Python and XML: Update an attribute and write file problems

Question

I'm trying to update an attribute on a child, then write that updated element to the document. I'm running into this error: 'AttributeError: Element instance has no attribute 'getiterator' '

I made this after piecing together a bunch of tutorials and resources, so let me know if anything else stands out (not too sure what I'm doing). Thanks!

Here's what I have so far:

Inside the XML doc:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<notes>
    <prepData a_assetType="Geometry" b_assetSel="[u'pPyramid1', u'pTorus1']"/>
    <prepData a_assetType="Rig" b_assetSel="[u'pPyramid1']"/>
    <prepData a_assetType="Controls" b_assetSel="[u'pPyramid1']"/>
</notes>

Write XML code:

xml_file_path = "{0}/{1}_prepData.xml".format( info_dir, asset_type )
doc = ET.parse( xml_file_path )
dom = parse( xml_file_path )
root = doc.getroot()

nodes = dom.getElementsByTagName( 'prepData' )

match = []
for node in nodes:
    if node.attributes['a_assetType'].value == asset_type:
        match.append( node )

for node in match:
    node.setAttribute( "b_assetSel", str(asset_sel) )


out = ET.tostring( node )
dom = minidom.parseString( out )
xml_file = open("{0}/{1}_prepData.xml".format( info_dir, asset_name ), "w")
xml_file.write( dom.toprettyxml() )
xml_file.close()

alecxe · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-29 00:51:41Z

1

Use the xml.etree.ElementTree to search and set the element's attribute:

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

doc = ET.parse(xml_file_path)
root = doc.getroot()

for elm in root.findall(".//prepData[@a_assetType='%s']" % asset_type):
    elm.attrib["b_assetSel"] = str(asset_sel)

out = ET.tostring(root)
print(out)

Here we are using a simple XPath expression to find all prepData elements having the desired a_assetType attribute value. For each element found, we set the b_assetSel attribute value via the .attrib.

answered Jan 29, 2016 at 0:51

alecxe

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1 Comment

Mike Bourbeau Over a year ago

It worked! Great explaination too, thanks for taking the time :D

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