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Twig(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Twig(3) NAME XML::Twig - A perl module for processing huge XML documents in tree mode. SYNOPSIS Small documents (loaded in memory as a tree): my $twig=XML::Twig->new(); # create the twig $twig->parsefile( 'doc.xml'); # build it my_process( $twig); # use twig methods to process it $twig->print; # output the twig Huge documents (processed in combined stream/tree mode): # at most one div will be loaded in memory my $twig=XML::Twig->new( twig_handlers => { title => sub { $_->set_gi( 'h2') }, # change title tags to h2 para => sub { $_->set_gi( 'p') }, # change para to p hidden => sub { $_->delete; }, # remove hidden elements list => \&my_list_process, # process list elements div => sub { $_[0]->flush; }, # output and free memory }, pretty_print => 'indented', # output will be nicely formatted empty_tags => 'html', # outputs <empty_tag /> ); $twig->flush; # flush the end of the document See XML::Twig 101 for other ways to use the module, as a filter for example Note that this documentation is intended as a reference to the module. A tutorial is available at http://www.xmltwig.com/xmltwig/tutorial/index.html and a FAQ is at http://www.xmltwig.com/xmltwig/XML-Twig-FAQ.html DESCRIPTION This module provides a way to process XML documents. It is build on top of "XML::Parser". The module offers a tree interface to the document, while allowing you to output the parts of it that have been completely processed. It allows minimal resource (CPU and memory) usage by building the tree only for the parts of the documents that need actual processing, through the use of the "twig_roots " and "twig_print_outside_roots " options. The "finish " and "finish_print " methods also help to increase performances. XML::Twig tries to make simple things easy so it tries its best to takes care of a lot of the (usually) annoying (but sometimes necessary) features that come with XML and XML::Parser. XML::Twig 101 XML::Twig can be used either on "small" XML documents (that fit in memory) or on huge ones, by processing parts of the document and outputting or discarding them once they are processed. Loading an XML document and processing it my $t= XML::Twig->new(); $t->parse( '<d><title>title</title><para>p 1</para><para>p 2</para></d>'); my $root= $t->root; $root->set_gi( 'html'); # change doc to html $title= $root->first_child( 'title'); # get the title $title->set_gi( 'h1'); # turn it into h1 my @para= $root->children( 'para'); # get the para children foreach my $para (@para) { $para->set_gi( 'p'); } # turn them into p $t->print; # output the document Other useful methods include: att: "$elt->{'att'}->{'foo'}" return the "foo" attribute for an element, set_att : "$elt->set_att( foo => "bar")" sets the "foo" attribute to the "bar" value, next_sibling: "$elt->{next_sibling}" return the next sibling in the document (in the exam- ple "$title->{next_sibling}" is the first "para", you can also (and actually should) use "$elt->next_sibling( 'para')" to get it The document can also be transformed through the use of the cut, copy, paste and move methods: "$title->cut; $title->paste( after => $p);" for example And much, much more, see Elt. Processing an XML document chunk by chunk One of the strengths of XML::Twig is that it let you work with files that do not fit in memory (BTW storing an XML document in memory as a tree is quite memory-expensive, the expansion factor being often around 10). To do this you can define handlers, that will be called once a specific element has been completely parsed. In these handlers you can access the element and process it as you see fit, using the navigation and the cut-n-paste methods, plus lots of convenient ones like "prefix ". Once the element is completely processed you can then "flush " it, which will output it and free the memory. You can also "purge " it if you don't need to output it (if you are just extracting some data from the document for example). The handler will be called again once the next relevant element has been parsed. my $t= XML::Twig->new( twig_handlers => { section => \§ion, para => sub { $_->set_tag( 'p'); }, ); $t->parsefile( 'doc.xml'); $t->flush; # don't forget to flush one last time in the end or anything # after the last </section> tag will not be output # the handler is called once a section is completely parsed, ie when # the end tag for section is found, it receives the twig itself and # the element (including all its sub-elements) as arguments sub section { my( $t, $section)= @_; # arguments for all twig_handlers $section->set_tag( 'div'); # change the tag name.4, my favourite method... # let's use the attribute nb as a prefix to the title my $title= $section->first_child( 'title'); # find the title my $nb= $title->{'att'}->{'nb'}; # get the attribute $title->prefix( "$nb - "); # easy isn't it? $section->flush; # outputs the section and frees memory } There is of course more to it: you can trigger handlers on more elaborate conditions than just the name of the element, "section/title" for example. my $t= XML::Twig->new( twig_handlers => { 'section/title' => sub { $_->print } } ) ->parsefile( 'doc.xml'); Here "sub { $_->print }" simply prints the current element ($_ is aliased to the element in the handler). You can also trigger a handler on a test on an attribute: my $t= XML::Twig->new( twig_handlers => { 'section[@level="1"]' => sub { $_->print } } ); ->parsefile( 'doc.xml'); You can also use "start_tag_handlers " to process an element as soon as the start tag is found. Besides "prefix " you can also use "suffix ", Processing just parts of an XML document The twig_roots mode builds only the required sub-trees from the document Anything outside of the twig roots will just be ignored: my $t= XML::Twig->new( # the twig will include just the root and selected titles twig_roots => { 'section/title' => \&print_n_purge, 'annex/title' => \&print_n_purge } ); $t->parsefile( 'doc.xml'); sub print_n_purge { my( $t, $elt)= @_; print $elt->text; # print the text (including sub-element texts) $t->purge; # frees the memory } You can use that mode when you want to process parts of a documents but are not interested in the rest and you don't want to pay the price, either in time or memory, to build the tree for the it. Building an XML filter You can combine the "twig_roots" and the "twig_print_outside_roots" options to build fil- ters, which let you modify selected elements and will output the rest of the document as is. This would convert prices in $ to prices in Euro in a document: my $t= XML::Twig->new( twig_roots => { 'price' => \&convert, }, # process prices twig_print_outside_roots => 1, # print the rest ); $t->parsefile( 'doc.xml'); sub convert { my( $t, $price)= @_; my $currency= $price->{'att'}->{'currency'}; # get the currency if( $currency eq 'USD') { $usd_price= $price->text; # get the price # %rate is just a conversion table my $euro_price= $usd_price * $rate{usd2euro}; $price->set_text( $euro_price); # set the new price $price->set_att( currency => 'EUR'); # don't forget this! } $price->print; # output the price } Simplifying XML processing Whitespaces Whitespaces that look non-significant are discarded, this behaviour can be controlled using the "keep_spaces ", "keep_spaces_in " and "discard_spaces_in " options. Encoding You can specify that you want the output in the same encoding as the input (provided you have valid XML, which means you have to specify the encoding either in the document or when you create the Twig object) using the "keep_encoding " option Comments and Processing Instructions (PI) Comments and PI's can be hidden from the processing, but still appear in the output (they are carried by the "real" element closer to them) Pretty Printing XML::Twig can output the document pretty printed so it is easier to read for us humans. Surviving an untimely death XML parsers are supposed to react violently when fed improper XML. XML::Parser just dies. XML::Twig provides the "safe_parse " and the "safe_parsefile " methods which wrap the parse in an eval and return either the parsed twig or 0 in case of failure. Private attributes Attributes with a name starting with # (illegal in XML) will not be output, so you can safely use them to store temporary values during processing. CLASSES XML::Twig uses a very limited number of classes. The ones you are most likely to use are "XML::Twig" of course, which represents a complete XML document, including the document itself (the root of the document itself is "root"), its handlers, its input or output fil- ters... The other main class is "XML::Twig::Elt", which models an XML element. Element here has a very wide definition: it can be a regular element, or but also text, with an element "tag" of "#PCDATA" (or "#CDATA"), an entity (tag is "#ENT"), a Processing Instruc- tion ("#PI"), a comment ("#COMMENT"). Those are the 2 commonly used classes. You might want to look the "elt_class" option if you want to subclass "XML::Twig::Elt". Attributes are just attached to their parent element, they are not objects per se. (Please use the provided