parse(item)
    NewsLines = newsML.getroot()
    HeadLine = NewsLines.getiterator("HeadLine")
    result.append(HeadLine)
    p = NewsLines.getiterator("p")
    result.append(p)
    ci = NewsLines.getiterator("ContentItem")
    for i in ci:
        result.append(i.attrib)

Now, if there was only one type of file, this would have been fine, but it contains 3 types (jpg, flv and a mp4). So as I loop through them in the view, it spits them out, but how do I just grab the flv if I only want that one? or just the mp4? They don’t always appear in the same order in the list either.

Is there a way to say if it ends in .mp4 then do this action, or is there a way to do that in the template even?

If i try to do this;

        url = i.attrib
        if url.get("Href", () ).endswith('jpg'):
            result.append(i.attrib)

I get an error tuple object has no attribute endswith. Why is this a tuple? I thought it was a dict?

Answer 1

You get a tuple because you supply a tuple (the parentheses) as the default return value for url.get(). Supply an empty string, and you can use its .endswith() method. Also note that the element itself has a get() method to retrieve attribute values (you do not have to go via .attrib). Example:

if i.get('Href', '').endswith('.jpg'):
    result.append(i.attrib)