[Dogstopper]

So, I have several bug fixes that need to be reported. The description tags have already been talked about in the other topic, however, they contain non-valid characters (such as the random & symbol).

Another error is the first tag:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

Causes an issue in every parser I've tried because the page contains non-UTF-8 characters. When I read the file in my program, I replace it with this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso8859-1" ?>

And that fixes any issues. However, my program takes FOREVER to download and fix every instance of these issues and is making my application useless.

A suggestion that I have is to add the poster's reputation to the topic XML:

<post>
					<id>983206</id>
					<date>07 April 2010 - 08:52 PM</date>
					<url>http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/xml.php?amp;showtopic=166788&amp;view=findpost&amp;p=983206</url>
					<text>...</text>
					<reputation>4</reputation>
							
					<user>
		
						<id>97990</id>
						<name>Dogstopper</name>
						<url>http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/xml.php?amp;showuser=97990</url>
						<online>0</online>
						<details>	
		
			<avatar><img src='http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/uploads/av-97990.jpg' width='64' height='64' alt='' /></avatar>
		
			<title>D.I.C Lover</title>
		
			<rank>http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/public/style_extra/group_icons/mentor_group.gif</rank>
		
			<blog>http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/xml.php?amp;app=blog&amp;module=display&amp;section=blog&amp;mid=97990</blog>
			
			<group><span style='color:#00CCCC'>Mentors</span></group>
			<posts>3,909</posts>
			<joined>15-July 08</joined>
		
			<customfields>
			
				<field><span class='ft'>Gender:</span><span class='fc'>Male</span></field>
			

				<field></field>
			

				<field><span class='ft'>Interests:</span><span class='fc'>Um....does programming count? Cause that's what i do.<br />
<br />
I love to solve mathematical challenges, often using a computer to help. I also like tinkering with things....like electrical whatnots.<br />
<br />
I run a super-awesome Linux box right now with a Windows 7 laptop. I am really beginning to enjoy the HD capabilities on the latter.<br />
<br />
There you go...now you know me.</span></field>
			
			</customfields>
		
		</details>
		
					</user>
		
					...
				</post>	

As you can see, the topic includes even my INTERESTS, but in order to get the simple reputation of the user, you must load the user's page to get it. (Which takes loads of time due to the bugs). Just make another field in the user/details or something like that.

This post has been edited by Dogstopper: 23 July 2010 - 04:56 PM

[skyhawk133]

I'll investigate where the XML is pulling UTF-8 from as we use the iso8859-1 everywhere else.

[Dogstopper]

If it helps, this should tell you where and why:
http://validator.w3....=Inline&group=0

[PsychoCoder]

Yeah Dogstopper the ampersands cause all kinds of issues, and when the forum has a URL in the description (such as PHP Programmers & C++ Programmers, which have a link back to the normal forum) that causes errors as well. I've tried everything I can think of to substitute/replace and have come up withing so far.

[Dogstopper]

PsychoCoder, on 24 July 2010 - 06:55 PM, said:

Yeah Dogstopper the ampersands cause all kinds of issues, and when the forum has a URL in the description (such as PHP Programmers & C++ Programmers, which have a link back to the normal forum) that causes errors as well. I've tried everything I can think of to substitute/replace and have come up withing so far.

For the links, I change them to & characters and then when my code follows that link, it first changes it back into an ampersand.