# $Id: Simple.pm,v 1.1 2008/01/18 09:10:19 ryu Exp $ package XML::Simple; =head1 NAME XML::Simple - Easy API to maintain XML (esp config files) =head1 SYNOPSIS use XML::Simple; my $ref = XMLin([] [, ]); my $xml = XMLout($hashref [, ]); Or the object oriented way: require XML::Simple; my $xs = XML::Simple->new(options); my $ref = $xs->XMLin([] [, ]); my $xml = $xs->XMLout($hashref [, ]); (or see L<"SAX SUPPORT"> for 'the SAX way'). To catch common errors: use XML::Simple qw(:strict); (see L<"STRICT MODE"> for more details). =cut # See after __END__ for more POD documentation # Load essentials here, other modules loaded on demand later use strict; use Carp; require Exporter; ############################################################################## # Define some constants # use vars qw($VERSION @ISA @EXPORT @EXPORT_OK $PREFERRED_PARSER); @ISA = qw(Exporter); @EXPORT = qw(XMLin XMLout); @EXPORT_OK = qw(xml_in xml_out); $VERSION = '2.18'; $PREFERRED_PARSER = undef; my $StrictMode = 0; my @KnownOptIn = qw(keyattr keeproot forcecontent contentkey noattr searchpath forcearray cache suppressempty parseropts grouptags nsexpand datahandler varattr variables normalisespace normalizespace valueattr); my @KnownOptOut = qw(keyattr keeproot contentkey noattr rootname xmldecl outputfile noescape suppressempty grouptags nsexpand handler noindent attrindent nosort valueattr numericescape); my @DefKeyAttr = qw(name key id); my $DefRootName = qq(opt); my $DefContentKey = qq(content); my $DefXmlDecl = qq(); my $xmlns_ns = 'http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/'; my $bad_def_ns_jcn = '{' . $xmlns_ns . '}'; # LibXML::SAX workaround ############################################################################## # Globals for use by caching routines # my %MemShareCache = (); my %MemCopyCache = (); ############################################################################## # Wrapper for Exporter - handles ':strict' # sub import { # Handle the :strict tag $StrictMode = 1 if grep(/^:strict$/, @_); # Pass everything else to Exporter.pm @_ = grep(!/^:strict$/, @_); goto &Exporter::import; } ############################################################################## # Constructor for optional object interface. # sub new { my $class = shift; if(@_ % 2) { croak "Default options must be name=>value pairs (odd number supplied)"; } my %known_opt; @known_opt{@KnownOptIn, @KnownOptOut} = (undef) x 100; my %raw_opt = @_; my %def_opt; while(my($key, $val) = each %raw_opt) { my $lkey = lc($key); $lkey =~ s/_//g; croak "Unrecognised option: $key" unless(exists($known_opt{$lkey})); $def_opt{$lkey} = $val; } my $self = { def_opt => \%def_opt }; return(bless($self, $class)); } ############################################################################## # Sub: _get_object() # # Helper routine called from XMLin() and XMLout() to create an object if none # was provided. Note, this routine does mess with the caller's @_ array. # sub _get_object { my $self; if($_[0] and UNIVERSAL::isa($_[0], 'XML::Simple')) { $self = shift; } else { $self = XML::Simple->new(); } return $self; } ############################################################################## # Sub/Method: XMLin() # # Exported routine for slurping XML into a hashref - see pod for info. # # May be called as object method or as a plain function. # # Expects one arg for the source XML, optionally followed by a number of # name => value option pairs. # sub XMLin { my $self = &_get_object; # note, @_ is passed implicitly my $target = shift; # Work out whether to parse a string, a file or a filehandle if(not defined $target) { return $self->parse_file(undef, @_); } elsif($target eq '-') { local($/) = undef; $target = ; return $self->parse_string(\$target, @_); } elsif(my $type = ref($target)) { if($type eq 'SCALAR') { return $self->parse_string($target, @_); } else { return $self->parse_fh($target, @_); } } elsif($target =~ m{<.*?>}s) { return $self->parse_string(\$target, @_); } else { return $self->parse_file($target, @_); } } ############################################################################## # Sub/Method: parse_file() # # Same as XMLin, but only parses from a named file. # sub parse_file { my $self = &_get_object; # note, @_ is passed implicitly my $filename = shift; $self->handle_options('in', @_); $filename = $self->default_config_file if not defined $filename; $filename = $self->find_xml_file($filename, @{$self->{opt}->{searchpath}}); # Check cache for previous parse if($self->{opt}->{cache}) { foreach my $scheme (@{$self->{opt}->{cache}}) { my $method = 'cache_read_' . $scheme; my $opt = $self->$method($filename); return($opt) if($opt); } } my $ref = $self->build_simple_tree($filename, undef); if($self->{opt}->{cache}) { my $method = 'cache_write_' . $self->{opt}->{cache}->[0]; $self->$method($ref, $filename); } return $ref; } ############################################################################## # Sub/Method: parse_fh() # # Same as XMLin, but only parses from a filehandle. # sub parse_fh { my $self = &_get_object; # note, @_ is passed implicitly my $fh = shift; croak "Can't use " . (defined $fh ? qq{string ("$fh")} : 'undef') . " as a filehandle" unless ref $fh; $self->handle_options('in', @_); return $self->build_simple_tree(undef, $fh); } ############################################################################## # Sub/Method: parse_string() # # Same as XMLin, but only parses from a string or a reference to a string. # sub parse_string { my $self = &_get_object; # note, @_ is passed implicitly my $string = shift; $self->handle_options('in', @_); return $self->build_simple_tree(undef, ref $string ? $string : \$string); } ############################################################################## # Method: default_config_file() # # Returns the name of the XML file to parse if no filename (or XML string) # was provided. # sub default_config_file { my $self = shift; require File::Basename; my($basename, $script_dir, $ext) = File::Basename::fileparse($0, '\.[^\.]+'); # Add script directory to searchpath if($script_dir) { unshift(@{$self->{opt}->{searchpath}}, $script_dir); } return $basename . '.xml'; } ############################################################################## # Method: build_simple_tree() # # Builds a 'tree' data structure as provided by XML::Parser and then # 'simplifies' it as specified by the various options in effect. # sub build_simple_tree { my $self = shift; my $tree = $self->build_tree(@_); return $self->{opt}->{keeproot} ? $self->collapse({}, @$tree) : $self->collapse(@{$tree->[1]}); } ############################################################################## # Method: build_tree() # # This routine will be called if there is no suitable pre-parsed tree in a # cache. It parses the XML and returns an XML::Parser 'Tree' style data # structure (summarised in the comments for the collapse() routine below). # # XML::Simple requires the services of another module that knows how to parse # XML. If XML::SAX is installed, the default SAX parser will be used, # otherwise XML::Parser will be used. # # This routine expects to be passed a filename as argument 1 or a 'string' as # argument 2. The 'string' might be a string of XML (passed by reference to # save memory) or it might be a reference to an IO::Handle. (This # non-intuitive mess results in part from the way XML::Parser works but that's # really no excuse). # sub build_tree { my $self = shift; my $filename = shift; my $string = shift; my $preferred_parser = $PREFERRED_PARSER; unless(defined($preferred_parser)) { $preferred_parser = $ENV{XML_SIMPLE_PREFERRED_PARSER} || ''; } if($preferred_parser eq 'XML::Parser') { return($self->build_tree_xml_parser($filename, $string)); } eval { require XML::SAX; }; # We didn't need it until now if($@) { # No XML::SAX - fall back to XML::Parser if($preferred_parser) { # unless a SAX parser was expressly requested croak "XMLin() could not load XML::SAX"; } return($self->build_tree_xml_parser($filename, $string)); } $XML::SAX::ParserPackage = $preferred_parser if($preferred_parser); my $sp = XML::SAX::ParserFactory->parser(Handler => $self); $self->{nocollapse} = 1; my($tree); if($filename) { $tree = $sp->parse_uri($filename); } else { if(ref($string) && ref($string) ne 'SCALAR') { $tree = $sp->parse_file($string); } else { $tree = $sp->parse_string($$string); } } return($tree); } ############################################################################## # Method: build_tree_xml_parser() # # This routine will be called if XML::SAX is not installed, or if XML::Parser # was specifically requested. It takes the same arguments as build_tree() and # returns the same data structure (XML::Parser 'Tree' style). # sub build_tree_xml_parser { my $self = shift; my $filename = shift; my $string = shift; eval { local($^W) = 0; # Suppress warning from Expat.pm re File::Spec::load() require XML::Parser; # We didn't need it until now }; if($@) { croak "XMLin() requires either XML::SAX or XML::Parser"; } if($self->{opt}->{nsexpand}) { carp "'nsexpand' option requires XML::SAX"; } my $xp = XML::Parser->new(Style => 'Tree', @{$self->{opt}->{parseropts}}); my($tree); if($filename) { # $tree = $xp->parsefile($filename); # Changed due to prob w/mod_perl local(*XML_FILE); open(XML_FILE, '<', $filename) || croak qq($filename - $!); $tree = $xp->parse(*XML_FILE); close(XML_FILE); } else { $tree = $xp->parse($$string); } return($tree); } ############################################################################## # Method: cache_write_storable() # # Wrapper routine for invoking Storable::nstore() to cache a parsed data # structure. # sub cache_write_storable { my($self, $data, $filename) = @_; my $cachefile = $self->storable_filename($filename); require Storable; # We didn't need it until now if ('VMS' eq $^O) { Storable::nstore($data, $cachefile); } else { # If the following line fails for you, your Storable.pm is old - upgrade Storable::lock_nstore($data, $cachefile); } } ############################################################################## # Method: cache_read_storable() # # Wrapper routine for invoking Storable::retrieve() to read a cached parsed # data structure. Only returns cached data if the cache file exists and is # newer than the source XML file. # sub cache_read_storable { my($self, $filename) = @_; my $cachefile = $self->storable_filename($filename); return unless(-r $cachefile); return unless((stat($cachefile))[9] > (stat($filename))[9]); require Storable; # We didn't need it until now if ('VMS' eq $^O) { return(Storable::retrieve($cachefile)); } else { return(Storable::lock_retrieve($cachefile)); } } ############################################################################## # Method: storable_filename() # # Translates the supplied source XML filename into a filename for the storable # cached data. A '.stor' suffix is added after stripping an optional '.xml' # suffix. # sub storable_filename { my($self, $cachefile) = @_; $cachefile =~ s{(\.xml)?