Lab 2: XML Structure and Parsing

Due: Monday Feb 14, at the start of class. 30 points

Please place a copy of your code in the cs682 submit directory.

In this lab, you'll get some experience creating, displaying and parsing XML documents.

Our domain will be movies: We'll be designing an simple XML database for storing information about movies.

For the purposes of this assignment, movies have the following characteristics:

• Title
• Director
• Actors
  • Actor
  • Actor
  • ...
• Rating
• Genre
• Length
• Year Released

1. (5 points) Build an XML database containing at least 10 movies using the format above.
2. (5 points) Write a CSS stylesheet that will display your database in a web browser, one item to a line. Feel free to make it pretty!
3. (10 points) Write a program that uses the DOM parser to provide a searchable interface to the document. The user should be able to provide an element type and value, and your program should display the corresponding data. For example:

   [brooks@zebra labs]$ python movie-interface.py
   What element would you like to find?  Title
   what value do you want?  The Godfather
   title :   the Godfather
   director: Francis Ford Coppola
   actors: Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton
   rating :   5
   length :   175 min
   genre: drama
   Year Released: 1972
   

   If there's more than one match for a query, you should display all matches.

4. (10 points) Write a program that uses the SAX parser to extract all elements with a particular tag. The use should be able to provide a tag name, and your program should show all instances of that tag. For example:

   [brooks@zebra labs]$ python SAXmovie-interface.py
   What element would you like to find?  Title
   title: The Godfather
   title: Apocalypse Now
   title: Finding Nemo
   title: Airplane!
   title: The Thin Red Line
   title: Dr. Strangelove
   title: Taxi Driver
   title: Annie Hall
   title: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon