Add hierarchy of xml elements from yaml structure

[sradi]

Hi,

I am currently trying out ansible-xml. There's one thing, I couldn't get working:
I am referencing a variable from a yml file, which contains a list of items, that are added as xml elements to my target file. That's easy... Now I would like to reference a variable, which contains a list, where each item again contains a list. I expected, that I could add two levels of nested xml elements at once, this way. Unfortunately I am receiving this error:
TypeError: Argument must be bytes or unicode, got 'list'

Is there any way to add a full xml structure at once, with add_children?

Thanks a lot in advance!!
Stefan

[dagwieers]

Look at the example at #101, the same technique is possible for adding multiple levels.

Using the YAML input type:

  - xml:
      file: /tmp/test156.new.xml
      xpath: /List
      pretty_print: yes
      add_children:
        - Item:
            _Id: id002
            _:
              - Label:
                  _:
                    - Name: Demo 2
                    - Source: Vinyl
              - Active: "0"

Using the XML input type:

  - xml:
      file: /tmp/test156.new.xml
      xpath: /List
      input_type: xml
      pretty_print: yes
      add_children:
        - "<Item id='id002'><Label><Name>Demo 2</Name><Source>Vinyl</Source></Label><Active>0</Active></Item>"

If you're happy with these examples, please close this issue :-)

[dagwieers]

@sradi Please provide feedback and/or close this issue.

[sradi]

Thanks for the help. That looks helpful! :)

[UnitedMarsupials-zz]

@dagwieers' examples are wonderful -- and did help me finish my project -- but why is not there anything of the kind in the xml-module's official documentation? All of the examples there show merely, how to set individual values...

Update: Changed link above to latest development docs

[dagwieers]

@UnitedMarsupials I think we didn't add all examples from the integration tests because there would be too many examples in the module's documentation. But maybe we should add a section in the Ansible documentation related to the xml module functionality ?

If you think this is something you'd like to contribute, let me know.

[dagwieers]

I added a TODO item on the community wiki with links to the original README and the integration tests: https://github.com/ansible/community/wiki/Module:-xml#todo