$}{.stor}; return $cachefile; } ############################################################################## # Method: cache_write_memshare() # # Takes the supplied data structure reference and stores it away in a global # hash structure. # sub cache_write_memshare { my($self, $data, $filename) = @_; $MemShareCache{$filename} = [time(), $data]; } ############################################################################## # Method: cache_read_memshare() # # Takes a filename and looks in a global hash for a cached parsed version. # sub cache_read_memshare { my($self, $filename) = @_; return unless($MemShareCache{$filename}); return unless($MemShareCache{$filename}->[0] > (stat($filename))[9]); return($MemShareCache{$filename}->[1]); } ############################################################################## # Method: cache_write_memcopy() # # Takes the supplied data structure and stores a copy of it in a global hash # structure. # sub cache_write_memcopy { my($self, $data, $filename) = @_; require Storable; # We didn't need it until now $MemCopyCache{$filename} = [time(), Storable::dclone($data)]; } ############################################################################## # Method: cache_read_memcopy() # # Takes a filename and looks in a global hash for a cached parsed version. # Returns a reference to a copy of that data structure. # sub cache_read_memcopy { my($self, $filename) = @_; return unless($MemCopyCache{$filename}); return unless($MemCopyCache{$filename}->[0] > (stat($filename))[9]); return(Storable::dclone($MemCopyCache{$filename}->[1])); } ############################################################################## # Sub/Method: XMLout() # # Exported routine for 'unslurping' a data structure out to XML. # # Expects a reference to a data structure and an optional list of option # name => value pairs. # sub XMLout { my $self = &_get_object; # note, @_ is passed implicitly croak "XMLout() requires at least one argument" unless(@_); my $ref = shift; $self->handle_options('out', @_); # If namespace expansion is set, XML::NamespaceSupport is required if($self->{opt}->{nsexpand}) { require XML::NamespaceSupport; $self->{nsup} = XML::NamespaceSupport->new(); $self->{ns_prefix} = 'aaa'; } # Wrap top level arrayref in a hash if(UNIVERSAL::isa($ref, 'ARRAY')) { $ref = { anon => $ref }; } # Extract rootname from top level hash if keeproot enabled if($self->{opt}->{keeproot}) { my(@keys) = keys(%$ref); if(@keys == 1) { $ref = $ref->{$keys[0]}; $self->{opt}->{rootname} = $keys[0]; } } # Ensure there are no top level attributes if we're not adding root elements elsif($self->{opt}->{rootname} eq '') { if(UNIVERSAL::isa($ref, 'HASH')) { my $refsave = $ref; $ref = {}; foreach (keys(%$refsave)) { if(ref($refsave->{$_})) { $ref->{$_} = $refsave->{$_}; } else { $ref->{$_} = [ $refsave->{$_} ]; } } } } # Encode the hashref and write to file if necessary $self->{_ancestors} = []; my $xml = $self->value_to_xml($ref, $self->{opt}->{rootname}, ''); delete $self->{_ancestors}; if($self->{opt}->{xmldecl}) { $xml = $self->{opt}->{xmldecl} . "\n" . $xml; } if($self->{opt}->{outputfile}) { if(ref($self->{opt}->{outputfile})) { my $fh = $self->{opt}->{outputfile}; if(UNIVERSAL::isa($fh, 'GLOB') and !UNIVERSAL::can($fh, 'print')) { eval { require IO::Handle; }; croak $@ if $@; } return($fh->print($xml)); } else { local(*OUT); open(OUT, '>', "$self->{opt}->{outputfile}") || croak "open($self->{opt}->{outputfile}): $!"; binmode(OUT, ':utf8') if($] >= 5.008); print OUT $xml || croak "print: $!"; close(OUT); } } elsif($self->{opt}->{handler}) { require XML::SAX; my $sp = XML::SAX::ParserFactory->parser( Handler => $self->{opt}->{handler} ); return($sp->parse_string($xml)); } else { return($xml); } } ############################################################################## # Method: handle_options() # # Helper routine for both XMLin() and XMLout(). Both routines handle their # first argument and assume all other args are options handled by this routine. # Saves a hash of options in $self->{opt}. # # If default options were passed to the constructor, they will be retrieved # here and merged with options supplied to the method call. # # First argument should be the string 'in' or the string 'out'. # # Remaining arguments should be name=>value pairs. Sets up default values # for options not supplied. Unrecognised options are a fatal error. # sub handle_options { my $self = shift; my $dirn = shift; # Determine valid options based on context my %known_opt; if($dirn eq 'in') { @known_opt{@KnownOptIn} = @KnownOptIn; } else { @known_opt{@KnownOptOut} = @KnownOptOut; } # Store supplied options in hashref and weed out invalid ones if(@_ % 2) { croak "Options must be name=>value pairs (odd number supplied)"; } my %raw_opt = @_; my $opt = {}; $self->{opt} = $opt; while(my($key, $val) = each %raw_opt) { my $lkey = lc($key); $lkey =~ s/_//g; croak "Unrecognised option: $key" unless($known_opt{$lkey}); $opt->{$lkey} = $val; } # Merge in options passed to constructor foreach (keys(%known_opt)) { unless(exists($opt->{$_})) { if(exists($self->{def_opt}->{$_})) { $opt->{$_} = $self->{def_opt}->{$_}; } } } # Set sensible defaults if not supplied if(exists($opt->{rootname})) { unless(defined($opt->{rootname})) { $opt->{rootname} = ''; } } else { $opt->{rootname} = $DefRootName; } if($opt->{xmldecl} and $opt->{xmldecl} eq '1') { $opt->{xmldecl} = $DefXmlDecl; } if(exists($opt->{contentkey})) { if($opt->{contentkey} =~ m{^-(.*)$}) { $opt->{contentkey} = $1; $opt->{collapseagain} = 1; } } else { $opt->{contentkey} = $DefContentKey; } unless(exists($opt->{normalisespace})) { $opt->{normalisespace} = $opt->{normalizespace}; } $opt->{normalisespace} = 0 unless(defined($opt->{normalisespace})); # Cleanups for values assumed to be arrays later if($opt->{searchpath}) { unless(ref($opt->{searchpath})) { $opt->{searchpath} = [ $opt->{searchpath} ]; } } else { $opt->{searchpath} = [ ]; } if($opt->{cache} and !ref($opt->{cache})) { $opt->{cache} = [ $opt->{cache} ]; } if($opt->{cache}) { $_ = lc($_) foreach (@{$opt->{cache}}); foreach my $scheme (@{$opt->{cache}}) { my $method = 'cache_read_' . $scheme; croak "Unsupported caching scheme: $scheme" unless($self->can($method)); } } if(exists($opt->{parseropts})) { if($^W) { carp "Warning: " . "'ParserOpts' is deprecated, contact the author if you need it"; } } else { $opt->{parseropts} = [ ]; } # Special cleanup for {forcearray} which could be regex, arrayref or boolean # or left to default to 0 if(exists($opt->{forcearray})) { if(ref($opt->{forcearray}) eq 'Regexp') { $opt->{forcearray} = [ $opt->{forcearray} ]; } if(ref($opt->{forcearray}) eq 'ARRAY') { my @force_list = @{$opt->{forcearray}}; if(@force_list) { $opt->{forcearray} = {}; foreach my $tag (@force_list) { if(ref($tag) eq 'Regexp') { push @{$opt->{forcearray}->{_regex}}, $tag; } else { $opt->{forcearray}->{$tag} = 1; } } } else { $opt->{forcearray} = 0; } } else { $opt->{forcearray} = ( $opt->{forcearray} ? 1 : 0 ); } } else { if($StrictMode and $dirn eq 'in') { croak "No value specified for 'ForceArray' option in call to XML$dirn()"; } $opt->{forcearray} = 0; } # Special cleanup for {keyattr} which could be arrayref or hashref or left # to default to arrayref if(exists($opt->{keyattr})) { if(ref($opt->{keyattr})) { if(ref($opt->{keyattr}) eq 'HASH') { # Make a copy so we can mess with it $opt->{keyattr} = { %{$opt->{keyattr}} }; # Convert keyattr => { elem => '+attr' } # to keyattr => { elem => [ 'attr', '+' ] } foreach my $el (keys(%{$opt->{keyattr}})) { if($opt->{keyattr}->{$el} =~ /^(\+|-)?(.*)$/) { $opt->{keyattr}->{$el} = [ $2, ($1 ? $1 : '') ]; if($StrictMode and $dirn eq 'in') { next if($opt->{forcearray} == 1); next if(ref($opt->{forcearray}) eq 'HASH' and $opt->{forcearray}->{$el}); croak "<$el> set in KeyAttr but not in ForceArray"; } } else { delete($opt->{keyattr}->{$el}); # Never reached (famous last words?) } } } else { if(@{$opt->{keyattr}} == 0) { delete($opt->{keyattr}); } } } else { $opt->{keyattr} = [ $opt->{keyattr} ]; } } else { if($StrictMode) { croak "No value specified for 'KeyAttr' option in call to XML$dirn()"; } $opt->{keyattr} = [ @DefKeyAttr ]; } # Special cleanup for {valueattr} which could be arrayref or hashref if(exists($opt->{valueattr})) { if(ref($opt->{valueattr}) eq 'ARRAY') { $opt->{valueattrlist} = {}; $opt->{valueattrlist}->{$_} = 1 foreach(@{ delete $opt->{valueattr} }); } } # make sure there's nothing weird in {grouptags} if($opt->{grouptags}) { croak "Illegal value for 'GroupTags' option - expected a hashref" unless UNIVERSAL::isa($opt->{grouptags}, 'HASH'); while(my($key, $val) = each %{$opt->{grouptags}}) { next if $key ne $val; croak "Bad value in GroupTags: '$key' => '$val'"; } } # Check the {variables} option is valid and initialise variables hash if($opt->{variables} and !UNIVERSAL::isa($opt->{variables}, 'HASH')) { croak "Illegal value for 'Variables' option - expected a hashref"; } if($opt->{variables}) { $self->{_var_values} = { %{$opt->{variables}} }; } elsif($opt->{varattr}) { $self->{_var_values} = {}; } } ############################################################################## # Method: find_xml_file() # # Helper routine for XMLin(). # Takes a filename, and a list of directories, attempts to locate the file in # the directories listed. # Returns a full pathname on success; croaks on failure. # sub find_xml_file { my $self = shift; my $file = shift; my @search_path = @_; require File::Basename; require File::Spec; my($filename, $filedir) = File::Basename::fileparse($file); if($filename ne $file) { # Ignore searchpath if dir component return($file) if(-e $file); } else { my($path); foreach $path (@search_path) { my $fullpath = File::Spec->catfile($path, $file); return($fullpath) if(-e $fullpath); } } # If user did not supply a search path, default to current directory if(!