Question

I have the following xml declaration:

public var reqData:XML = <root>
  <Requirement ID="REQ-GEN-0.1" title="exigence gen 1" description="blabla 01" testable="true"/>
  <RequirementSet ID="GUI REQ">
    <Requirement ID="REQ-GUI-1.1" title="exigence ihm 1" description="blabla 11" testable="true"/>
    <Requirement ID="REQ-GUI-1.2" title="exigence ihm 2" description="blabla 12" testable="false"/>
  </RequirementSet>
  <RequirementSet ID="PERF REQ">
    <Requirement ID="REQ-PERF-2.1" title="exigence perf 1" description="blabla 21" testable="true"/>
    <Requirement ID="REQ-PERF-2.2" title="exigence perf 2" description="blabla 22" testable="false"/>
    <Requirement ID="REQ-PERF-2.3" title="exigence perf 3" description="blabla 23" testable="true"/>
    <Requirement ID="REQ-PERF-2.4" title="exigence perf 4" description="blabla 24" testable="false"/>
    <Requirement ID="REQ-PERF-2.5" title="exigence perf 5" description="blabla 25" testable="false"/>
    <Requirement ID="REQ-PERF-2.6" title="exigence perf 6" description="blabla 26" testable="false"/>
  </RequirementSet>
  <RequirementSet ID="BUS REQ">
    <RequirementSet ID="BUS 1 REQ">
      <Requirement ID="REQ-BUS-3.1.1" title="exigence bus 1" description="blabla 311" testable="false"/>
      <Requirement ID="REQ-BUS-3.1.2" title="exigence bus 2" description="blabla 312" testable="true"/>
    </RequirementSet>
    <RequirementSet ID="BUS 2 REQ">
      <Requirement ID="REQ-BUS-3.2.1" title="exigence bus3" description="blabla 321" testable="true"/>
    </RequirementSet>
    <RequirementSet ID="BUS 3 REQ"/>
  </RequirementSet>
</root>;

I populated an advanced datagrid with this xml but the problem is that a requirement isn’t detected: <Requirement ID="REQ-BUS-3.2.1" title="exigence bus3" description="blabla 321" testable="true"/>

I’ve overriden a method of the HierarchicalData class to see what happenned:

override public function canHaveChildren(node:Object):Boolean
        {
            if (node is XML && node != null){
                var xmlNode:XML = node as XML;
                trace("node:"+node);
                trace("node.children:"+node.children());
                trace("xmlNode.name:"+xmlNode.name());
                trace("xmlNode.localName:"+xmlNode.localName());
                trace("xmlNode.attributes:"+xmlNode.attributes());
                trace("xmlNode.attributes:"+xmlNode.nodeKind());
                trace("xmlNode.children():"+xmlNode.children());
                trace("xmlNode.children().length():"+xmlNode.children().length());

                if(xmlNode.children().length()>0){
                    var xmlNodeChildren:XMLList = xmlNode.children() as XMLList;
                    var xmlNodeFirstChild:XML = xmlNodeChildren[0];
                    trace("xmlNodeFirstChild:"+xmlNodeFirstChild);
                    trace("xmlNodeFirstChild.name():"+xmlNodeFirstChild.name());
                    trace("xmlNodeFirstChild.comments():"+xmlNodeFirstChild.comments());
                    trace("xmlNodeFirstChild.attributes():"+xmlNodeFirstChild.attributes());
                    trace("xmlNodeFirstChild.nodeKind():"+xmlNodeFirstChild.nodeKind());
                    trace("xmlNodeFirstChild.descendants():"+xmlNodeFirstChild.descendants());
                }


            } 

And here is the result (console), that I just don’t understand at all:

node:<RequirementSet ID="BUS 2 REQ">
  <Requirement ID="REQ-BUS-3.2.1" title="exigence bus3" description="blabla 321" testable="true"/>
</RequirementSet>
node.children:
xmlNode.name:RequirementSet
xmlNode.localName:RequirementSet
xmlNode.attributes:BUS 2 REQ
xmlNode.attributes:element
xmlNode.children():
xmlNode.children().length():1
xmlNodeFirstChild:
xmlNodeFirstChild.name():Requirement
xmlNodeFirstChild.comments():
xmlNodeFirstChild.attributes():REQ-BUS-3.2.1exigence bus3blabla 321true
xmlNodeFirstChild.nodeKind():element
xmlNodeFirstChild.descendants():

The node isn’t detected by the children() method but it exists. The problem is that I can’t look at the source code of XML.abc cause it isn’t open-source. Can someone tell me what is happenning? Is it a bug or something else?

Answer 1

The node is picked up by the children() method just the way you intended, because otherwise the length() of children() would be 0. What you have to understand is that trace( node.children()); actually means trace ( XMLList( node.children() ).toString()); – you are calling toString() on an XMLList – the output of which can have a number of different results, though obviously not very predictable ones:

var xml : XML = <node><child>MyText</child></node>;
trace ( xml.children () ); 
// => MyText

xml = <node><child value="MyText" /></node>;
trace ( xml.children () ); 
// => nothing

xml = <node><child key="myKey" id="1" value="MyText" /></node>;
trace ( xml.children () ); 
// => nothing

xml = <node><child id="1" key="text">MyText</child></node>;
trace ( xml.children () ); 
// => MyText

xml = <node><child id="1">MyText<child id="2">MyOtherText</child></child></node>;
trace ( xml.children () ); 
// => <child id="1">MyText<child id="2">MyOtherText</child></child>

To make sure you get the full xml of your child node, try:

var childXML : String = node.children().length() > 0 ? node.children()[0].toXMLString():"empty");
trace("node.child#0:"+ childXML);
// output: 
// node.child#0:<Requirement ID="REQ-BUS-3.2.1" title="exigence bus3" description="blabla 321" testable="true"/>