Parse XML file

Sample XML document:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <family name="Kawasaki">
        <father>Yasuhisa</father>
        <mother>Chizuko</mother>
        <children>
            <girl>Shiori</girl>
            <boy>Yusuke</boy>
            <boy>Kairi</boy>
        </children>
    </family>

Sample program to read a xml file and dump it:

    use XML::TreePP;
    use Data::Dumper;
    my $tpp = XML::TreePP->new();
    my $tree = $tpp->parsefile( "family.xml" );
    my $text = Dumper( $tree );
    print $text;

Result dumped:

    $VAR1 = {
        'family' => {
            '-name' => 'Kawasaki',
            'father' => 'Yasuhisa',
            'mother' => 'Chizuko',
            'children' => {
                'girl' => 'Shiori'
                'boy' => [
                    'Yusuke',
                    'Kairi'
                ],
            }
        }
    };

Details:

    print $tree->{family}->{father};        # the father's given name.

The prefix '-' is added on every attribute's name.

    print $tree->{family}->{"-name"};       # the family name of the family

The array is used because the family has two boys.

    print $tree->{family}->{children}->{boy}->[1];  # The second boy's name
    print $tree->{family}->{children}->{girl};      # The girl's name

Text node and attributes:

If a element has both of a text node and attributes or both of a text node and other child nodes, value of a text node is moved to "#text" like child nodes.

    use XML::TreePP;
    use Data::Dumper;
    my $tpp = XML::TreePP->new();
    my $source = '<span class="author">Kawasaki Yusuke</span>';
    my $tree = $tpp->parse( $source );
    my $text = Dumper( $tree );
    print $text;

The result dumped is following:

    $VAR1 = {
        'span' => {
            '-class' => 'author',
            '#text'  => 'Kawasaki Yusuke'
        }
    };

The special node name of "#text" is used because this elements has attribute(s) in addition to the text node. See also "text_node_key" option.

new

This constructor method returns a new XML::TreePP object with %options.

    $tpp = XML::TreePP->new( %options );

set

This method sets a option value for "option_name". If $option_value is not defined, its option is deleted.

    $tpp->set( option_name => $option_value );

See OPTIONS section below for details.

get

This method returns a current option value for "option_name".

    $tpp->get( 'option_name' );

parse

This method reads an XML document by string and returns a hash tree converted. The first argument is a scalar or a reference to a scalar.

        $tree = $tpp->parse( $source );

parsefile

This method reads an XML document by file and returns a hash tree converted. The first argument is a filename.

    $tree = $tpp->parsefile( $file );

parsehttp

This method receives an XML document from a remote server via HTTP and returns a hash tree converted.

    $tree = $tpp->parsehttp( $method, $url, $body, $head );

$method is a method of HTTP connection: GET/POST/PUT/DELETE $url is an URI of an XML file. $body is a request body when you use POST method. $head is a request headers as a hash ref. LWP::UserAgent module or HTTP::Lite module is required to fetch a file.

    ( $tree, $xml, $code ) = $tpp->parsehttp( $method, $url, $body, $head );

In array context, This method returns also raw XML document received and HTTP response's status code.

write

This method parses a hash tree and returns an XML document as a string.

    $source = $tpp->write( $tree, $encode );

$tree is a reference to a hash tree.

writefile

This method parses a hash tree and writes an XML document into a file.

    $tpp->writefile( $file, $tree, $encode );

$file is a filename to create. $tree is a reference to a hash tree.

force_array

This option allows you to specify a list of element names which should always be forced into an array representation.

    $tpp->set( force_array => [ 'rdf:li', 'item', '-xmlns' ] );

The default value is null, it means that context of the elements will determine to make array or to keep it scalar or hash. Note that the special wildcard name '*' means all elements.

force_hash

This option allows you to specify a list of element names which should always be forced into an hash representation.

    $tpp->set( force_hash => [ 'item', 'image' ] );

The default value is null, it means that context of the elements will determine to make hash or to keep it scalar as a text node. See also "text_node_key" option below. Note that the special wildcard name '*' means all elements.

cdata_scalar_ref

This option allows you to convert a cdata section into a reference for scalar on parsing an XML document.

    $tpp->set( cdata_scalar_ref => 1 );

The default value is false, it means that each cdata section is converted into a scalar.

user_agent

This option allows you to specify a HTTP_USER_AGENT string which is used by parsehttp() method.

