Using the XML::Mapping xml/mapping gem for ruby to create nested xml document

Question

using ruby 2, rails 4, gem: xml/mapping

here is the current output:

class Item
      include XML::Mapping

      array_node :picture_details, 'PictureDetails', :class => PictureURL, :default_value => []
end

class PictureURL
      include XML::Mapping
      include Initializer
      text_node :picture_url, 'PictureURL', :optional => true
end

the output I am getting:

<PictureDetails>
  <PictureURL>VALUE</PictureURL>
</PictureDetails>
<PictureDetails>
  <PictureURL>VALUE</PictureURL>
</PictureDetails>
<PictureDetails>
  <PictureURL>VALUE</PictureURL>
</PictureDetails>

what I want:

<PictureDetails>
  <PictureURL>VALUE</PictureURL>
  <PictureURL>VALUE</PictureURL>
  <PictureURL>VALUE</PictureURL>
</PictureDetails>

I looked over documentation but still can not figure out how I should setup this to reach my desired output..

Answer 1

(I'm the author of the xml-mapping gem)

From your description it looks like you want "PictureDetails" to be the base_path of your array node, and "PictureURL" the per-array element path. And in each array element, the PictureURL should just write its picture_url property into the element text, without creating a sub-element or -attribute, which means the path specification of the text_node should be just '.'.

So this should work:

class Item
      include XML::Mapping

      array_node :picture_details, 'PictureDetails', 'PictureURL', :class => PictureURL, :default_value => []
end

class PictureURL
      include XML::Mapping
      include Initializer
      text_node :picture_url, '.', :optional => true
end