ColdFusion Issue: Reading Value of XML Child as Empty String

Question

I'm currently using ColdFusion 10/11 and am still relatively new with it. I normally code in PHP/C# so the concept of using a scripting language (if that's what you would call it), to manage data in XML is kind of odd to me. If I could redesign the web application in PHP, I would but unfortunately that's not an option right now.

As far as platforms go, I'm NOT using Adobe ColdFusion Builder or CF Administrator. I'm using Dreamweaver and CFEclipse.

So, right now I'm reading an XML file and am checking if the XML child contains "yes", "no", etc and display the corresponding tag. It worked correctly previously, but I have to add a new child to the XML file called "GNTrained".

After adding the new element, it is still saying that the value is an empty string. I used "structKeyExists" to verify that the child exists, but the value is still coming up empty.

I also verified that it is reading the correct XML file. Great ColdFusion references don't really exist online anymore (though, I'm not sure if they ever did exist) so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Any ideas why this would happen?
Anywhere else the XML location would be delegated?

I've tried reworking this multiple times and am still left wondering why the value is still an empty string. I've tried various different values, swapped the elements around, anything and everything to get this to work.

For the sake of my work, this is example code and not the exact set of code I'm using. So if I left anything out, please let me know. However, this is the most simplistic version of the code and really all I believe that is needed to solve this issue.

There are 3 different files: the front-end display file, the query file, and the XML file.

Here's the code for the display page:

<cfinclude template="#APPLICATION.root#employee/details/employee-query.cfm" />
<cfoutput>
<cfquery name="get_employee" dbtype="query">
    SELECT id,name,GNTrained from session.employeeDetails order by name
</cfquery>
<cfloop query="get_employee">
<cfif tr eq "RowEven">
    <cfset tr="RowOdd">
    <cfelse>
    <cfset tr="RowEven">
</cfif>
<li class="EmployeeRow #tr#" id="company_#get_employee.currentrow#">#htmleditformat(get_employee.name)#
    <div id="bfeat_#get_employee.currentrow#" class="Hidden">
        <div class="employeeGroup" style="width:371px;">
            <ul class="EmpTrainingList">
            <li>BBTrained:
                <cfif get_employee.BBTrained contains "YES">
                    <span class="yes">#get_employee.BBTrained#</span>
                <cfelse>
                    <span class="no">#get_employee.BBTrained#</span>
                </cfif>
            </li>
            <li>GNTrained: 
            <cfif structKeyExists( get_employee, "GNTrained" )>
                <span style="color: red;"><strong>EXISTS! </strong></span>
                <cfelse> DOES NOT EXIST!
            </cfif>
            <cfif get_employee.GNTrained contains "YES">
                    <span class="yes">#get_employee.GNTrained#</span>
                <cfelseif get_employee.GNTrained contains "In Progress">
                    <span class="in-progress">#get_employee.GNTrained#</span>
                <cfelseif get_employee.GNTrained eq "">
                    <span class="no">EMPTY</span>    
                <cfelse>
                    <span class="no">#get_employee.GNTrained#</span>
            </cfif>             
            </li>
            </ul>
        </div>
    </div>
</li>
</cfloop>
</cfoutput>

Here's the code for the query:

<cffile action="read" file="#ExpandPath('#application.root#cf_test/employeeDetails.xml')#" variable="myxml">

<cfset mydoc = XmlParse(myxml)>
<cfset apps = mydoc.data.XmlChildren>
<cfset size = ArrayLen(apps)>

<cfset session.employeeDetails = QueryNew("employee_id,employee_name,GNTrained") >
<cfset temp = QueryAddRow(session.employeeDetails, #size#)>

<cfloop index="i" from = "1" to = #size#>
    <cfloop index="x" from="1" to="8">
        <cfset attr_name = REReplace(#mydoc.data.employees[i].XMLChildren[x].xmlName#, "[^a-zA-Z0-9__]", "", "ALL") />
        <cfset temp = QuerySetCell(session.employeeDetails, "#attr_name#", 
            #mydoc.data.employees[i].XMLChildren[x].xmlText#, #i#)>
    </cfloop>     
</cfloop>

<cfcatch>Error loading</cfcatch>
</cftry>

</cfoutput>

Here's the XML file:

<!---- File Name: employeeDetails.xml ---->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<data>
<employees>
        <name>John Smith</name>
        <id>1234</id>
        <BBTrained>NO</BBTrained>
        <DEPT>21</DEPT>
        <EXP>12</EXP>
        <current>YES</current>
        <Status>ACTIVE</Status>
        <StateCode>CO122</StateCode>
        <GNTrained>NO</GNTrained>
</employees>
<employees>
        <name>Mary Chapman</name>
        <id>3344</id>
        <BBTrained>YES</BBTrained>
        <DEPT>21</DEPT>
        <EXP>18</EXP>
        <Status>LOA</Status>
        <StateCode>DE255</StateCode>
        <GNTrained>YES</GNTrained>
</employees>
<employees>
        <name>Alex Fisher</name>
        <id>6655</id>
        <BBTrained>NO</BBTrained>
        <DEPT>22</DEPT>
        <EXP>6</EXP>
        <Status>ACTIVE</Status>
        <StateCode>ME255</StateCode>
        <GNTrained>YES</GNTrained>
</employees>
</data>

UPDATED CODE - Includes cfloop now. (4/20/16)

**SOLUTION: ** With the help of SpliFF, I was able to find the issue. Seriously one of the easiest fixes I've come across. In the following code on the query page:

I needed to change "8" to "9" to account for the new element. Yes... It really was that small of a change. sigh

Answer 1

You are only setting temp to row 1 when you build your query because your QueryAddRow is outside the loop. You need it to point to the current row on each XML child:

<cfloop index="i" from = "1" to = #size#>
    <cfset temp = QueryAddRow(session.employeeDetails)>
    <cfloop index="x" from="1" to="#ArrayLen(mydoc.data.employees[i].XMLChildren)#">
        <cfset attr_name = REReplace(#mydoc.data.employees[i].XMLChildren[x].xmlName#, "[^a-zA-Z0-9__]", "", "ALL") />
        <cfset QuerySetCell(session.employeeDetails, "#attr_name#", 
            #mydoc.data.employees[i].XMLChildren[x].xmlText#, #i#)>
    </cfloop>
</cfloop>