Actionscript 3 E4X working with namespace values in XML

Question

I am building an application using Action script 3 I am retrieving some XML from the web however the node names are mms:Image mms:Results etc my action script compiler is throwing an error becuase it is not expecting to see the semi colon in the node name. How to I access the nodes?

thanks

Answer 1

Those are XML namespaces and they can be a pain to use. Have a look at the Adobe documentation on Using XML namespaces.

Basically you have to get the namespace:

var mmsNS:Namespace = message.namespace("mms");

// alternatively for nested namespaces:

var mmsNS:Namespace = new Namespace("mms", " ... url of namespace ... ");

And then use it when you want to get the nodes that it is applied to:

var data:XML = message.@mmsNS::Results;

A shortcut if all of your xml is in a particular namespace is to set the default namespace:

default xml namespace = mmsNs;

edit: The XML namespace you are trying to access must be declared within the XML fragment:

<root xmlns:mms="http://example.com/mms">
    <mms:someNode someAttr="someVal" />
</root>

Have a look at the w3c docs for XML Namespaces to ensure your document is well-formed (maybe even pass it through a validator).