Technical assistance sought-xml to txt converter utilities?

ATP · Jan 29, 2011

Hello all.

I wish to move from my web-based (WB) software to an electronic delivery on-premises (OP) software. The OP software permits importation of the WB software files, which are first exported as an xml file. To import the xml file into the OP software, I have to first convert it to a txt file.

I have spent around 10-15 hours total time doing internet research for xml to txt data converters/conversion software. I have found two: one is shareware, at USD70; the other at the company site, seems to have been discontinued, though still listed. I am beginning to conclude that the OP software co. is attempting to foil data importation, beyond its 'preferred' sources.

I do not wish to spend monies for software that I can not afford, especially for a likely one-off event.

Can any techies out there, who might be a developer during his/her day job (or even generally) assist me with either:

i) referral to suitable data conversion utilities (preferably freeware); or
ii) failing this, suggestions on how to overcome this problem?

Thanks.

muddy_shoes · Jan 29, 2011

XML isn't a specific data file format like DOC or JPG. XML provides a language for defining file formats. For example, Microsoft's OOXML files and the OpenDocument ODF files are both XML formats that can describe documents, but they aren't compatible. Without knowing the specifics of the XML files that you want to extract text from, it's not really possible to offer much assistance.

Mac H. · Jan 29, 2011

XML is a very universal format ... it simply dictates how the information is laid out in the document rather than what individual parts mean.

The good news is that you can probably just open the XML document in wordpad or an equivalent word processor.

You'll see it is laid out something like this:

<paragraph>This is something</paragraph>

etc.

Read it to get a feeling of how it is laid out and look at the tag marks (the <paragraph> stuff) Search and replace to get rid of them if it makes sense. There might be other markups (like <bold> or something) that you'll choose to treat differently - but you won't know until you read it.

You'll also have to replace some text:

< = <
> = >
& = &
' = '
" = "

Do a search & replace to restore them.

A bit of playing around in wordpad and it will start looking readable. Then just save as a '.txt'.

Good luck !

Mac

Deleted member 42 · Jan 30, 2011

Try a Web browser.

If you have Dreamweaver or another HTML editor that has a WYSIWYG tool (that displays the html mark up as formatted text) try that.

Many modern Word Processors will open and convert XML to formatted text just as they do HTML.

Matera the Mad · Jan 30, 2011

Word 2007 does a lovely job of converting XML to text.

Open Office Writer definitely does NOT.

ATP · Jan 30, 2011

use Word 2003 to convert .xml files to .txt

Thanks very much Med, Mat & others.

I tried conversion with aid of my Word 2003, & it seems to have done the trick.

All that time spent on research for conversion software, and I was looking in the wrong place: Failure to ask the right question? Incorrect assumption? Simple lack of knowledge?--I guess all three.

Now all that remains is to import the converted document into the OP software (trial version). We'll see how it goes, then. Cross my fingers...

muddy_shoes · Jan 30, 2011

I think people are confusing matters when talking about "converting XML to text". Most XML files are already text. There's no conversion necessary to open them in an application that can read text files.

The problem is that the text is just an encoding for the XML and the XML is just a structure for the actual data being stored. If someone says they have documents in an XML file and they want them as text, I would assume that they want the documents extracted from the XML structure and exported as representative text files and not just the XML files renamed as .txt.

ATP · Feb 3, 2011

I tried to import the 'converted' document and this seemed to fail. On the OP software, I found the import function, and it seemed to do as it should, and clicking through to the section where the target file lay (.txt), it did not appear in the open file window (dialog?).

Looking over the procedure again from the beginning, it seems that the desired format is a text tab-delimited document with a .tab extension.
I had Word 'convert' the document to .txt, not .tab.

What am I doing wrong here? Is it me? Or is the On Premises software co. trying to screw with me, and simply make it difficult to import data from another piece of software?? This is starting to wear me down--can this situation be resolved?

Thanks again.

BradCarsten · Feb 3, 2011

from what I have gathered a .tab file is

Text file that contains a table of data in which columns are separated by tabs; can be imported by most spreadsheet programs, which will format the data into cells.

http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/tab

if your columns of data are separated by tabs, then it should just be a matter of changing the extension from .txt to .tab

muddy_shoes · Feb 3, 2011

ATP said:
I tried to import the 'converted' document and this seemed to fail. On the OP software, I found the import function, and it seemed to do as it should, and clicking through to the section where the target file lay (.txt), it did not appear in the open file window (dialog?).

Looking over the procedure again from the beginning, it seems that the desired format is a text tab-delimited document with a .tab extension.
I had Word 'convert' the document to .txt, not .tab.

What am I doing wrong here? Is it me? Or is the On Premises software co. trying to screw with me, and simply make it difficult to import data from another piece of software?? This is starting to wear me down--can this situation be resolved?

Any file conversion issue can be resolved but without knowing specifics it's impossible to say how. You're describing the problem in entirely generic terms.