methods "att" and "set_att" to access them, if you access them as a hash, then your code becomes implementaion de[endant and might break in the future). Other classes that are seldom used are "XML::Twig::Entity_list" and "XML::Twig::Entity". If you use "XML::Twig::XPath" instead of "XML::Twig", elements are then created as "XML::Twig::XPath::Elt" METHODS XML::Twig A twig is a subclass of XML::Parser, so all XML::Parser methods can be called on a twig object, including parse and parsefile. "setHandlers" on the other hand cannot be used, see "BUGS " new This is a class method, the constructor for XML::Twig. Options are passed as keyword value pairs. Recognized options are the same as XML::Parser, plus some XML::Twig specifics. New Options: twig_handlers This argument replaces the corresponding XML::Parser argument. It consists of a hash "{ expression =" \&handler}> where expression is a generic_attribute_condi- tion, string_condition, an attribute_condition,full_path, a partial_path, a gi, _default_ or _all_. The idea is to support a usefull but efficient (thus limited) subset of XPATH. A fuller expression set will be supported in the future, as users ask for more and as I manage to implement it efficiently. This will never encompass all of XPATH due to the streaming nature of parsing (no lookahead after the element end tag). A generic_attribute_condition is a condition on an attribute, in the form "*[@att="val"]" or "*[@att]", simple quotes can be used instead of double quotes and the leading '*' is actually optional. No matter what the gi of the element is, the handler will be triggered either if the attribute has the specified value or if it just exists. A string_condition is a condition on the content of an element, in the form "gi[string()="foo"]", simple quotes can be used instead of double quotes, at the moment you cannot escape the quotes (this will be added as soon as I dig out my copy of Mastering Regular Expressions from its storage box). The text returned is, as per what I (and Matt Sergeant!) understood from the XPATH spec the concate- nation of all the text in the element, excluding all markup. Thus to call a han- dler on the element"<p>text <b>bold</b></p>" the appropriate condition is "p[string()="text bold"]". Note that this is not exactly conformant to the XPATH spec, it just tries to mimic it while being still quite concise. A extension of that notation is "gi[string(child_gi)="foo"]" where the handler will be called if a child of a "gi" element has a text value of "foo". At the moment only direct children of the "gi" element are checked. If you need to test on descendants of the element let me know. The fix is trivial but would slow down the checks, so I'd like to keep it the way it is. A regexp_condition is a condition on the content of an element, in the form "gi[string()=~ /foo/"]". This is the same as a string condition except that the text of the element is matched to the regexp. The "i", "m", "s" and "o" modifiers can be used on the regexp. The "gi[string(child_gi)=~ /foo/"]" extension is also supported. An attribute_condition is a simple condition of an attribute of the current ele- ment in the form "gi[@att="val"]" (simple quotes can be used instead of double quotes, you can escape quotes either). If several attribute_condition are true the same element all the handlers can be called in turn (in the order in which they were first defined). If the "="val"" part is ommited ( the condition is then "gi[@att]") then the handler is triggered if the attribute actually exists for the element, no matter what it's value is. A full_path looks like '/doc/section/chapter/title', it starts with a / then gives all the gi's to the element. The handler will be called if the path to the current element (in the input document) is exactly as defined by the "full_path". A partial_path is like a full_path except it does not start with a /: 'chap- ter/title' for example. The handler will be called if the path to the element (in the input document) ends as defined in the "partial_path". WARNING: (hopefully temporary) at the moment "string_condition", "regexp_condi- tion" and "attribute_condition" are only supported on a simple gi, not on a path. A gi (generic identifier) is just a tag name. #CDATA can be used to call a handler for a CDATA. A special gi _all_ is used to call a function for each element. The special gi _default_ is used to call a handler for each element that does NOT have a specific handler. The order of precedence to trigger a handler is: generic_attribute_condition, string_condition, regexp_condition, attribute_condition, full_path, longer par- tial_path, shorter partial_path, gi, _default_ . Important: once a handler has been triggered if it returns 0 then no other handler is called, exept a "_all_" handler which will be called anyway. If a handler returns a true value and other handlers apply, then the next applica- ble handler will be called. Repeat, rince, lather..; The exception to that rule is when the "do_not_chain_handlers" option is set, in which case only the first han- dler will be called. Note that it might be a good idea to explicitely return a short true value (like 1) from handlers: this ensures that other applicable handlers are called even if the last statement for the handler happens to evaluate to false. This might also speedup the code by avoiding the result of the last statement of the code to be copied and passed to the code managing handlers. It can really pay to have 1 instead of a long string returned. When an element is CLOSED the corresponding handler is called, with 2 arguments: the twig and the "/Element ". The twig includes the document tree that has been built so far, the element is the complete sub-tree for the element. This means that handlers for inner elements are called before handlers for outer elements. $_ is also set to the element, so it is easy to write inline handlers like para => sub { $_->change_gi( 'p'); } Text is stored in elements where gi is #PCDATA (due to mixed content, text and sub-element in an element there is no way to store the text as just an attribute of the enclosing element). Warning: if you have used purge or flush on the twig the element might not be com- plete, some of its children might have been entirely flushed or purged, and the start tag might even have been printed (by "flush") already, so changing its gi might not give the expected result. More generally, the full_path, partial_path and gi expressions are evaluated against the input document. Which means that even if you have changed the gi of an element (changing the gi of a parent element from a handler for example) the change will not impact the expression evaluation. Attributes in attribute_condi- tion are different though. As the initial value of attribute is not stored the handler will be triggered if the current attribute/value pair is found when the element end tag is found. Although this can be quite confusing it should not impact most of users, and allow others to play clever tricks with temporary attributes. Let me know if this is a problem for you. twig_roots This argument let's you build the tree only for those elements you are interested in. Example: my $t= XML::Twig->new( twig_roots => { title => 1, subtitle => 1}); $t->parsefile( file); my $t= XML::Twig->new( twig_roots => { 'section/title' => 1}); $t->parsefile( file); return a twig containing a document including only "title" and "subtitle" ele- ments, as children of the root element. You can use generic_attribute_condition, attribute_condition, full_path, par- tial_path, gi, _default_ and _all_ to trigger the building of the twig. string_condition and regexp_condition cannot be used as the content of the ele- ment, and the string, have not yet been parsed when the condition is checked. WARNING: path are checked for the document. Even if the "twig_roots" option is used they will be checked against the full document tree, not the virtual tree created by XML::Twig WARNING: twig_roots elements should NOT be nested, that would hopelessly confuse XML::Twig ;--( Note: you can set handlers (twig_handlers) using twig_roots Example: my $t= XML::Twig->new( twig_roots => { title => sub { $_{1]->print;}, subtitle => \&process_subtitle } ); $t->parsefile( file); twig_print_outside_roots To be used in conjunction with the "twig_roots" argument. When set to a true value this will print the document outside of the "twig_roots" elements. Example: my $t= XML::Twig->new( twig_roots => { title => \&number_title }, twig_print_outside_roots => 1, ); $t->parsefile( file); { my $nb; sub number_title { my( $twig, $title); $nb++; $title->prefix( "$nb "; } $title->print; } } This example prints the document outside of the title element, calls "num- ber_title" for each "title" element, prints it, and then resumes printing the doc- ument. The twig is built only for the "title" elements. If the value is a reference to a file handle then the document outside the "twig_roots" elements will be output to this file handle: open( OUT, ">out_file") or die "cannot open out file out_file:$!"; my $t= XML::Twig->new( twig_roots => { title => \&number_title }, # default output to OUT twig_print_outside_roots => \*OUT, ); { my $nb; sub number_title { my( $twig, $title); $nb++; $title->prefix( "$nb "; } $title->print( \*OUT); # you have to print to \*OUT here } } start_tag_handlers A hash "{ expression =" \&handler}>. Sets element handlers that are called when the element is open (at the end of the XML::Parser "Start" handler). The handlers are called with 2 params: the twig and the element. The element is empty at that point, its attributes are created though. You can use generic_attribute_condition, attribute_condition, full_path, par- tial_path, gi, _default_ and _all_ to trigger the handler. string_condition and regexp_condition cannot be used as the content of the ele- ment, and the string, have not yet been parsed when the condition is checked. The main uses for those handlers are to change the tag name (you might have to do it as soon as you find the open tag if you plan to "flush" the twig at some point in the element, and to create temporary attributes that will be used when process- ing sub-element with "twig_hanlders". You should also use it to change tags if you use "flush". If you change the tag in a regular "twig_handler" then the start tag might already have been flushed. Note: "start_tag" handlers can be called outside of "twig_roots" if this argument is used, in this case handlers are called with the following arguments: $t (the twig), $gi (the gi of the element) and %att (a hash of the attributes of the ele- ment). If the "twig_print_outside_roots" argument is also used then the start tag will be printed if the last handler called returns a "true" value, if it does not then the start tag will not be printed (so you can print a modified string yourself for example); Note that you can use the ignore method in "start_tag_handlers" (and only there). end_tag_handlers A hash "{ expression =" \&handler}>. Sets element handlers that are called when the element is closed (at the end of the XML::Parser "End" handler). The handlers are called with 2 params: the twig and the gi of the element. twig_handlers are called when an element is completely parsed, so why have this redundant option? There is only one use for "end_tag_handlers": when using the "twig_roots" option, to trigger a handler for an element outside the roots. It is for example very useful to number titles in a document using nested sections: my @no= (0); my $no; my $t= XML::Twig->new( start_tag_handlers => { section => sub { $no[$#no]++; $no= join '.', @no; push @no, 0; } }, twig_roots => { title => sub { $_[1]->prefix( $no); $_[1]->print; } }, end_tag_handlers => { section => sub { pop @no; } }, twig_print_outside_roots => 1 ); $t->parsefile( $file); Using the "end_tag_handlers" argument without "twig_roots" will result in an error. do_not_chain_handlers If this option is set to a true value, then only one handler will be called for each element, even if several satisfy the condition Note that the "_all_" handler will still be called regardeless ignore_elts This option lets you ignore elements when building the twig. This is useful in cases where you cannot use "twig_roots" to ignore elements, for example if the element to ignore is a sibling of elements you are interested in. Example: my $twig= XML::Twig->new( ignore_elts => { elt => 1 }); $twig->parsefile( 'doc.xml'); This will build the complete twig for the document, except that all "elt" elements (and their children) will be left out. char_handler A reference to a subroutine that will be called every time "PCDATA" is found. elt_class The name of a class used to store elements. this class should inherit from "XML::Twig::Elt" (and by default it is "XML::Twig::Elt"). This option is used to subclass the element class and extend it with new methods. This option is needed because during the parsing of the XML, elements are created by "XML::Twig", without any control from the user code. keep_atts_order Setting this option to a true value causes the attribute hash to be tied to a Tie::IxHash object. This means that Tie::IxHash needs to be installe for this option to be available. It also means that the hash keeps its order, so you will get the attributes in order. This allows outputing the attributes in the same order as they were in the original document. keep_encoding This is a (slightly?) evil option: if the XML document is not UTF-8 encoded and you want to keep it that way, then setting keep_encoding will use the"Expat" orig- inal_string method for character, thus keeping the original encoding, as well as the original