@search_path) { return($file) if(-e $file); croak "File does not exist: $file"; } croak "Could not find $file in ", join(':', @search_path); } ############################################################################## # Method: collapse() # # Helper routine for XMLin(). This routine really comprises the 'smarts' (or # value add) of this module. # # Takes the parse tree that XML::Parser produced from the supplied XML and # recurses through it 'collapsing' unnecessary levels of indirection (nested # arrays etc) to produce a data structure that is easier to work with. # # Elements in the original parser tree are represented as an element name # followed by an arrayref. The first element of the array is a hashref # containing the attributes. The rest of the array contains a list of any # nested elements as name+arrayref pairs: # # , [ { }, , [ ... ], ... ] # # The special element name '0' (zero) flags text content. # # This routine cuts down the noise by discarding any text content consisting of # only whitespace and then moves the nested elements into the attribute hash # using the name of the nested element as the hash key and the collapsed # version of the nested element as the value. Multiple nested elements with # the same name will initially be represented as an arrayref, but this may be # 'folded' into a hashref depending on the value of the keyattr option. # sub collapse { my $self = shift; # Start with the hash of attributes my $attr = shift; if($self->{opt}->{noattr}) { # Discard if 'noattr' set $attr = {}; } elsif($self->{opt}->{normalisespace} == 2) { while(my($key, $value) = each %$attr) { $attr->{$key} = $self->normalise_space($value) } } # Do variable substitutions if(my $var = $self->{_var_values}) { while(my($key, $val) = each(%$attr)) { $val =~ s{\$\{([\w.]+)\}}{ $self->get_var($1) }ge; $attr->{$key} = $val; } } # Roll up 'value' attributes (but only if no nested elements) if(!@_ and keys %$attr == 1) { my($k) = keys %$attr; if($self->{opt}->{valueattrlist} and $self->{opt}->{valueattrlist}->{$k}) { return $attr->{$k}; } } # Add any nested elements my($key, $val); while(@_) { $key = shift; $val = shift; if(ref($val)) { $val = $self->collapse(@$val); next if(!defined($val) and $self->{opt}->{suppressempty}); } elsif($key eq '0') { next if($val =~ m{^\s*$}s); # Skip all whitespace content $val = $self->normalise_space($val) if($self->{opt}->{normalisespace} == 2); # do variable substitutions if(my $var = $self->{_var_values}) { $val =~ s{\$\{(\w+)\}}{ $self->get_var($1) }ge; } # look for variable definitions if(my $var = $self->{opt}->{varattr}) { if(exists $attr->{$var}) { $self->set_var($attr->{$var}, $val); } } # Collapse text content in element with no attributes to a string if(!%$attr and !@_) { return($self->{opt}->{forcecontent} ? { $self->{opt}->{contentkey} => $val } : $val ); } $key = $self->{opt}->{contentkey}; } # Combine duplicate attributes into arrayref if required if(exists($attr->{$key})) { if(UNIVERSAL::isa($attr->{$key}, 'ARRAY')) { push(@{$attr->{$key}}, $val); } else { $attr->{$key} = [ $attr->{$key}, $val ]; } } elsif(defined($val) and UNIVERSAL::isa($val, 'ARRAY')) { $attr->{$key} = [ $val ]; } else { if( $key ne $self->{opt}->{contentkey} and ( ($self->{opt}->{forcearray} == 1) or ( (ref($self->{opt}->{forcearray}) eq 'HASH') and ( $self->{opt}->{forcearray}->{$key} or (grep $key =~ $_, @{$self->{opt}->{forcearray}->{_regex}}) ) ) ) ) { $attr->{$key} = [ $val ]; } else { $attr->{$key} = $val; } } } # Turn arrayrefs into hashrefs if key fields present if($self->{opt}->{keyattr}) { while(($key,$val) = each %$attr) { if(defined($val) and UNIVERSAL::isa($val, 'ARRAY')) { $attr->{$key} = $self->array_to_hash($key, $val); } } } # disintermediate grouped tags if($self->{opt}->{grouptags}) { while(my($key, $val) = each(%$attr)) { next unless(UNIVERSAL::isa($val, 'HASH') and (keys %$val == 1)); next unless(exists($self->{opt}->{grouptags}->{$key})); my($child_key, $child_val) = %$val; if($self->{opt}->{grouptags}->{$key} eq $child_key) { $attr->{$key}= $child_val; } } } # Fold hashes containing a single anonymous array up into just the array my $count = scalar keys %$attr; if($count == 1 and exists $attr->{anon} and UNIVERSAL::isa($attr->{anon}, 'ARRAY') ) { return($attr->{anon}); } # Do the right thing if hash is empty, otherwise just return it if(!%$attr and exists($self->{opt}->{suppressempty})) { if(defined($self->{opt}->{suppressempty}) and $self->{opt}->{suppressempty} eq '') { return(''); } return(undef); } # Roll up named elements with named nested 'value' attributes if($self->{opt}->{valueattr}) { while(my($key, $val) = each(%$attr)) { next unless($self->{opt}->{valueattr}->{$key}); next unless(UNIVERSAL::isa($val, 'HASH') and (keys %$val == 1)); my($k) = keys %$val; next unless($k eq $self->{opt}->{valueattr}->{$key}); $attr->{$key} = $val->{$k}; } } return($attr) } ############################################################################## # Method: set_var() # # Called when a variable definition is encountered in the XML. (A variable # definition looks like value where attrname # matches the varattr setting). # sub set_var { my($self, $name, $value) = @_; $self->{_var_values}->{$name} = $value; } ############################################################################## # Method: get_var() # # Called during variable substitution to get the value for the named variable. # sub get_var { my($self, $name) = @_; my $value = $self->{_var_values}->{$name}; return $value if(defined($value)); return '${' . $name . '}'; } ############################################################################## # Method: normalise_space() # # Strips leading and trailing whitespace and collapses sequences of whitespace # characters to a single space. # sub normalise_space { my($self, $text) = @_; $text =~ s/^\s+//s; $text =~ s/\s+$//s; $text =~ s/\s\s+/ /sg; return $text; } ############################################################################## # Method: array_to_hash() # # Helper routine for collapse(). # Attempts to 'fold' an array of hashes into an hash of hashes. Returns a # reference to the hash on success or the original array if folding is # not possible. Behaviour is controlled by 'keyattr' option. # sub array_to_hash { my $self = shift; my $name = shift; my $arrayref = shift; my $hashref = $self->new_hashref; my($i, $key, $val, $flag); # Handle keyattr => { .... } if(ref($self->{opt}->{keyattr}) eq 'HASH') { return($arrayref) unless(exists($self->{opt}->{keyattr}->{$name})); ($key, $flag) = @{$self->{opt}->{keyattr}->{$name}}; for($i = 0; $i < @$arrayref; $i++) { if(UNIVERSAL::isa($arrayref->[$i], 'HASH') and exists($arrayref->[$i]->{$key}) ) { $val = $arrayref->[$i]->{$key}; if(ref($val)) { $self->die_or_warn("<$name> element has non-scalar '$key' key attribute"); return($arrayref); } $val = $self->normalise_space($val) if($self->{opt}->{normalisespace} == 1); $self->die_or_warn("<$name> element has non-unique value in '$key' key attribute: $val") if(exists($hashref->{$val})); $hashref->{$val} = { %{$arrayref->[$i]} }; $hashref->{$val}->{"-$key"} = $hashref->{$val}->{$key} if($flag eq '-'); delete $hashref->{$val}->{$key} unless($flag eq '+'); } else { $self->die_or_warn("<$name> element has no '$key' key attribute"); return($arrayref); } } } # Or assume keyattr => [ .... ] else { my $default_keys = join(',', @DefKeyAttr) eq join(',', @{$self->{opt}->{keyattr}}); ELEMENT: for($i = 0; $i < @$arrayref; $i++) { return($arrayref) unless(UNIVERSAL::isa($arrayref->[$i], 'HASH')); foreach $key (@{$self->{opt}->{keyattr}}) { if(defined($arrayref->[$i]->{$key})) { $val = $arrayref->[$i]->{$key}; if(ref($val)) { $self->die_or_warn("<$name> element has non-scalar '$key' key attribute") if not $default_keys; return($arrayref); } $val = $self->normalise_space($val) if($self->{opt}->{normalisespace} == 1); $self->die_or_warn("<$name> element has non-unique value in '$key' key attribute: $val") if(exists($hashref->{$val})); $hashref->{$val} = { %{$arrayref->[$i]} }; delete $hashref->{$val}->{$key}; next ELEMENT; } } return($arrayref); # No keyfield matched } } # collapse any hashes which now only have a 'content' key if($self->{opt}->{collapseagain}) { $hashref = $self->collapse_content($hashref); } return($hashref); } ############################################################################## # Method: die_or_warn() # # Takes a diagnostic message and does one of three things: # 1. dies if strict mode is enabled # 2. warns if warnings are enabled but strict mode is not # 3. ignores message and resturns silently if neither strict mode nor warnings # are enabled # sub die_or_warn { my $self = shift; my $msg = shift; croak $msg if($StrictMode); carp "Warning: $msg" if($^W); } ############################################################################## # Method: new_hashref() # # This is a hook routine for overriding in a sub-class. Some people believe # that using Tie::IxHash here will solve order-loss problems. # sub new_hashref { my $self = shift; return { @_ }; } ############################################################################## # Method: collapse_content() # # Helper routine for array_to_hash # # Arguments expected are: # - an XML::Simple object # - a hasref # the hashref is a former array, turned into a hash by array_to_hash because # of the presence of key attributes # at this point collapse_content avoids over-complicated structures like # dir => { libexecdir => { content => '$exec_prefix/libexec' }, # localstatedir => { content => '$prefix' }, # } # into # dir => { libexecdir => '$exec_prefix/libexec', # localstatedir => '$prefix', # } sub collapse_content { my $self = shift; my $hashref = shift; my $contentkey = $self->{opt}->{contentkey}; # first go through the values,checking that they are fit to collapse foreach my $val (values %$hashref) { return $hashref unless ( (ref($val) eq 'HASH') and (keys %$val == 1) and (exists $val->{$contentkey}) ); } # now collapse them foreach my $key (keys %$hashref) { $hashref->{$key}= $hashref->{$key}->{$contentkey}; } return $hashref; } ############################################################################## # Method: value_to_xml() # # Helper routine for XMLout() - recurses through a data structure building up # and returning an XML representation of that structure as a string. # # Arguments expected are: # - the data structure to be encoded (usually a reference) # - the XML tag name to use for this item # - a string of spaces for use as the current indent level # sub value_to_xml { my $self = shift;; # Grab the other arguments my($ref, $name, $indent) = @_; my $named = (defined($name) and $name ne '' ? 1 : 0); my $nl = "\n"; my $is_root = $indent eq '' ? 1 : 0; # Warning, dirty hack! if($self->{opt}->{noindent}) { $indent = ''; $nl = ''; } # Convert to XML if(ref($ref)) { croak "circular data structures not supported" if(grep($_ == $ref, @{$self->{_ancestors}})); push @{$self->{_ancestors}}, $ref; } else { if($named) { return(join('', $indent, '<', $name, '>', ($self->{opt}->{noescape} ? $ref : $self->escape_value($ref)), '", $nl )); } else { return("$ref$nl"); } } # Unfold hash to array if possible if(UNIVERSAL::isa($ref, 'HASH') # It is a hash and keys %$ref # and it's not empty and $self->{opt}->{keyattr} # and folding is enabled and !$is_root # and its not the root element ) { $ref = $self->hash_to_array($name, $ref); } my @result = (); my($key, $value); # Handle hashrefs if(UNIVERSAL::isa($ref, 'HASH')) { # Reintermediate grouped values if applicable if($self->{opt}->{grouptags}) { $ref = $self->copy_hash($ref); while(my($key, $val) = each %$ref) { if($self->{opt}->{grouptags}->{$key}) { $ref->{$key} = { $self->{opt}->{grouptags}->{$key} => $val }; } } } # Scan for namespace declaration attributes my $nsdecls = ''; my $default_ns_uri; if($self->{nsup}) { $ref = $self->copy_hash($ref); $self->{nsup}->push_context(); # Look for default namespace declaration first if(exists($ref->{xmlns})) { $self->{nsup}->declare_prefix('', $ref->{xmlns}); $nsdecls .= qq( xmlns="$ref->{xmlns}"); delete($ref->{xmlns}); } $default_ns_uri = $self->{nsup}->get_uri(''); # Then check all the other keys foreach my $qname (keys(%$ref)) { my($uri, $lname) = $self->{nsup}->parse_jclark_notation($qname); if($uri) { if($uri eq $xmlns_ns) { $self->{nsup}->declare_prefix($lname, $ref->{$qname}); $nsdecls .= qq( xmlns:$lname="$ref->{$qname}"); delete($ref->{$qname}); } } } # Translate any remaining Clarkian names foreach my $qname (keys(%$ref)) { my($uri, $lname) = $self->{nsup}->parse_jclark_notation($qname); if($uri) { if($default_ns_uri and $uri eq $default_ns_uri) { $ref->{$lname} = $ref->{$qname}; delete($ref->{$qname}); } else { my $prefix = $self->{nsup}->get_prefix($uri); unless($prefix) { # $self->{nsup}->declare_prefix(undef, $uri); # $prefix = $self->{nsup}->get_prefix($uri); $prefix = $self->{ns_prefix}++; $self->{nsup}->declare_prefix($prefix, $uri); $nsdecls .= qq( xmlns:$prefix="$uri"); } $ref->{"$prefix:$lname"} = $ref->{$qname}; delete($ref->{$qname}); } } } } my @nested = (); my $text_content = undef; if($named) { push @result, $indent, '<', $name, $nsdecls; } if(keys %$ref) { my $first_arg = 1; foreach my $key ($self->sorted_keys($name, $ref)) { my $value = $ref->{$key}; next if(substr($key, 0, 1) eq '-'); if(!defined($value)) { next if $self->{opt}->{suppressempty}; unless(exists($self->{opt}->{suppressempty}) and !defined($self->{opt}->{suppressempty}) ) { carp 'Use of uninitialized value' if($^W); } if($key eq $self->{opt}->{contentkey}) { $text_content = ''; } else { $value = exists($self->{opt}->{suppressempty}) ? {} : ''; } } if(!ref($value) and $self->{opt}->{valueattr} and $self->{opt}->{valueattr}->{$key} ) { $value = { $self->{opt}->{valueattr}->{$key} => $value }; } if(ref($value) or $self->{opt}->{noattr}) { push @nested, $self->value_to_xml($value, $key, "$indent "); } else { $value = $self->escape_value($value) unless($self->{opt}->{noescape}); if($key eq $self->{opt}->{contentkey}) { $text_content = $value; } else { push @result, "\n$indent " . ' ' x length($name) if($self->{opt}->{attrindent} and !$first_arg); push @result, ' ', $key, '="', $value , '"'; $first_arg = 0; } } } } else { $text_content = ''; } if(@nested or defined($text_content)) { if($named) { push @result, ">"; if(defined($text_content)) { push @result, $text_content; $nested[0] =~ s/^\s+// if(@nested); } else { push @result, $nl; } if(@nested) { push @result, @nested, $indent; } push @result, '", $nl; } else { push @result, @nested; # Special case if no root elements } } else { push @result, " />", $nl; } $self->{nsup}->pop_context() if($self->{nsup}); } # Handle arrayrefs elsif(UNIVERSAL::isa($ref, 'ARRAY')) { foreach $value (@$ref) { next if !defined($value) and $self->{opt}->{suppressempty}; if(!ref($value)) { push @result, $indent, '<', $name, '>', ($self->{opt}->{noescape} ? $value : $self->escape_value($value)), '$nl"; } elsif(UNIVERSAL::isa($value, 'HASH')) { push @result, $self->value_to_xml($value, $name, $indent); } else { push @result, $indent, '<', $name, ">$nl", $self->value_to_xml($value, 'anon', "$indent "), $indent, '$nl"; } } } else { croak "Can't encode a value of type: " . ref($ref); } pop @{$self->{_ancestors}} if(ref($ref)); return(join('', @result)); } ############################################################################## # Method: sorted_keys() # # Returns the keys of the referenced hash sorted into alphabetical order, but # with the 'key' key (as in KeyAttr) first, if there is one. # sub sorted_keys { my($self, $name, $ref) = @_; return keys %$ref if $self->{opt}->{nosort}; my %hash = %$ref; my $keyattr = $self->{opt}->{keyattr}; my @key; if(ref $keyattr eq 'HASH') { if(exists $keyattr->{$name} and exists $hash{$keyattr->{$name}->[0]}) { push @key, $keyattr->{$name}->[0]; delete $hash{$keyattr->{$name}->[0]}; } } elsif(ref $keyattr eq 'ARRAY') { foreach (@{$keyattr}) { if(exists $hash{$_}) { push @key, $_; delete $hash{$_}; last; } } } return(@key, sort keys %hash); } ############################################################################## # Method: escape_value() # # Helper routine for automatically escaping values for XMLout(). # Expects a scalar data value. Returns escaped version. # sub escape_value { my($self, $data) = @_; return '' unless(defined($data)); $data =~ s/&/&/sg; $data =~ s//>/sg; $data =~ s/"/"/sg; my $level = $self->{opt}->{numericescape} or return $data; return $self->numeric_escape($data, $level); } sub numeric_escape { my($self, $data, $level) = @_; use utf8; # required for 5.6 if($self->{opt}->{numericescape} eq '2') { $data =~ s/([^\x00-\x7F])/'&#' . ord($1) . ';'/gse; } else { $data =~ s/([^\x00-\xFF])/'&#' . ord($1) . ';'/gse; } return $data; } ############################################################################## # Method: hash_to_array() # # Helper routine for value_to_xml(). # Attempts to 'unfold' a hash of hashes into an array of hashes. Returns a # reference to the array on success or the original hash if unfolding is # not possible. # sub hash_to_array { my $self = shift; my $parent = shift; my $hashref = shift; my $arrayref = []; my($key, $value); my @keys = $self->{opt}->{nosort} ? keys %$hashref : sort keys %$hashref; foreach $key (@keys) { $value = $hashref->{$key}; return($hashref) unless(UNIVERSAL::isa($value, 'HASH')); if(ref($self->{opt}->{keyattr}) eq 'HASH') { return($hashref) unless(defined($self->{opt}->{keyattr}->{$parent})); push @$arrayref, $self->copy_hash( $value, $self->{opt}->{keyattr}->{$parent}->[0] => $key ); } else { push(@$arrayref, { $self->{opt}->{keyattr}->[0] => $key, %$value }); } } return($arrayref); } ############################################################################## # Method: copy_hash() # # Helper routine for hash_to_array(). When unfolding a hash of hashes into # an array of hashes, we need to copy the key from the outer hash into the # inner hash. This routine makes a copy of the original hash so we don't # destroy the original data structure. You might wish to override this # method if you're using tied hashes and don't want them to get untied. # sub copy_hash { my($self, $orig, @extra) = @_; return { @extra, %$orig }; } ############################################################################## # Methods required for building trees from SAX events ############################################################################## sub start_document { my $self = shift; $self->handle_options('in') unless($self->{opt}); $self->{lists} = []; $self->{curlist} = $self->{tree} = []; } sub start_element { my $self = shift; my $element = shift; my $name = $element->{Name}; if($self->{opt}->{nsexpand}) { $name = $element->{LocalName} || ''; if($element->{NamespaceURI}) { $name = '{' . $element->{NamespaceURI} . '}' . $name; } } my $attributes = {}; if($element->{Attributes}) { # Might be undef foreach my $attr (values %{$element->{Attributes}}) { if($self->{opt}->{nsexpand}) { my $name = $attr->{LocalName} || ''; if($attr->{NamespaceURI}) { $name = '{' . $attr->{NamespaceURI} . '}' . $name } $name = 'xmlns' if($name eq $bad_def_ns_jcn); $attributes->{$name} = $attr->{Value}; } else { $attributes->{$attr->{Name}} = $attr->{Value}; } } } my $newlist = [ $attributes ]; push @{ $self->{lists} }, $self->{curlist}; push @{ $self->{curlist} }, $name => $newlist; $self->{curlist} = $newlist; } sub characters { my $self = shift; my $chars = shift; my $text = $chars->{Data}; my $clist = $self->{curlist}; my $pos = $#$clist; if ($pos > 0 and $clist->[$pos - 1] eq '0') { $clist->[$pos] .= $text; } else { push @$clist, 0 => $text; } } sub end_element { my $self = shift; $self->{curlist} = pop @{ $self->{lists} }; } sub end_document { my $self = shift; delete($self->{curlist}); delete($self->{lists}); my $tree = $self->{tree}; delete($self->{tree}); # Return tree as-is to XMLin() return($tree) if($self->{nocollapse}); # Or collapse it before returning it to SAX parser class if($self->{opt}->{keeproot}) { $tree = $self->collapse({}, @$tree); } else { $tree = $self->collapse(@{$tree->[1]}); } if($self->{opt}->{datahandler}) { return($self->{opt}->{datahandler}->($self, $tree)); } return($tree); } *xml_in = \&XMLin; *xml_out = \&XMLout; 1; __END__ =head1 QUICK START Say you have a script called B and a file of configuration options called B containing this:
10.0.0.101
10.0.1.101
10.0.0.102
10.0.0.103
10.0.1.103