    $tpp->set( user_agent => 'Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; ...)' );

The default string is 'XML-TreePP/#.##', where '#.##' is substituted with the version number of this library.

http_lite

This option forces pasrsehttp() method to use a HTTP::Lite instance.

    my $http = HTTP::Lite->new();
    $tpp->set( http_lite => $http );

lwp_useragent

This option forces parsehttp() method to use a LWP::UserAgent instance.

    my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new();
    $ua->timeout( 60 );
    $ua->env_proxy;
    $tpp->set( lwp_useragent => $ua );

You may use this with LWP::UserAgent::WithCache.

base_class

This blesses class name for each element's hashref. Each class is named straight as a child class of it parent class.

    $tpp->set( base_class => 'MyElement' );
    my $xml  = '<root><parent><child key="val">text</child></parent></root>';
    my $tree = $tpp->parse( $xml );
    print ref $tree->{root}->{parent}->{child}, "\n";

A hash for <child> element above is blessed to "MyElement::root::parent::child" class. You may use this with Class::Accessor.

elem_class

This blesses class name for each element's hashref. Each class is named horizontally under the direct child of "MyElement".

    $tpp->set( base_class => 'MyElement' );
    my $xml  = '<root><parent><child key="val">text</child></parent></root>';
    my $tree = $tpp->parse( $xml );
    print ref $tree->{root}->{parent}->{child}, "\n";

A hash for <child> element above is blessed to "MyElement::child" class.

xml_deref

This option dereferences the numeric character references, like &#xEB;, &#28450;, etc., in an XML document when this value is true.

    $tpp->set( xml_deref => 1 );

Note that, for security reasons and your convenient, this module dereferences the predefined character entity references, &amp;, &lt;, &gt;, &apos; and &quot;, and the numeric character references up to U+007F without xml_deref per default.

require_xml_decl

This option requires XML declaration at the top of XML document to parse.

    $tpp->set( require_xml_decl => 1 );

This will die when <?xml .../?> declration not found.

first_out

This option allows you to specify a list of element/attribute names which should always appears at first on output XML document.

    $tpp->set( first_out => [ 'link', 'title', '-type' ] );

The default value is null, it means alphabetical order is used.

last_out

This option allows you to specify a list of element/attribute names which should always appears at last on output XML document.

    $tpp->set( last_out => [ 'items', 'item', 'entry' ] );

indent

This makes the output more human readable by indenting appropriately.

    $tpp->set( indent => 2 );

This doesn't strictly follow the XML specification but does looks nice.

xml_decl

This module inserts an XML declaration on top of the XML document generated per default. This option forces to change it to another or just remove it.

    $tpp->set( xml_decl => '' );

output_encoding

This option allows you to specify a encoding of the XML document generated by write/writefile methods.

    $tpp->set( output_encoding => 'UTF-8' );

On Perl 5.8.0 and later, you can select it from every encodings supported by Encode.pm. On Perl 5.6.x and before with Jcode.pm, you can use "Shift_JIS", "EUC-JP", "ISO-2022-JP" and "UTF-8". The default value is "UTF-8" which is recommended encoding.

empty_element_tag_end

    $tpp->set( empty_element_tag_end => '>' );

Set characters which close empty tag. The default value is ' />'.

utf8_flag

This makes utf8 flag on for every element's value parsed and makes it on for the XML document generated as well.

    $tpp->set( utf8_flag => 1 );

Perl 5.8.1 or later is required to use this.

attr_prefix

This option allows you to specify a prefix character(s) which is inserted before each attribute names.

    $tpp->set( attr_prefix => '@' );

The default character is '-'. Or set '@' to access attribute values like E4X, ECMAScript for XML. Zero-length prefix '' is available as well, it means no prefix is added.

text_node_key

This option allows you to specify a hash key for text nodes.

    $tpp->set( text_node_key => '#text' );

The default key is "#text".

ignore_error

This module calls Carp::croak function on an error per default. This option makes all errors ignored and just returns.

    $tpp->set( ignore_error => 1 );

use_ixhash

This option keeps the order for each element appeared in XML. Tie::IxHash module is required.

    $tpp->set( use_ixhash => 1 );

This makes parsing performance slow. (about 100% slower than default)