please start me off in the right direction

[Michael Greenhut]

Hey,

I'm having trouble understanding how to do very basic, straightforward manipulation of data pulled from an .xml file and the tutorial didn't really give examples that helped me out.  Say I have this data:
_______________________-

<?xml version="1.0" standalone=no>
<!-- Monty Python's Holy Grail text adventure version 1.0  -->

<items>
    <item name="SHRUBBERY" description="100 pounds of decorative wood that is useless for combat.">
    <item name="SWORD" description="A scimitar that a watery tart lobbed at you.">
    <item name="MAP" description="A map that reads 'North, West, South, West'.  You’re not expect to follow it.">
    <item name="BOOK" description="A Book of Knowledge that resembles Wikipedia.  Has a full section on Laden Swallows.">
    <item name="ORB" description="A fiery orb that’s been said to warm the hearts of even the coldest women.">
</items>
___________________________

I have, in my C++ file:

TiXmlDocument doc( "HolyGrail.xml" );
doc.LoadFile();
TiXmlElement* itemList = doc.FirstChildElement("items");

TiXmlElement* itemEntry = itemList->FirstChildElement("item");
cout<<itemEntry->Attribute("name");  //this works

itemEntry = itemEntry->NextSiblingElement("item");
cout<<itemEntry->Attribute("name");    //this doesn't work.

I must have a fundamental misunderstanding here.  If NextSiblingElement is not the way to access other "item" elements, what is?   Please help. 

Thanks in advance.

[Nicola Civran]

Perhaps your "item" tags are not closed...

[Jay Lash]

Yep, missing close tags looks like the problem to me.  TinyXML thinks you have:

<items>
    <item name="SHRUBBERY" ...
        <item name="SWORD" ...
            <item name="MAP" ...
                <item name="BOOK" ...
                    <item name="ORB" ...
<!-- these are all missing
                    </item>
                </item>
            </item>
        </item>
    </item>
-->   
</items>

[Lee Thomason]

General tips:

1) check your error codes in the source (especially from the LoadFile)
2) check your source XML in a browser (IE, Firefox) which will show errors in XML visually.

lee