entities in the strings. See the "t/test6.t" test file to see what results you can expect from the various encoding options. WARNING: if the original encoding is multi-byte then attribute parsing will be EXTREMELY unsafe under any Perl before 5.6, as it uses regular expressions which do not deal properly with multi-byte characters. You can specify an alternate function to parse the start tags with the "parse_start_tag" option (see below) WARNING: this option is NOT used when parsing with the non-blocking parser ("parse_start", "parse_more", parse_done methods) which you probably should not use with XML::Twig anyway as they are totally untested! output_encoding This option generates an output_filter using "Encode", "Text::Iconv" or "Uni- code::Map8" and "Unicode::Strings", and sets the encoding in the XML declaration. This is the easiest way to deal with encodings, if you need more sophisticated features, look at "output_filter" below output_filter This option is used to convert the character encoding of the output document. It is passed either a string corresponding to a predefined filter or a subroutine reference. The filter will be called every time a document or element is processed by the "print" functions ("print", "sprint", "flush"). Pre-defined filters: latin1 uses either "Encode", "Text::Iconv" or "Unicode::Map8" and "Unicode::String" or a regexp (which works only with XML::Parser 2.27), in this order, to con- vert all characters to ISO-8859-1 (aka latin1) html does the same conversion as "latin1", plus encodes entities using "HTML::Enti- ties" (oddly enough you will need to have HTML::Entities intalled for it to be available). This should only be used if the tags and attribute names them- selves are in US-ASCII, or they will be converted and the output will not be valid XML any more safe converts the output to ASCII (US) only plus character entities ("&#nnn;") this should be used only if the tags and attribute names themselves are in US-ASCII, or they will be converted and the output will not be valid XML any more safe_hex same as "safe" except that the character entities are in hexa ("&#xnnn;") iconv_convert ($encoding) this function is used to create a filter subroutine that will be used to con- vert the characters to the target encoding using "Text::Iconv" (which needs to be installed, look at the documentation for the module and for the "iconv" library to find out which encodings are available on your system) my $conv = XML::Twig::iconv_convert( 'latin1'); my $t = XML::Twig->new(output_filter => $conv); unicode_convert ($encoding) this function is used to create a filter subroutine that will be used to con- vert the characters to the target encoding using "Unicode::Strings" and "Uni- code::Map8" (which need to be installed, look at the documentation for the modules to find out which encodings are available on your system) my $conv = XML::Twig::unicode_convert( 'latin1'); my $t = XML::Twig->new(output_filter => $conv); Note that the "text" and "att" methods do not use the filter, so their result are always in unicode. output_text_filter same as output_filter, except it doesn't apply to the brackets and quotes around attribute values. This is useful for all filters that could change the tagging, basically anything that does not just change the encoding of the output. "html", "safe" and "safe_hex" are better used with this option. input_filter This option is similar to "output_filter" except the filter is applied to the characters before they are stored in the twig, at parsing time. parse_start_tag If you use the "keep_encoding" option then this option can be used to replace the default parsing function. You should provide a coderef (a reference to a subrou- tine) as the argument, this subroutine takes the original tag (given by XML::Parser::Expat "original_string()" method) and returns a gi and the attributes in a hash (or in a list attribute_name/attribute value). expand_external_ents When this option is used external entities (that are defined) are expanded when the document is output using "print" functions such as "print ", "sprint ", "flush " and "xml_string ". Note that in the twig the entity will be stored as an ele- ment whith a gi '"#ENT"', the entity will not be expanded there, so you might want to process the entities before outputting it. load_DTD If this argument is set to a true value, "parse" or "parsefile" on the twig will load the DTD information. This information can then be accessed through the twig, in a "DTD_handler" for example. This will load even an external DTD. Note that