NAME¶
XML::Easy - XML processing with a clean interface
SYNOPSIS¶
use XML::Easy::NodeBasics qw(xml_element xml_e_attribute);
use XML::Easy::Text
qw(xml10_read_document xml10_write_document);
$element = xml_element("a", { href => "there" }, "there");
$element = xml10_read_document('<a href="there">there</a>');
$href = xml_e_attribute($element, "href");
$text = xml10_write_document($element);
# see specific modules for many more functions
DESCRIPTION¶
XML::Easy is a collection of modules relating to the processing, parsing, and
serialisation of XML data. It is oriented towards the use of XML to represent
data for interchange purposes, rather than the use of XML as markup of
principally textual data. It does not perform any schema processing, and does
not interpret DTDs or any other kind of schema. It adheres strictly to the XML
specification, in all its awkward details, except for the aforementioned DTDs.
XML::Easy strictly separates the in-program manipulation of XML data from the
processing of the textual form of XML. This shields the XML user from the
inconvenient and obscure aspects of XML syntax. XML data nodes are mainly
processed in a clean functional style, using the XML::Easy::NodeBasics module.
In the (very likely) event that an application requires some more
purpose-specific XML data processing facilities, they are readily built on top
of XML::Easy::NodeBasics, retaining the abstraction from textual XML.
When XML must be handled in textual form, for input and output, the
XML::Easy::Text module supplies a parser and a serialiser. The interfaces
here, too, are functional in nature.
There are other modules for some ancillary aspects of XML processing.
MODULES¶
The modules in the XML::Easy distribution are:
- XML::Easy
- This document. For historical reasons, this can also be loaded as a
module, and (though it is deprecated) some of the functions from
XML::Easy::Text can be imported from here.
- XML::Easy::Classify
- This module provides various type-testing functions, relating to data
types used in the XML::Easy ensemble. These are mainly intended to be used
to enforce validity of data being processed by XML-related functions.
- XML::Easy::Content
- XML::Easy::Element
- These are classes used to represent XML data for general manipulation.
Objects of these classes hold the meaningful content of the data,
independent of textual representation. The data in these nodes cannot be
modified: different data requires new nodes.
- XML::Easy::NodeBasics
- This module supplies functions concerned with the creation, examination,
and other manipulation of XML data nodes (content chunks and elements).
The nodes are dumb data objects, best manipulated using plain functions
such as the ones in this module.
- XML::Easy::Syntax
- This module supplies Perl regular expressions describing the grammar of
XML 1.0. This is intended to support doing irregular things with XML,
rather than for normal parsing.
- XML::Easy::Text
- This module supplies functions that parse and serialise XML data as text
according to the XML 1.0 specification.
OTHER DISTRIBUTIONS¶
Other CPAN distributions that work with XML::Easy are:
- Test::XML::Easy
- A testing tool, providing Test::More-style functions that check whether
XML nodes are as expected.
- XML::Easy::ProceduralWriter
- Provides a way to construct XML data nodes by procedural code. Some
programmers will find this more comfortable than the functional style
offered by XML::Easy::NodeBasics.
- XML::Easy::SimpleSchemaUtil
- Helps to parse things that are encoded in XML in common ways.
- "XML::Easy::Transform::"
- This namespace exists to contain modules that perform transformations on
XML documents, or parts thereof, in the form of XML::Easy::Element and
XML::Easy::Content nodes.
SEE ALSO¶
XML::Easy::Classify, XML::Easy::NodeBasics, XML::Easy::Syntax, XML::Easy::Text,
<
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/>
AUTHOR¶
Andrew Main (Zefram) <zefram@fysh.org>
COPYRIGHT¶
Copyright (C) 2008, 2009 PhotoBox Ltd
Copyright (C) 2009, 2010, 2011 Andrew Main (Zefram) <zefram@fysh.org>
LICENSE¶
This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
same terms as Perl itself.