The following lines of code in B: use XML::Simple; my $config = XMLin(); will 'slurp' the configuration options into the hashref $config (because no arguments are passed to C the name and location of the XML file will be inferred from name and location of the script). You can dump out the contents of the hashref using Data::Dumper: use Data::Dumper; print Dumper($config); which will produce something like this (formatting has been adjusted for brevity): { 'logdir' => '/var/log/foo/', 'debugfile' => '/tmp/foo.debug', 'server' => { 'sahara' => { 'osversion' => '2.6', 'osname' => 'solaris', 'address' => [ '10.0.0.101', '10.0.1.101' ] }, 'gobi' => { 'osversion' => '6.5', 'osname' => 'irix', 'address' => '10.0.0.102' }, 'kalahari' => { 'osversion' => '2.0.34', 'osname' => 'linux', 'address' => [ '10.0.0.103', '10.0.1.103' ] } } } Your script could then access the name of the log directory like this: print $config->{logdir}; similarly, the second address on the server 'kalahari' could be referenced as: print $config->{server}->{kalahari}->{address}->[1]; What could be simpler? (Rhetorical). For simple requirements, that's really all there is to it. If you want to store your XML in a different directory or file, or pass it in as a string or even pass it in via some derivative of an IO::Handle, you'll need to check out L<"OPTIONS">. If you want to turn off or tweak the array folding feature (that neat little transformation that produced $config->{server}) you'll find options for that as well. If you want to generate XML (for example to write a modified version of $config back out as XML), check out C. If your needs are not so simple, this may not be the module for you. In that case, you might want to read L<"WHERE TO FROM HERE?">. =head1 DESCRIPTION The XML::Simple module provides a simple API layer on top of an underlying XML parsing module (either XML::Parser or one of the SAX2 parser modules). Two functions are exported: C and C. Note: you can explicity request the lower case versions of the function names: C and C. The simplest approach is to call these two functions directly, but an optional object oriented interface (see L<"OPTIONAL OO INTERFACE"> below) allows them to be called as methods of an B object. The object interface can also be used at either end of a SAX pipeline. =head2 XMLin() Parses XML formatted data and returns a reference to a data structure which contains the same information in a more readily accessible form. (Skip down to L<"EXAMPLES"> below, for more sample code). C accepts an optional XML specifier followed by zero or more 'name => value' option pairs. The XML specifier can be one of the following: =over 4 =item A filename If the filename contains no directory components C will look for the file in each directory in the SearchPath (see L<"OPTIONS"> below) or in the current directory if the SearchPath option is not defined. eg: $ref = XMLin('/etc/params.xml'); Note, the filename '-' can be used to parse from STDIN. =item undef If there is no XML specifier, C will check the script directory and each of the SearchPath directories for a file with the same name as the script but with the extension '.xml'. Note: if you wish to specify options, you must specify the value 'undef'. eg: $ref = XMLin(undef, ForceArray => 1); =item A string of XML A string containing XML (recognised by the presence of '<' and '>' characters) will be parsed directly. eg: $ref = XMLin(''); =item An IO::Handle object An IO::Handle object will be read to EOF and its contents parsed. eg: $fh = IO::File->new('/etc/params.xml'); $ref = XMLin($fh); =back =head2 XMLout() Takes a data structure (generally a hashref) and returns an XML encoding of that structure. If the resulting XML is parsed using C, it should return a data structure equivalent to the original (see caveats below). The C function can also be used to output the XML as SAX events see the C option and L<"SAX SUPPORT"> for more details). When translating hashes to XML, hash keys which have a leading '-' will be silently skipped. This is the approved method for marking elements of a data structure which should be ignored by C. (Note: If these items were not skipped the key names would be emitted as element or attribute names with a leading '-' which would not be valid XML). =head2 Caveats Some care is required in creating data structures which will be passed to C. Hash keys from the data structure will be encoded as either XML element names or attribute names. Therefore, you should use hash key names which conform to the relatively strict XML naming rules: Names in XML must begin with a letter. The remaining characters may be letters, digits, hyphens (-), underscores (_) or full stops (.). It is also allowable to include one colon (:) in an element name but this should only be used when working with namespaces (B can only usefully work with namespaces when teamed with a SAX Parser). You can use other punctuation characters in hash values (just not in hash keys) however B does not support dumping binary data. If you break these rules, the current implementation of C will simply emit non-compliant XML which will be rejected if you try to read it back in. (A later version of B might take a more proactive approach). Note also that although you can nest hashes and arrays to arbitrary levels, circular data structures are not supported and will cause C to die. If you wish to 'round-trip' arbitrary data structures from Perl to XML and back to Perl, then you should probably disable array folding (using the KeyAttr option) both with C and with C. If you still don't get the expected results, you may prefer to use L which is designed for exactly that purpose. Refer to L<"WHERE TO FROM HERE?"> if C is too simple for your needs. =head1 OPTIONS B supports a number of options (in fact as each release of B adds more options, the module's claim to the name 'Simple' becomes increasingly tenuous). If you find yourself repeatedly having to specify the same options, you might like to investigate L<"OPTIONAL OO INTERFACE"> below. If you can't be bothered reading the documentation, refer to L<"STRICT MODE"> to automatically catch common mistakes. Because there are so many options, it's hard for new users to know which ones are important, so here are the two you really need to know about: =over 4 =item * check out C because you'll almost certainly want to turn it on =item * make sure you know what the C option does and what its default value is because it may surprise you otherwise (note in particular that 'KeyAttr' affects both C and C) =back The option name headings below have a trailing 'comment' - a hash followed by two pieces of metadata: =over 4 =item * Options are marked with 'I' if they are recognised by C and 'I' if they are recognised by C. =item * Each option is also flagged to indicate whether it is: 'important' - don't use the module until you understand this one 'handy' - you can skip this on the first time through 'advanced' - you can skip this on the second time through 'SAX only' - don't worry about this unless you're using SAX (or alternatively if you need this, you also need SAX) 'seldom used' - you'll probably never use this unless you were the person that requested the feature =back The options are listed alphabetically: Note: option names are no longer case sensitive so you can use the mixed case versions shown here; all lower case as required by versions 2.03 and earlier; or you can add underscores between the words (eg: key_attr). =head2 AttrIndent => 1 I<# out - handy> When you are using C, enable this option to have attributes printed one-per-line with sensible indentation rather than all on one line. =head2 Cache => [ cache schemes ] I<# in - advanced> Because loading the B module and parsing an XML file can consume a significant number of CPU cycles, it is often desirable to cache the output of C for later reuse. When parsing from a named file, B supports a number of caching schemes. The 'Cache' option may be used to specify one or more schemes (using an anonymous array). Each scheme will be tried in turn in the hope of finding a cached pre-parsed representation of the XML file. If no cached copy is found, the file will be parsed and the first cache scheme in the list will be used to save a copy of the results. The following cache schemes have been implemented: =over 4 =item storable Utilises B to read/write a cache file with the same name as the XML file but with the extension .stor =item memshare When a file is first parsed, a copy of the resulting data structure is retained in memory in the B module's namespace. Subsequent calls to parse the same file will return a reference to this structure. This cached version will persist only for the life of the Perl interpreter (which in the case of mod_perl for example, may be some significant time). Because each caller receives a reference to the same data structure, a change made by one caller will be visible to all. For this reason, the reference returned should be treated as read-only. =item memcopy This scheme works identically to 'memshare' (above) except that each caller receives a reference to a new data structure which is a copy of the cached version. Copying the data structure will add a little processing overhead, therefore this scheme should only be used where the caller intends to modify the data structure (or wishes to protect itself from others who might). This scheme uses B to perform the copy. =back Warning! The memory-based caching schemes compare the timestamp on the file to the time when it was last parsed. If the file is stored on an NFS filesystem (or other network share) and the clock on the file server is not exactly synchronised with the clock where your script is run, updates to the source XML file may appear to be ignored. =head2 ContentKey => 'keyname' I<# in+out - seldom used> When text content is parsed to a hash value, this option let's you specify a name for the hash key to override the default 'content'. So for example: XMLin('Text', ContentKey => 'text') will parse to: { 'one' => 1, 'text' => 'Text' } instead of: { 'one' => 1, 'content' => 'Text' } C will also honour the value of this option when converting a hashref to XML. You can also prefix your selected key name with a '-' character to have C try a little harder to