to do this the module will generate a temporary file in the current directory. If this is a problem let me know and I will add an option to specify an alternate directory. See DTD Handling for more information DTD_handler Set a handler that will be called once the doctype (and the DTD) have been loaded, with 2 arguments, the twig and the DTD. no_prolog Does not output a prolog (XML declaration and DTD) id This optional argument gives the name of an attribute that can be used as an ID in the document. Elements whose ID is known can be accessed through the elt_id method. id defaults to 'id'. See "BUGS " discard_spaces If this optional argument is set to a true value then spaces are discarded when they look non-significant: strings containing only spaces are discarded. This argument is set to true by default. keep_spaces If this optional argument is set to a true value then all spaces in the document are kept, and stored as "PCDATA". "keep_spaces" and "discard_spaces" cannot be both set. discard_spaces_in This argument sets "keep_spaces" to true but will cause the twig builder to dis- card spaces in the elements listed. The syntax for using this argument is: XML::Twig->new( discard_spaces_in => [ 'elt1', 'elt2']); keep_spaces_in This argument sets "discard_spaces" to true but will cause the twig builder to keep spaces in the elements listed. The syntax for using this argument is: XML::Twig->new( keep_spaces_in => [ 'elt1', 'elt2']); pretty_print Set the pretty print method, amongst '"none"' (default), '"nsgmls"', '"nice"', '"indented"', '"indented_c"', '"record"' and '"record_c"' pretty_print formats: none The document is output as one ling string, with no line breaks except those found within text elements nsgmls Line breaks are inserted in safe places: that is within tags, between a tag and an attribute, between attributes and before the > at the end of a tag. This is quite ugly but better than "none", and it is very safe, the document will still be valid (conforming to its DTD). This is how the SGML parser "sgmls" splits documents, hence the name. nice This option inserts line breaks before any tag that does not contain text (so element with textual content are not broken as the \n is the significant). WARNING: this option leaves the document well-formed but might make it invalid (not conformant to its DTD). If you have elements declared as <!ELEMENT foo (#PCDATA|bar)> then a "foo" element including a "bar" one will be printed as <foo> <bar>bar is just pcdata</bar> </foo> This is invalid, as the parser will take the line break after the "foo" tag as a sign that the element contains PCDATA, it will then die when it finds the "bar" tag. This may or may not be important for you, but be aware of it! indented Same as "nice" (and with the same warning) but indents elements according to their level indented_c Same as "indented" but a little more compact: the closing tags are on the same line as the preceeding text record This is a record-oriented pretty print, that display data in records, one field per line (which looks a LOT like "indented") record_c Stands for record compact, one record per line empty_tags Set the empty tag display style ('"normal"', '"html"' or '"expand"'). comments Set the way comments are processed: '"drop"' (default), '"keep"' or '"process"' Comments processing options: drop drops the comments, they are not read, nor printed to the output keep comments are loaded and will appear on the output, they are not accessible within the twig and will not interfere with processing though Bug: comments in the middle of a text element such as <p>text <!-- comment --> more text --></p> are output at the end of the text: <p>text more text <!-- comment --></p> process comments are loaded in the twig and will be treated as regular elements (their "gi" is "#COMMENT") this can interfere with processing if you expect "$elt->{first_child}" to be an element but find a comment there. Validation will not protect you from this as comments can happen anywhere. You can use "$elt->first_child( 'gi')" (which is a good habit anyway) to get where you want. Consider using "process" if you are outputing SAX events from XML::Twig. pi Set the way processing instructions are processed: '"drop"', '"keep"' (default) or '"process"' Note that you can also set PI handlers in the "twig_handlers" option: '?' => \&handler '?target' => \&handler 2 The handlers will be called with 2 parameters, the twig and the PI element if "pi" is set to "process", and with 3, the twig, the target and the data if "pi" is set to "keep". Of course