Ideas for Professor: JavaScript XML Object

idea.textile

The Big Idea

• Create a JavaScript class that converts an xml document into an object.
• Inspired from Ruby’s XmlSimple.

sample.js

var course = new JsXml('course.xml');
course.get('title'); // returns the title.
course.units[0].get('pages');  // returns the pages in the first unit
course.units[0].attributes.get('number'); // returns the attribute number
course.quiz.questions[0].get('answer');  //returns the answer to the first question

sample.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<course>
  <title>Peter's Test Course</title>
  <version>v0001</version>
  <author>Peter Frampton</author>
  <copyrightyear>2009</copyrightyear>
  <companyname>WorldWide Education USA</companyname>
  <units>
    <unit number="1">
      <title>Lesson 1</title>
      <pages>3</pages>
      <firstpagepath>/course/unit01/page01.htm</firstpagepath>
      <graphic>/core/images/imageu01_01.jpg</graphic>
    </unit>
    <unit number="2">
      <title>Lesson 2</title>
      <pages>3</pages>
      <firstpagepath>/course/unit02/page01.htm</firstpagepath>
      <graphic>/core/images/imageu02_01.jpg</graphic>
    </unit>
  </units>
  <quiz>
    <questions>
      <question number="1">
        <text>What is the meaning of life?</text>
        <answer>42</answer>
      </question>
    <questions>
  </quiz>
</course>