eliminate unnecessary 'content' keys after array folding. For example: XMLin( 'FirstSecond', KeyAttr => {item => 'name'}, ForceArray => [ 'item' ], ContentKey => '-content' ) will parse to: { 'item' => { 'one' => 'First' 'two' => 'Second' } } rather than this (without the '-'): { 'item' => { 'one' => { 'content' => 'First' } 'two' => { 'content' => 'Second' } } } =head2 DataHandler => code_ref I<# in - SAX only> When you use an B object as a SAX handler, it will return a 'simple tree' data structure in the same format as C would return. If this option is set (to a subroutine reference), then when the tree is built the subroutine will be called and passed two arguments: a reference to the B object and a reference to the data tree. The return value from the subroutine will be returned to the SAX driver. (See L<"SAX SUPPORT"> for more details). =head2 ForceArray => 1 I<# in - important> This option should be set to '1' to force nested elements to be represented as arrays even when there is only one. Eg, with ForceArray enabled, this XML: value would parse to this: { 'name' => [ 'value' ] } instead of this (the default): { 'name' => 'value' } This option is especially useful if the data structure is likely to be written back out as XML and the default behaviour of rolling single nested elements up into attributes is not desirable. If you are using the array folding feature, you should almost certainly enable this option. If you do not, single nested elements will not be parsed to arrays and therefore will not be candidates for folding to a hash. (Given that the default value of 'KeyAttr' enables array folding, the default value of this option should probably also have been enabled too - sorry). =head2 ForceArray => [ names ] I<# in - important> This alternative (and preferred) form of the 'ForceArray' option allows you to specify a list of element names which should always be forced into an array representation, rather than the 'all or nothing' approach above. It is also possible (since version 2.05) to include compiled regular expressions in the list - any element names which match the pattern will be forced to arrays. If the list contains only a single regex, then it is not necessary to enclose it in an arrayref. Eg: ForceArray => qr/_list$/ =head2 ForceContent => 1 I<# in - seldom used> When C parses elements which have text content as well as attributes, the text content must be represented as a hash value rather than a simple scalar. This option allows you to force text content to always parse to a hash value even when there are no attributes. So for example: XMLin('text1text2', ForceContent => 1) will parse to: { 'x' => { 'content' => 'text1' }, 'y' => { 'a' => 2, 'content' => 'text2' } } instead of: { 'x' => 'text1', 'y' => { 'a' => 2, 'content' => 'text2' } } =head2 GroupTags => { grouping tag => grouped tag } I<# in+out - handy> You can use this option to eliminate extra levels of indirection in your Perl data structure. For example this XML: /usr/bin /usr/local/bin /usr/X11/bin Would normally be read into a structure like this: { searchpath => { dir => [ '/usr/bin', '/usr/local/bin', '/usr/X11/bin' ] } } But when read in with the appropriate value for 'GroupTags': my $opt = XMLin($xml, GroupTags => { searchpath => 'dir' }); It will return this simpler structure: { searchpath => [ '/usr/bin', '/usr/local/bin', '/usr/X11/bin' ] } The grouping element (C<< >> in the example) must not contain any attributes or elements other than the grouped element. You can specify multiple 'grouping element' to 'grouped element' mappings in the same hashref. If this option is combined with C, the array folding will occur first and then the grouped element names will be eliminated. C will also use the grouptag mappings to re-introduce the tags around the grouped elements. Beware though that this will occur in all places that the 'grouping tag' name occurs - you probably don't want to use the same name for elements as well as attributes. =head2 Handler => object_ref I<# out - SAX only> Use the 'Handler' option to have C generate SAX events rather than returning a string of XML. For more details see L<"SAX SUPPORT"> below. Note: the current implementation of this option generates a string of XML and uses a SAX parser to translate it into SAX events. The normal encoding rules apply here - your data must be UTF8 encoded unless you specify an alternative encoding via the 'XMLDecl' option; and by the time the data reaches the handler object, it will be in UTF8 form regardless of the encoding you supply. A future implementation of this option may generate the events directly. =head2 KeepRoot => 1 I<# in+out - handy> In its attempt to return a data structure free of superfluous detail and unnecessary levels of indirection, C normally discards the root element name. Setting the 'KeepRoot' option to '1' will cause the root element name to be retained. So after executing this code: $config = XMLin('', KeepRoot => 1) You'll be able to reference the tempdir as C<$config-E{config}-E{tempdir}> instead of the default C<$config-E{tempdir}>. Similarly, setting the 'KeepRoot' option to '1' will tell C that the data structure already contains a root element name and it is not necessary to add another. =head2 KeyAttr => [ list ] I<# in+out - important> This option controls the 'array folding' feature which translates nested elements from an array to a hash. It also controls the 'unfolding' of hashes to arrays. For example, this XML: would, by default, parse to this: { 'user' => [ { 'login' => 'grep', 'fullname' => 'Gary R Epstein' }, { 'login' => 'stty', 'fullname' => 'Simon T Tyson' } ] } If the option 'KeyAttr => "login"' were used to specify that the 'login' attribute is a key, the same XML would parse to: { 'user' => { 'stty' => { 'fullname' => 'Simon T Tyson' }, 'grep' => { 'fullname' => 'Gary R Epstein' } } } The key attribute names should be supplied in an arrayref if there is more than one. C will attempt to match attribute names in the order supplied. C will use the first attribute name supplied when 'unfolding' a hash into an array. Note 1: The default value for 'KeyAttr' is ['name', 'key', 'id']. If you do not want folding on input or unfolding on output you must setting this option to an empty list to disable the feature. Note 2: If you wish to use this option, you should also enable the C option. Without 'ForceArray', a single nested element will be rolled up into a scalar rather than an array and therefore will not be folded (since only arrays get folded). =head2 KeyAttr => { list } I<# in+out - important> This alternative (and preferred) method of specifiying the key attributes allows more fine grained control over which elements are folded and on which attributes. For example the option 'KeyAttr => { package => 'id' } will cause any package elements to be folded on the 'id' attribute. No other elements which have an 'id' attribute will be folded at all. Note: C will generate a warning (or a fatal error in L<"STRICT MODE">) if this syntax is used and an element which does not have the specified key attribute is encountered (eg: a 'package' element without an 'id' attribute, to use the example above). Warnings will only be generated if B<-w> is in force. Two further variations are made possible by prefixing a '+' or a '-' character to the attribute name: The option 'KeyAttr => { user => "+login" }' will cause this XML: to parse to this data structure: { 'user' => { 'stty' => { 'fullname' => 'Simon T Tyson', 'login' => 'stty' }, 'grep' => { 'fullname' => 'Gary R Epstein', 'login' => 'grep' } } } The '+' indicates that the value of the key attribute should be copied rather than moved to the folded hash key. A '-' prefix would produce this result: { 'user' => { 'stty' => { 'fullname' => 'Simon T Tyson', '-login' => 'stty' }, 'grep' => { 'fullname' => 'Gary R Epstein', '-login' => 'grep' } } } As described earlier, C will ignore hash keys starting with a '-'. =head2 NoAttr => 1 I<# in+out - handy> When used with C, the generated XML will contain no attributes. All hash key/values will be represented as nested elements instead. When used with C, any attributes in the XML will be ignored. =head2 NoEscape => 1 I<# out - seldom used> By default, C will translate the characters 'E', 'E', '&' and '"' to '<', '>', '&' and '"' respectively. Use this option to suppress escaping (presumably because you've already escaped the data in some more sophisticated manner). =head2 NoIndent => 1 I<# out - seldom used> Set this option to 1 to disable C's default 'pretty printing' mode. With this option enabled, the XML output will all be on one line (unless there are newlines in the data) - this may be easier for downstream processing. =head2 NoSort => 1 I<# out - seldom used> Newer versions of XML::Simple sort elements and attributes alphabetically (*), by default. Enable this option to suppress the sorting - possibly for backwards compatibility. * Actually, sorting is alphabetical but 'key' attribute or element names (as in 'KeyAttr') sort first. Also, when a hash of hashes is 'unfolded', the elements are sorted alphabetically by the value of the key field. =head2 NormaliseSpace => 0 | 1 | 2 I<# in - handy> This option controls how whitespace in text content is handled. Recognised values for the option are: =over 4 =item * 0 = (default) whitespace is passed through unaltered (except of course for the normalisation of whitespace in attribute values which is mandated by the XML recommendation) =item * 1 = whitespace is normalised in any value used as a hash key (normalising means removing leading and trailing whitespace and collapsing sequences of whitespace characters to a single space) =item * 2 = whitespace is normalised in all text content =back Note: you can spell this option with a 'z' if that is more natural for you. =head2 NSExpand => 1 I<# in+out handy - SAX only> This option controls namespace expansion - the translation of element and attribute names of the form 'prefix:name' to '{uri}name'. For example the element name 'xsl:template' might be expanded to: '{http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform}template'. By default, C will return element names and attribute names exactly as they appear in the XML. Setting this option to 1 will cause all element and attribute names