Create XML from python script

For a simple structure like this, you can just write it as a text file. In what form do you have the data? In a database, in a list of dictionaries, list of tuples, list of objects or something else?

actually what i am planning on doing is scanning a directory which has this structure:

Computers (top level folder)
  |---Computer1 (folder)
     |----Dir1 (folder)
     |----Dir2 (folder)
     |----settings.conf (config file)
  |---Computer2 (folder)
      |----Dir1 (folder)
      |----Dir2 (folder)
      |----settings.conf (config file)

Where there is a seperate folder for each computer. Inside each folder, there is a settings file which is of the format:

name = computer1
ip = 127.0.0.1
....

i basically want to go to each one of these files, and append it to the xml file.

i forgot to mention that there are many settings in this settings.conf file, and i only want the ones specified in the xml file

To fetch the files, use glob:

import glob
files = glob.glob('Computers/*/settings.conf')

Loop over the files like this:

for filename in files:
    data = file(filename,'r').read()
    settings = GetSettings(data)
    print MakeXml(settings)

GetSettings() makes a dictionary from the content of the file, makeXml() creates the XML "record". I don't know if these settings files have comments, I inserted a mechanism to allow for standard # line comments, see below. Instead of printing it, you can write it to a file:

xml = open('Settings.xml','w');
xml.write('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>\n')
xml.write('<hosts>\n');
for filename in files:
    data = file(filename,'r').read()
    settings = GetSettings(data)
    xml.write(MakeXml(settings))
xml.write('</hosts>');
xml.close()

def GetSettings(data):
    lines = data.split('\n')
    res = {}
    for line in lines:
        if line and (line[0]=='#'):
          continue
        tmp = line.split('=')
        if(len(tmp)==2):
            res[tmp[0]] = tmp[1]
    return res
 
def MakeXml(settings):
    return """    <host>
        <name>%(name)s</name>
        <ip>%(ip)s</ip>
        <scan>%(scan)s</scan>
        <config>%(config)s</config>
        <enabled>%(enabled)s</enabled>
    </host>\n""" % settings

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the settings file looks like the one attached. in the statement:

for filename in files:
    data = file(filename,'r').read()
    settings = GetSettings(data)
    print MakeXml(settings)

what does filename refer to? is this the attirbute, ie name or ip or is the value?

settings.txt

It is the file name including a relative path, fetched using glob.glob(). Run this code to see if you get the correct files:

import glob
files = glob.glob('Computers/*/settings.conf')
print files

You may need to adjust the path, depending on what is the current working directory when you run the script.

You may need to modify line 9 from my snippet above. Change this:

res[tmp[0]] = tmp[1]

...into this:

res[tmp[0].strip()] = tmp[1].strip()

This will remove unwanted spaces.

i ran
import glob
files = glob.glob('Computers/*/settings.conf')
print files

and it printed all the fiels correctly, with a list like ['computer1\\settings.conf', 'computer2\\settings.conf', 'computer3\\settings.conf'].
This is where i dont understand that for loop. What do i substitue for filename? Do i have to put a specific name - 'computer1\\settings.conf', because that gives a syntax error. Or do i put something like '*/settings.conf'.
Sorry but i am failry new to python, still learning.

I also got an error, i will attach the code i ran and the error.

import glob
files = glob.glob('*/settings.conf')
 
def GetSettings(data):
    lines = data.split('\n')
    res = ()
    for line in lines:
        if line and (line[0]=='#'):
            continue
        tmp = line.split('=')
        if  (len(temp)==2):
            res[tmp[0].strip()] = tmp[1].strip()
    return res
 
def MakeXML(settings):
    return """  <host>
        <name>%(name)s</name>
        <ip>%(ip)s</ip>
        <scan>%(scan)s</scan>
        <config>%(config)s</config>
    </host>\n""" %settings
 
for computer1 in files:
    data = file(computer1, 'r').read()
    settings = GetSettings(data)
    print MakeXML(settings)
 
xml = open('settings.xml', 'w')
xml.write('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>\n')
xml.write('<hosts>\n')
for computer1 in files:
    data = file(computer1, 'r').read()
    settings = GetSettings(data)
    xml.write(MakeXML(settings))
xml.write('</hosts>')
xml.close(

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error.txt

Line 11 should be:

        if  (len(tmp)==2):

"tmp", not "temp".

In python, when you have a list L, and iterate over it with a for loop like this:

for item in L:
    print item

... the "item" variable is assigned each item in the list L, changing the value of "item" as it iterates trough the list.

The "filename" variable will contain the filename from the "files" list. In your code, you have called this "computer1", it is still just a variable name, and it will contain the names for each of the files, not just for computer1.

You can remove lines 23-26, this was just example code, outputting the XML to the screen. Lines 28-36 writes to the file.

it is creating an xml file, but it is empty. I get the error:
in line 12,  in GetSettings
res[tmp[0].strip()] = tmp[1].strip
TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment

Thats great, works like a charm. Cheers.