Hi
When I try to import xml.parsers.expat, it gives me the following error. (also when I want to read a plist). Can you show an expample of reading a plist data file?
import xml.parsers.expat
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "", line 1, in
File "/var/mobile/Applications/7FEFDAEF-0307-4187-92A2-C5B6C77BF2B5/Pythonista.app/pylib/xml/parsers/expat.py", line 4, in
from pyexpat import *
ImportError: No module named pyexpat
Sorry about this. I hope that I can fix those problems with the next update.
You can use the somewhat outdated and slow xmllib for parsing xml (and xml plists).
However, if your goal is to read system plists of iOS, neither that, nor plistlib/expat would help you much – those plists are usually stored in binary format and I don't know of any Python library that can read those.
No. I don't want to use binary plists. I Actually I had re-formatted a free English-English dictionary with about 118000 entires to Plist format ('<'key> word '<'key> '<'string>definition'<'string>) and was using it in an app I wrote in Codea. I was going to reconstruct that app in Pythonista too because Pythonista allows me to use my app on my iPod touch too.
So you say for the time being I can not use readPlist function, yes?
If so I will wait for the update.
And after all questions I have to thank you for your great app and patience you have with newbies like me.
Thanks michael, but actually I just was using plistlib.readPlist (from your link) when I encountered that error. I guess it is because, from description of plistlib.readPlist in your link, "XML data is parsed using the Expat parser from xml.parsers.expat" when you use plistlib.readPlist.
Thanks anyway.
@omz - There is a binary plist library out there - several. Here's one: https://github.com/wooster/biplist Pure python, BSD license.
Unfortunately it doesn't help in this situation because NoneNone is working with an XML plist (plus biplist depends on plistlib for certain things).
Here's a plistlib-free alternative, intended for python 2.4/2.5 - prior to plistlib being available on all OSes:
https://github.com/ishikawa/python-plist-parser
It's MIT licensed. Not sure if it'll solve your problem as it also makes use of the xml module - may end up running into the same parsing issue. Try it and see :)
hi
a question: i can easily read mu plist using plistlib of python on my PC. it is a huge plist containing about 118000 entries and their definitions.
i am new to python. is there a solution (a routine) by which i can read the plist on PC and write it as an easily-read-by-python format?
it doesnt't matter if it takes time (30 mins for example) because after that i have a file which can be easily used iny pythonista.
thnx
Sure. The root object for most plists is a dict. The json format lends itself well to this. Just load the plist on the PC, which should get you a dict. Then you can do:
Saving a dict/list to a json file:
import json
f = open("dict.json","w")
json.dump(some_dict, f)
f.close()
Reading it:
import json
f = open("dict.json")
read_dict = json.load(f)
f.close()
Yes, JSON is generally a very good format for this kind of thing. If you want the maximum speed, don't care about compatibility with non-Python code and you can trust the data, you can also use the marshal module which is very fast for serializing core Python types.
thanks pudquick,OMZ
actually i converted my plist to JSON and imported it into my iDevice. it works pretty well.
thanks