to be expanded to include their namespace prefix. I. This option also controls whether C performs the reverse translation from '{uri}name' back to 'prefix:name'. The default is no translation. If your data contains expanded names, you should set this option to 1 otherwise C will emit XML which is not well formed. I to translate URIs back to prefixes>. =head2 NumericEscape => 0 | 1 | 2 I<# out - handy> Use this option to have 'high' (non-ASCII) characters in your Perl data structure converted to numeric entities (eg: €) in the XML output. Three levels are possible: 0 - default: no numeric escaping (OK if you're writing out UTF8) 1 - only characters above 0xFF are escaped (ie: characters in the 0x80-FF range are not escaped), possibly useful with ISO8859-1 output 2 - all characters above 0x7F are escaped (good for plain ASCII output) =head2 OutputFile => I<# out - handy> The default behaviour of C is to return the XML as a string. If you wish to write the XML to a file, simply supply the filename using the 'OutputFile' option. This option also accepts an IO handle object - especially useful in Perl 5.8.0 and later for output using an encoding other than UTF-8, eg: open my $fh, '>:encoding(iso-8859-1)', $path or die "open($path): $!"; XMLout($ref, OutputFile => $fh); Note, XML::Simple does not require that the object you pass in to the OutputFile option inherits from L - it simply assumes the object supports a C method. =head2 ParserOpts => [ XML::Parser Options ] I<# in - don't use this> I. This option allows you to pass parameters to the constructor of the underlying XML::Parser object (which of course assumes you're not using SAX). =head2 RootName => 'string' I<# out - handy> By default, when C generates XML, the root element will be named 'opt'. This option allows you to specify an alternative name. Specifying either undef or the empty string for the RootName option will produce XML with no root elements. In most cases the resulting XML fragment will not be 'well formed' and therefore could not be read back in by C. Nevertheless, the option has been found to be useful in certain circumstances. =head2 SearchPath => [ list ] I<# in - handy> If you pass C a filename, but the filename include no directory component, you can use this option to specify which directories should be searched to locate the file. You might use this option to search first in the user's home directory, then in a global directory such as /etc. If a filename is provided to C but SearchPath is not defined, the file is assumed to be in the current directory. If the first parameter to C is undefined, the default SearchPath will contain only the directory in which the script itself is located. Otherwise the default SearchPath will be empty. =head2 SuppressEmpty => 1 | '' | undef I<# in+out - handy> This option controls what C should do with empty elements (no attributes and no content). The default behaviour is to represent them as empty hashes. Setting this option to a true value (eg: 1) will cause empty elements to be skipped altogether. Setting the option to 'undef' or the empty string will cause empty elements to be represented as the undefined value or the empty string respectively. The latter two alternatives are a little easier to test for in your code than a hash with no keys. The option also controls what C does with undefined values. Setting the option to undef causes undefined values to be output as empty elements (rather than empty attributes), it also suppresses the generation of warnings about undefined values. Setting the option to a true value (eg: 1) causes undefined values to be skipped altogether on output. =head2 ValueAttr => [ names ] I<# in - handy> Use this option to deal elements which always have a single attribute and no content. Eg: Setting C<< ValueAttr => [ 'value' ] >> will cause the above XML to parse to: { colour => 'red', size => 'XXL' } instead of this (the default): { colour => { value => 'red' }, size => { value => 'XXL' } } Note: This form of the ValueAttr option is not compatible with C - since the attribute name is discarded at parse time, the original XML cannot be reconstructed. =head2 ValueAttr => { element => attribute, ... } I<# in+out - handy> This (preferred) form of the ValueAttr option requires you to specify both the element and the attribute names. This is not only safer, it also allows the original XML to be reconstructed by C. Note: You probably don't want to use this option and the NoAttr option at the same time. =head2 Variables => { name => value } I<# in - handy> This option allows variables in the XML to be expanded when the file is read. (there is no facility for putting the variable names back if you regenerate XML using C). A 'variable' is any text of the form C<${name}> which occurs in an attribute value or in the text content of an element. If 'name' matches a key in the supplied hashref, C<${name}> will be replaced with the corresponding value from the hashref. If no matching key is found, the variable will not be replaced. Names must match the regex: C<[\w.]+> (ie: only 'word' characters and dots are allowed). =head2 VarAttr => 'attr_name' I<# in - handy> In addition to the variables defined using C, this option allows variables to be defined in the XML. A variable definition consists of an element with an attribute called 'attr_name' (the value of the C option). The value of the attribute will be used as the variable name and the text content of the element will be used as the value. A variable defined in this way will override a variable defined using the C option. For example: XMLin( ' /usr/local/apache ${prefix} ${exec_prefix}/bin ', VarAttr => 'name', ContentKey => '-content' ); produces the following data structure: { dir => { prefix => '/usr/local/apache', exec_prefix => '/usr/local/apache', bindir => '/usr/local/apache/bin', } } =head2 XMLDecl => 1 or XMLDecl => 'string' I<# out - handy> If you want the output from C to start with the optional XML declaration, simply set the option to '1'. The default XML declaration is: If you want some other string (for example to declare an encoding value), set the value of this option to the complete string you require. =head1 OPTIONAL OO INTERFACE The procedural interface is both simple and convenient however there are a couple of reasons why you might prefer to use the object oriented (OO) interface: =over 4 =item * to define a set of default values which should be used on all subsequent calls to C or C =item * to override methods in B to provide customised behaviour =back The default values for the options described above are unlikely to suit everyone. The OO interface allows you to effectively override B's defaults with your preferred values. It works like this: First create an XML::Simple parser object with your preferred defaults: my $xs = XML::Simple->new(ForceArray => 1, KeepRoot => 1); then call C or C as a method of that object: my $ref = $xs->XMLin($xml); my $xml = $xs->XMLout($ref); You can also specify options when you make the method calls and these values will be merged with the values specified when the object was created. Values specified in a method call take precedence. Note: when called as methods, the C and C routines may be called as C or C. The method names are aliased so the only difference is the aesthetics. =head2 Parsing Methods You can explicitly call one of the following methods rather than rely on the C method automatically determining whether the target to be parsed is a string, a file or a filehandle: =over 4 =item parse_string(text) Works exactly like the C method but assumes the first argument is a string of XML (or a reference to a scalar containing a string of XML). =item parse_file(filename) Works exactly like the C method but assumes the first argument is the name of a file containing XML. =item parse_fh(file_handle) Works exactly like the C method but assumes the first argument is a filehandle which can be read to get XML. =back =head2 Hook Methods You can make your own class which inherits from XML::Simple and overrides certain behaviours. The following methods may provide useful 'hooks' upon which to hang your modified behaviour. You may find other undocumented methods by examining the source, but those may be subject to change in future releases. =over 4 =item handle_options(direction, name => value ...) This method will be called when one of the parsing methods or the C method is called. The initial argument will be a string (either 'in' or 'out') and the remaining arguments will be name value pairs. =item default_config_file() Calculates and returns the name of the file which should be parsed if no filename is passed to C (default: C<$0.xml>). =item build_simple_tree(filename, string) Called from C or any of the parsing methods. Takes either a file name as the first argument or C followed by a 'string' as the second argument. Returns a simple tree data structure. You could override this method to apply your own transformations before the data structure is returned to the caller. =item new_hashref() When the 'simple tree' data structure is being built, this method will be called to create any required anonymous hashrefs. =item sorted_keys(name, hashref) Called when C is translating a hashref to XML. This routine returns a list of hash keys in the order that the corresponding attributes/elements should appear in the output. =item escape_value(string) Called from C, takes a string and returns a copy of the string with XML character escaping rules applied. =item numeric_escape(string) Called from C, to handle non-ASCII characters (depending on the value of the NumericEscape option). =item copy_hash(hashref, extra_key => value, ...) Called from C, when 'unfolding' a hash of hashes into an array of hashes. You might wish to override this method if you're using tied hashes and don't want them to get untied. =back =head2 Cache Methods XML::Simple implements three caching schemes ('storable', 'memshare' and 'memcopy'). You can implement a custom caching scheme by implementing two methods - one for reading from the cache and one for writing to it. For example, you might implement a new 'dbm' scheme that stores cached data structures using the L module. First, you would add a C method which accepted a filename for use as a lookup key and returned