Please start any new threads on our new site at https://forums.sqlteam.com. We've got lots of great SQL Server experts to answer whatever question you can come up with.

 All Forums
 SQL Server 2000 Forums
 SQL Server Development (2000)
 Grabbing XML via HTTP: How?

Author  Topic 

aiken
Aged Yak Warrior

525 Posts

Posted - 2003-08-11 : 03:08:45
I need to pull an RSS newsfeed (basically, an XML document), parse it, and stuff its various fields into a SQL table.

I'm sort of OK with SQL,, and sort of OK with XML, but I see about eight different ways of doing this. Should I write a small VB app, use MSXML to nab the RSS document, parse it, and do the inserts? Or should I somehow use SQLXML? Or sp_OACREATE and MSXML right on the SQL server?

I doubt that I'm the first person to run into this... so, any advice? What's the most scalable and least cheesy way to do this?

Thanks
-b

Merkin
Funky Drop Bear Fearing SQL Dude!

4970 Posts

Posted - 2003-08-11 : 04:44:40
I'd go with writing an external app. Using SQLXML would be an ugly hack at best. In the RSS world there lots of thing going on and most of the aggregator software creators make constant changes.

You might be best off finding an open source library for the RSS and HTTP stuff and plugging it into your own backend. If you are any good with C# there is some open sourced software called Aggie that is fairly simple to understand. There was a VB Com object as well but I can't recall it's name off the top of my head.

That's my takeon the whole thing anyway. I've been thinking about doing this myself and that's what I've been thinking about it. If I ever get it done I'll let you know, but I'm notoriously hopeless at finishing my own projects so don't hold your breath


Damian
Go to Top of Page

robvolk
Most Valuable Yak

15732 Posts

Posted - 2003-08-11 : 06:52:18
Not as notorious as I am.

Another option you might want to consider is using XSLT to transform the RSS into a comma- or tab-delimited file format that you can import into SQL Server with bcp, BULK INSERT, or DTS. You can handle differently formatted feeds simply by writing a different XSL file for each.
Go to Top of Page

Merkin
Funky Drop Bear Fearing SQL Dude!

4970 Posts

Posted - 2003-08-11 : 07:05:17
I think ASPToday.com are writing an article on that now


Damian
Go to Top of Page

MaverickUK
Yak Posting Veteran

89 Posts

Posted - 2003-08-11 : 09:59:00
Personally, I'd create an ASP.NET C# page, then loaded in the RRS stream and put into a DataTable. You can then send this DataTable relitively easily to the database.
Go to Top of Page

Merkin
Funky Drop Bear Fearing SQL Dude!

4970 Posts

Posted - 2003-08-11 : 10:11:08
Why do it as an asp.net page ? The actual aggregation engine doesn't need to be looked at, so running it as a service or console app would make more sense.

Damian
Go to Top of Page
   

- Advertisement -