If the .txt file you have is in the correct tab-delimited format then just renaming will do the trick. However, I'm highly dubious that you've managed to perform a conversion between data format defined in some arbitrary XML schema to a tab-delimited data file by putting it through Word unless you knew exactly what was expected and spent time manually editing the file. You're not giving the impression that this is the case.

If there's some reason you don't want to put specifics here then feel free to PM me, if you wish.

backslashbaby · Feb 3, 2011

What is the name, version, etc, of the software you are trying to get to work? I'll poke around a bit, too, if you like. Converting data to tab-type is usually not difficult, but it would depend on what kind of xml files you are starting with. I mean, what they are representing, etc.

Do you have a little sample file or sample of a file, for instance? That's probably easier than trying to describe it in words

ATP · Feb 3, 2011

To attach a screenshot(s), I guess I utilise the "attach image" icon. When I press this, the dialog appears asking me for the URL of the image.

Is this meant to be either a "www" or "http" URL, or can it simply be the name I have given the file?

backslashbaby · Feb 3, 2011

You have to have an url on the web instead of a file on your computer for posts. f you have a Flickr, etc. account, you can use the url to your picture from there.

ATP · Feb 3, 2011

I examined the FAQ's section --

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83938

-- but the easiest & quickest for me to produce is screenshots.

Can I upload screenshots (.doc documents I think)? Can I link to these in a personal message (PM?).

Thanks.

Deleted member 42 · Feb 3, 2011

You can't upload anything images to posts, or attach images to posts. You can embed an image link in a post.

Get a free photobucket account

Upload the images files as .jpg or .gif or .png to Photobucket

Link to them using the image url and the image icon in a post here.

To include an image that is not uploaded as an attachment and is located on another website, you can do so by copying the full URL to the image, (not the page on which the image is located), and either pressing the 'Insert Image' icon or by typing

after it, ensuring that you do not have any spaces before or after the URL of the image.

ATP · Feb 3, 2011

Thanks.

Hmmm...looks like a task I will likely have to perform over the weekend.

I did a quick search of Photobucket search engine, but was unable to retrieve any information on ability to upload screenshots.

Anyone able to kindly fill me in on this?

Thanks again.

BradCarsten · Feb 3, 2011

create an account at photobucket. upload your images there. Copy paste the url here.

muddy_shoes · Feb 5, 2011

Your image appears to be set as private. I can't view it.

whacko · Feb 5, 2011

Hey ATP,

I'm not quite sure if this is what you're asking for, but hey-ho.

Copy all the xml code from the file, either with notepad or your editor.
Open Word and paste it in with PASTE SPECIAL - edit, paste special from the drop down.
Another menu comes up.
Select HTML format.
Save as a txt file.

That's it.

Regards

Whacko

ATP · Feb 5, 2011

muddy_shoes said:
Your image appears to be set as private. I can't view it.

Hi there, Muddy.

As it is now the weekend, I thought that we might have to continue during the week...

But, thanks very much. You're correct. I have the setting at present on private. I deleted the posts because the tests seem to indicate a failure somewhere along the line to link correctly, especially with the 'insert image' command. The first result was a greyed small square, with a seeming tear in it, in the lower left corner-pressed it, no result.The second was a copying & posting of the link by my own hand. Came back here, testing indicated that it did not work.

From what I can tell, the alternative I seem to have is for people like yourself to provide me an email address, and I will enter that in the correct place in the site account.

MacAllister · Feb 5, 2011

You know what? I personally find the designation "techie" to be a sneering and offensive diminutive that's hardly ever well-meant.

Also, this level of technical support really isn't what this room is for.

ATP, I strongly suggest you hire a reputable web professional and pay them what they're worth.

Technical assistance sought-xml to txt converter utilities?

ATP

What happened to my LIFE?!

muddy_shoes

Mac H.

Board Visitor

Deleted member 42

Matera the Mad

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

ATP

What happened to my LIFE?!

muddy_shoes

ATP

What happened to my LIFE?!

BradCarsten

practical experience, FTW

muddy_shoes

backslashbaby

*

ATP

What happened to my LIFE?!

backslashbaby

*

ATP

What happened to my LIFE?!

Deleted member 42

ATP

What happened to my LIFE?!

BradCarsten

practical experience, FTW

muddy_shoes

whacko

Keeping up with the class

ATP

What happened to my LIFE?!

MacAllister

Tired and worried.

Technical assistance sought-xml to txt converter utilities?

What happened to my LIFE?!

Board Visitor

Deleted member 42

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

What happened to my LIFE?!

What happened to my LIFE?!

practical experience, FTW

~~~~*~~~~

What happened to my LIFE?!

~~~~*~~~~

What happened to my LIFE?!

Deleted member 42

What happened to my LIFE?!

practical experience, FTW

Keeping up with the class

What happened to my LIFE?!

Tired and worried.

*

*