a data structure on success, or undef on failure. Then, you would implement a C method which accepted a data structure and a filename. You would use this caching scheme by specifying the option: Cache => [ 'dbm' ] =head1 STRICT MODE If you import the B routines like this: use XML::Simple qw(:strict); the following common mistakes will be detected and treated as fatal errors =over 4 =item * Failing to explicitly set the C option - if you can't be bothered reading about this option, turn it off with: KeyAttr => [ ] =item * Failing to explicitly set the C option - if you can't be bothered reading about this option, set it to the safest mode with: ForceArray => 1 =item * Setting ForceArray to an array, but failing to list all the elements from the KeyAttr hash. =item * Data error - KeyAttr is set to say { part => 'partnum' } but the XML contains one or more EpartE elements without a 'partnum' attribute (or nested element). Note: if strict mode is not set but -w is, this condition triggers a warning. =item * Data error - as above, but non-unique values are present in the key attribute (eg: more than one EpartE element with the same partnum). This will also trigger a warning if strict mode is not enabled. =item * Data error - as above, but value of key attribute (eg: partnum) is not a scalar string (due to nested elements etc). This will also trigger a warning if strict mode is not enabled. =back =head1 SAX SUPPORT From version 1.08_01, B includes support for SAX (the Simple API for XML) - specifically SAX2. In a typical SAX application, an XML parser (or SAX 'driver') module generates SAX events (start of element, character data, end of element, etc) as it parses an XML document and a 'handler' module processes the events to extract the required data. This simple model allows for some interesting and powerful possibilities: =over 4 =item * Applications written to the SAX API can extract data from huge XML documents without the memory overheads of a DOM or tree API. =item * The SAX API allows for plug and play interchange of parser modules without having to change your code to fit a new module's API. A number of SAX parsers are available with capabilities ranging from extreme portability to blazing performance. =item * A SAX 'filter' module can implement both a handler interface for receiving data and a generator interface for passing modified data on to a downstream handler. Filters can be chained together in 'pipelines'. =item * One filter module might split a data stream to direct data to two or more downstream handlers. =item * Generating SAX events is not the exclusive preserve of XML parsing modules. For example, a module might extract data from a relational database using DBI and pass it on to a SAX pipeline for filtering and formatting. =back B can operate at either end of a SAX pipeline. For example, you can take a data structure in the form of a hashref and pass it into a SAX pipeline using the 'Handler' option on C: use XML::Simple; use Some::SAX::Filter; use XML::SAX::Writer; my $ref = { .... # your data here }; my $writer = XML::SAX::Writer->new(); my $filter = Some::SAX::Filter->new(Handler => $writer); my $simple = XML::Simple->new(Handler => $filter); $simple->XMLout($ref); You can also put B at the opposite end of the pipeline to take advantage of the simple 'tree' data structure once the relevant data has been isolated through filtering: use XML::SAX; use Some::SAX::Filter; use XML::Simple; my $simple = XML::Simple->new(ForceArray => 1, KeyAttr => ['partnum']); my $filter = Some::SAX::Filter->new(Handler => $simple); my $parser = XML::SAX::ParserFactory->parser(Handler => $filter); my $ref = $parser->parse_uri('some_huge_file.xml'); print $ref->{part}->{'555-1234'}; You can build a filter by using an XML::Simple object as a handler and setting its DataHandler option to point to a routine which takes the resulting tree, modifies it and sends it off as SAX events to a downstream handler: my $writer = XML::SAX::Writer->new(); my $filter = XML::Simple->new( DataHandler => sub { my $simple = shift; my $data = shift; # Modify $data here $simple->XMLout($data, Handler => $writer); } ); my $parser = XML::SAX::ParserFactory->parser(Handler => $filter); $parser->parse_uri($filename); I but it could also have been specified in the constructor>. =head1 ENVIRONMENT If you don't care which parser module B uses then skip this section entirely (it looks more complicated than it really is). B will default to using a B parser if one is available or B if SAX is not available. You can dictate which parser module is used by setting either the environment variable 'XML_SIMPLE_PREFERRED_PARSER' or the package variable $XML::Simple::PREFERRED_PARSER to contain the module name. The following rules are used: =over 4 =item * The package variable takes precedence over the environment variable if both are defined. To force B to ignore the environment settings and use its default rules, you can set the package variable to an empty string. =item * If the 'preferred parser' is set to the string 'XML::Parser', then L will be used (or C will die if L is not installed). =item * If the 'preferred parser' is set to some other value, then it is assumed to be the name of a SAX parser module and is passed to L If L is not installed, or the requested parser module is not installed, then C will die. =item * If the 'preferred parser' is not defined at all (the normal default state), an attempt will be made to load L. If L is installed, then a parser module will be selected according to L's normal rules (which typically means the last SAX parser installed). =item * if the 'preferred parser' is not defined and B is not installed, then B will be used. C will die if L is not installed. =back Note: The B distribution includes an XML parser written entirely in Perl. It is very portable but it is not very fast. You should consider installing L or L if they are available for your platform. =head1 ERROR HANDLING The XML standard is very clear on the issue of non-compliant documents. An error in parsing any single element (for example a missing end tag) must cause the whole document to be rejected. B will die with an appropriate message if it encounters a parsing error. If dying is not appropriate for your application, you should arrange to call C in an eval block and look for errors in $@. eg: my $config = eval { XMLin() }; PopUpMessage($@) if($@); Note, there is a common misconception that use of B will significantly slow down a script. While that may be true when the code being eval'd is in a string, it is not true of code like the sample above. =head1 EXAMPLES When C reads the following very simple piece of XML: it returns the following data structure: { 'username' => 'testuser', 'password' => 'frodo' } The identical result could have been produced with this alternative XML: Or this (although see 'ForceArray' option for variations): testuser frodo Repeated nested elements are represented as anonymous arrays: joe@smith.com jsmith@yahoo.com bob@smith.com { 'person' => [ { 'email' => [ 'joe@smith.com', 'jsmith@yahoo.com' ], 'firstname' => 'Joe', 'lastname' => 'Smith' }, { 'email' => 'bob@smith.com', 'firstname' => 'Bob', 'lastname' => 'Smith' } ] } Nested elements with a recognised key attribute are transformed (folded) from an array into a hash keyed on the value of that attribute (see the C option): { 'person' => { 'jbloggs' => { 'firstname' => 'Joe', 'lastname' => 'Bloggs' }, 'tsmith' => { 'firstname' => 'Tom', 'lastname' => 'Smith' }, 'jsmith' => { 'firstname' => 'Joe', 'lastname' => 'Smith' } } } The tag can be used to form anonymous arrays: Col 1Col 2Col 3 R1C1R1C2R1C3 R2C1R2C2R2C3 R3C1R3C2R3C3 { 'head' => [ [ 'Col 1', 'Col 2', 'Col 3' ] ], 'data' => [ [ 'R1C1', 'R1C2', 'R1C3' ], [ 'R2C1', 'R2C2', 'R2C3' ], [ 'R3C1', 'R3C2', 'R3C3' ] ] } Anonymous arrays can be nested to arbirtrary levels and as a special case, if the surrounding tags for an XML document contain only an anonymous array the arrayref will be returned directly rather than the usual hashref: Col 1Col 2 R1C1R1C2 R2C1R2C2 [ [ 'Col 1', 'Col 2' ], [ 'R1C1', 'R1C2' ], [ 'R2C1', 'R2C2' ] ] Elements which only contain text content will simply be represented as a scalar. Where an element has both attributes and text content, the element will be represented as a hashref with the text content in the 'content' key (see the C option): first second { 'one' => 'first', 'two' => { 'attr' => 'value', 'content' => 'second' } } Mixed content (elements which contain both text content and nested elements) will be not be represented in a useful way - element order and significant whitespace will be lost. If you need to work with mixed content, then XML::Simple is not the right tool for your job - check out the next section. =head1 WHERE TO FROM HERE? B is able to present a simple API because it makes some assumptions on your behalf. These include: =over 4 =item * You're not interested in text content consisting only of whitespace =item * You don't mind that when things get slurped into a hash the order is lost =item * You don't want fine-grained control of the formatting of generated XML =item * You would never use a hash key that was not a legal XML element name =item * You don't need help converting between different encodings =back In a serious XML project, you'll probably outgrow these assumptions fairly quickly. This section of the document used to offer some advice on chosing a more powerful option. That advice has now grown into the 'Perl-XML FAQ' document which you can find at: L The advice in the FAQ boils down to a quick explanation of tree versus event based parsers and then recommends: For event based parsing, use SAX (do not set out to write any new code for XML::Parser's handler API - it is obselete). For tree-based parsing, you could choose between the 'Perlish' approach of L and more standards based DOM implementations - preferably one with XPath support. =head1 SEE ALSO B requires either L or L. To generate documents with namespaces, L is required. The optional caching functions require L. Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about XML::Simple are bundled with this distribution as: L =head1 COPYRIGHT Copyright 1999-2004 Grant McLean Egrantm@cpan.orgE This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. =cut