I've done a little XML in LabVIEW (mostly about 10 years ago), exploring native LabVIEW XML, JKI's "Easy XML" (LabVIEW Tools Network), and GXML (also on LabVIEW Tools Network). I ended up using GXML, but only after I wrote a few "extensions" to it that might have deviated slightly from the XML "standards", but made it much easier for me to create "Typed" documents (data from complex LabVIEW Data Acquisition routines) that supported "write as you go" as opposed to "write everything all at once".
What is to stop you, if you want the Attributes to be listed in a particular order (and you know the Attributes that are present, and the order you want them in), from reading the XML file, extracting lists of consecutive Attributes, re-ordering them in whatever way you want, and replacing them in "User-defined ordering" (as opposed to "Alphabetic"? Why wouldn't this be just as valid an XML document? It is certainly easy enough to try it out (you don't even need to use LabVIEW -- take an "Alphabetized Attribute" XML File, open it in a good Text Editor, find the Attribute section, re-order it, and see what happens when you "use" the revised document. If it works, it is easy enough to write the LabVIEW "Order Attributes My Way" routine as an XML "Post-Processor"
Bob Schor
