build block to scrape FDA Data

Hello All,

I was excited to start using popfly.

I wanted to create a block to get data fromwww.clinicaltrial.gov

The data is already in xml. The elements are:

Code Snippet

ELEMENTclinical_study(

required_header,

id_info,

brief_title,

acronym?,

official_title?,

sponsors,

source,

oversight_info?,

brief_summary,

detailed_description?,

overall_status,

why_stopped?,

start_date?,

end_date?,

phase,

study_design,

primary_outcome*,

secondary_outcome*,

number_of_arms?,

enrollment?,

condition+,

intervention*,

eligibility?,

overall_official*,

overall_contact?,

overall_contact_backup?,

location*,

link*,

reference*,

results_reference*,

verification_date,

lastchanged_date?,

firstreceived_date

The most important elements are:

official_title?,

sponsors,

brief_summary,

why_stopped?,

start_date?,

end_date?,

phase,

study_design,

primary_outcome*,

secondary_outcome*,

enrollment?,

condition+,

lastchanged_date?,

Secondary:

detailed_description?,

I want to create a block that gets these 13 fields from the site.

Users will be prompted for condition.

I want to be able to return all variables for condition, but the site does not allow this, so I have to run through each option if all is selected.

Is there an easy way to do this?

I hope to be able to map the data via location as well, but that will come later.

Here is what I have so far but I am not sure if I linked the site xml to the fields I want to extract and sort.

Code Snippet

// JScript File

Function ClinicalTrailsClass()

{

this.__getLatestPosts = [new ClinicalTrailPost()];

}

// Get the posts from ClinicalTrails.gov (aka CT.GOV).

NinerClass.prototype.getLatestPosts =function(keyword)

{

// Get the xml for the niner feed.

var url = “http://www.clinicaltrial.gov/ct/search?term=" + keyword "&submit=Search”;

var xml = environment.getXml(url);

// Get the items and items count in the RSS.

var items = xml.getElementsByTagName(“item”);

var count = items.length;

// Create the array holding the results.

var result =new Array(count);

// Loop over all items.

for(var i = 0; i < count; i++)

{

// Get the values from the item.

var title = items[i].getElementsByTagName(“title”)[0] ?

items[i].getElementsByTagName(“title”)[0].firstChild.nodeValue : “”;

var pubDate = items[i].getElementsByTagName(“pubDate”)[0] ?

items[i].getElementsByTagName(“pubDate”)[0].firstChild.nodeValue : “”;

var link = items[i].getElementsByTagName(“link”)[0] ?

items[i].getElementsByTagName(“link”)[0].firstChild.nodeValue : “”;

var creator = items[i].getElementsByTagName(“dc:creator”)[0] ?

items[i].getElementsByTagName(“dc:creator”)[0].firstChild.nodeValue : “”;

var description = items[i].selectSingleNode(“description”) ?

items[i].selectSingleNode(“description”).firstChild.nodeValue : “”;

// Add the item to the result array.

result[i] =new ClinicalTrailPostt(title, pubDate, link, creator, description);

}

return result;

}

// This class represents a ClinicalTrail Data entry.

function NinerPost(title, createdAt, url, creator, description)

{

this.brief_title = title;

this.lastchanged_date = date;

this.URL = url;

this.Creator = creator;

this.Description = description;

// Converts the class to a html representation.

this.toString =function()

{

var html = “”;

html += “

” + title + “

”;

html += “

by “ + creator + ” at “ + createdAt + “

”;

html += “

” + description + “

”;

return html;

}

Code Snippet

<?xmlversion=“1.0″ encoding=“utf-8″?>

<blockclass="ClinicalTrailsClass">

<providerName>ClinicalTrails.gov</providerName>

<providerUrl>http://www.clinicaltrial.gov/ct/search?term=Mobic&submit=Search</providerUrl>

<providerLogoUrl>http://www.clinicaltrial.gov/html/images/ctgov_logo_ttl.gif</providerLogoUrl>

<blockIconUrl>http://www.clinicaltrial.gov/html/images/ctgov_logo_ttl.gif</blockIconUrl>

<operationname="getLatestPosts">

Gets the latest clinical trail posts

</description>

<inputname="keyword"required="true"type="int">

<description>Enter a serach item.</description>

<defaultValue>Mobic</defaultValue>

</input>

</inputs>

<outputisArray="true"type="custom"object="ClinicalTrailPost" />

</outputs>

</operation>

</operations>

<objectname="ClinicalTrailPost">

<fieldname="brief_title"type="title"isArray="false" />

<fieldname="lastchanged_date"type="date"isArray="false" />

<fieldname="URL"type="url"isArray="false" />

<fieldname="Creator"type="creator"isArray="false" />

<fieldname="Description"type="description"isArray="false" />

</object>

</objects>

</block>

[23413 byte] By [camresu] at [2008-1-4]