what you need to do is check for null pointer conditions in any case (why your nodes don't get recognised i don't know, you could post the xml on here so we can see)

Thanks for answer Mo (we know each other, I am posting under a slightly different name),

Heres the code, updated to contain a silly amount of null pointer checks:

1.         println("Attempting XML load");
   
2.         xml = new XML(this,"scene.xml");
   
3.         println(xml);        //prints ok
   
4.         int numScenes = xml.getChildCount();
   
5.         println(numScenes);  // prints "3"
   
6.         for (int i = 0; i < numScenes; i++) {
   
7.             scene = xml.getChild(i);
   
8.             print(scene);  // doesnt print scene so I am guessing getChild doesnt work
   
9.             println(" xml child "+i+" : "+scene);
   
10.             if (scene!=null) {
    
11.                 if  (scene.getString("name")!=null) {
    
12.                                String name =scene.getString("name");
    
13.                               println (name);
    
14.                                    }
15.                   }
    
16.         //(..)
    
17.           }
    

Then a very minimal xml file looks like this:

1. <scene_list name="show1">
   
2.    <scene name="test_pattern">   
   
3.           <camera name="cam added 4th at 16:55" x="0.0" y="0.0" z="985.22504" tx="0.0" ty="0.0" tz="0.0"> 
   
4.           </camera>
   
5.   </scene>
   
6. </scene_list>
   

The error still is
Exception in thread "Animation Thread" java.lang.NullPointerException
    at processing.core.XML.getString(XML.java:442)
    at processing.core.XML.getString(XML.java:437)


I'd like to point out that "name" attribute is set for every object in the tree,
and that I had this code working in processing 1.5, my problems started with the beta so 'wait until this is resolved' is a ugly short answer that I am expecting to get. But maybe there is something I don't know like getChild being depreciated

zumbaree - hehe. hope you are well. just saying hi, i will have a look at this later.

i think all the whitespace is being treated as children, which is why you get twice as many children as you are expecting.

(put brackets around the data you are printing, so you can see the invisible characters like newlines)

ok, i tried it on processing 2 and it doesn't work. there should never be a null pointer exception in that way. it must be a bug with the XML library. it seems like there is nothing about XML class in the reference so i assume it's not ready in P2. 

i'm pretty sure it's just the whitespace

> print(scene);  // doesnt print scene so I am guessing getChild doesnt work

the only way this can happen is that it's printing whitespace. a null would show as "null".