I've got an XML file that I'm trying to parse using QtXml in v4.3.3. It's being used to describe a hierarchy of related, as well as very similar, objects used in a schematic-like diagram tool. The actual file I need to get working is considered proprietary to our company, so I've made a test version that I can post (see below) that displays the same issue. If you'll notice, with the way this file is laid out, it lends itself nicely to recursive parsing.

What I'm running into is that the QDomNodeList being returned from QDomNode::childNodes() is not a list of the direct child nodes, as the Qt Assistant says it should be, but rather a list of all child nodes. A little further reading revealed the QDomElement::elementsByTagName(QString) function. When I tried this out and passed it "Element" starting at the <Container name="L1Container" autoAdd="true"> line, I expected to see only one child. Instead I got three--which would be all of the Element tags beneath the <Container>. Am I just misunderstanding the phrase "direct child nodes?" Because, I've done similar parsing with other packages and did not see these results.

Qt Code: 
  1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  2. <ElementDef verMajor="1" verMinor="0">
  3. 	<Elements>
  4. 		<Container name="L1Container" autoAdd="true">
  5. 			<Element name="L1Element1" title="L1Element1Title" label="L1Element1Label" drawn="false">
  6. 				<Properties>
  7. 					<Property name="Name" type="String" />
  8. 				</Properties>
  9. 				<Children>
  10. 					<Container name="L2Container" autoAdd="true">
  11. 						<Element name="L2Element1" title="L2Element1Title" label="L2Element1Label" drawn="false">
  12. 							<Slots>
  13. 								<Slot name="Slot1" abbreviation="Sl1" />
  14. 								<Slot name="Slot2" abbreviation="Sl2" />
  15. 							</Slots>
  16. 							<Signals>
  17. 								<Signal name="Signal1" abbreviation="Si1" event="CompleteEvent">
  18. 									<Argument value="FakeName" />
  19. 								</Signal>
  20. 								<Signal name="Signal2" abbreviation="Si2" event="CompleteEvent">
  21. 									<Argument value="FakeName" />
  22. 								</Signal>
  23. 							</Signals>
  24. 						</Element>
  25. 						<Element name="L2Element2" title="L2Element2Title" label="L2Element2Label" drawn="false">
  26. 							<Slots>
  27. 								<Slot name="Slot1" abbreviation="Sl1" />
  28. 								<Slot name="Slot2" abbreviation="Sl2" />
  29. 							</Slots>
  30. 							<Signals>
  31. 								<Signal name="Signal1" abbreviation="Si1" event="CompleteEvent">
  32. 									<Argument value="FakeName" />
  33. 								</Signal>
  34. 								<Signal name="Signal2" abbreviation="Si2" event="CompleteEvent">
  35. 									<Argument value="FakeName" />
  36. 								</Signal>
  37. 							</Signals>
  38. 						</Element>
  39. 					</Container>
  40. 				</Children>
  41. 			</Element>
  42. 		</Container>
  43. 	</Elements>
  44. </ElementDef>
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Here is (basically) the code I've tried in an effort to get the children I want. You may notice the 'i' preceding my objects. Some use 'i' for integer and some use it for interface. It's what I use to denote a class instance so that I don't have to define (and remember) innumerable Hungarian-like abbreviations for the classes I use. Just a simple 'i' and an appropriate name.

Qt Code: 
  1. QDomNodeList iChildren;
  2.  
  3. /* Here I expected to only get L1Element1, but got it and it's children named Element.*/
  4. iChildren = iChild.elementsByTagName("Element");	//iChild is a QDomElement straight from the DOM
  5.  
  6. /*This just gave me everything below L1Container, which is less than useless.*/
  7. iChildren = iChild.childNodes();
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If anyone has a clue what might be going on, I'd love to know. As it is, I need to get this thing moving so I'll have to use a different parsing API.