gistfile1.rb

# imports institutions from a filemaker exported xml file
require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../../config/environment'
require 'rubygems'
require 'hpricot'

# this establishes a mapping between column names in the 
# exported filemaker xml and the variable names we'll be using in rails
COLUMN_MAP = { 
 "institution_key" => :institution_key,
 "institution_name" => :institution_name,
 "institutionID" => :institution_id
}

doc = open('/Users/vinay/ptl/institutions.xml') { |f| Hpricot.XML(f)}

@old_column_names = []
(doc/"FMPXMLRESULT/METADATA/FIELD").each do |field|
  @old_column_names << field.attributes['NAME']
end

(doc/"FMPXMLRESULT/RESULTSET/ROW").each do |row|
  attributes = parse_attributes(row)
  p params 
  Institution.create params
end

def parse_attributes(row)
  attributes = {}
  (row/'COL').each_with_index do |col, index|
    old_column_name = @old_column_names[index]
    new_column_name = COLUMN_MAP[old_column_name]
    if COLUMN_MAP[old_column_name]
      attributes[new_column_name] = col.at("DATA").inner_html
    end 
  end
  attributes
end