they will not be called if "pi" is set to "drop". If "pi" is set to "keep" the handler should return a string that will be used as- is as the PI text (it should look like "" <?target data?" >" or '' if you want to remove the PI), Only one handler will be called, "?target" or "?" if no specific handler for that target is available. Note: I _HATE_ the Java-like name of arguments used by most XML modules. So in pure TIMTOWTDI fashion all arguments can be written either as "UglyJavaLikeName" or as "readable_perl_name": "twig_print_outside_roots" or "TwigPrintOutsideRoots" (or even "twigPrintOutsideRoots" {shudder}). XML::Twig normalizes them before processing them. parse (SOURCE [, OPT => OPT_VALUE [...]]) This method is inherited from XML::Parser. The "SOURCE" parameter should either be a string containing the whole XML document, or it should be an open "IO::Handle". Con- structor options to "XML::Parser::Expat" given as keyword-value pairs may follow the"SOURCE" parameter. These override, for this call, any options or attributes passed through from the XML::Parser instance. A die call is thrown if a parse error occurs. Otherwise it will return the twig built by the parse. Use "safe_parse" if you want the parsing to return even when an error occurs. parsestring This is just an alias for "parse" for backwards compatibility. parsefile (FILE [, OPT => OPT_VALUE [...]]) This method is inherited from XML::Parser. Open "FILE" for reading, then call "parse" with the open handle. The file is closed no matter how "parse" returns. A "die" call is thrown if a parse error occurs. Otherwise it will return the twig built by the parse. Use "safe_parsefile" if you want the parsing to return even when an error occurs. parseurl ($url $optional_user_agent) Gets the data from $url and parse it. Note that the data is piped to the parser in chunks the size of the XML::Parser::Expat buffer, so memory consumption and hopefully speed are optimal. If the $optional_user_agent argument is used then it is used, otherwise a new one is created. safe_parse ( SOURCE [, OPT => OPT_VALUE [...]]) This method is similar to "parse" except that it wraps the parsing in an "eval" block. It returns the twig on success and 0 on failure (the twig object also contains the parsed twig). $@ contains the error message on failure. Note that the parsing still stops as soon as an error is detected, there is no way to keep going after an error. safe_parsefile (FILE [, OPT => OPT_VALUE [...]]) This method is similar to "parsefile" except that it wraps the parsing in an "eval" block. It returns the twig on success and 0 on failure (the twig object also contains the parsed twig) . $@ contains the error message on failure Note that the parsing still stops as soon as an error is detected, there is no way to keep going after an error. safe_parseurl ($url $optional_user_agent) Same as "parseurl" except that it wraps the parsing in an "eval" block. It returns the twig on success and 0 on failure (the twig object also contains the parsed twig) . $@ contains the error message on failure parser This method returns the "expat" object (actually the XML::Parser::Expat object) used during parsing. It is useful for example to call XML::Parser::Expat methods on it. To get the line of a tag for example use "$t->parser->current_line". setTwigHandlers ($handlers) Set the Twig handlers. $handlers is a reference to a hash similar to the one in the "twig_handlers" option of new. All previous handlers are unset. The method returns the reference to the previous handlers. setTwigHandler ($exp $handler) Set a single Twig handlers for elements matching $exp. $handler is a reference to a subroutine. If the handler was previously set then the reference to the previous han- dler is returned. setStartTagHandlers ($handlers) Set the start_tag handlers. $handlers is a reference to a hash similar to the one in the "start_tag_handlers" option of new. All previous handlers are unset. The method returns the reference to the previous handlers. setStartTagHandler ($exp $handler) Set a single start_tag handlers for elements matching $exp. $handler is a reference to a subroutine. If the handler was previously set then the reference to the previous handler is returned. setEndTagHandlers ($handlers) Set the EndTag handlers. $handlers is a reference to a hash similar to the one in the "end_tag_handlers" option of new. All previous handlers are unset. The method returns the reference to the previous handlers. setEndTagHandler ($exp $handler) Set a single EndTag handlers for elements matching $exp. $handler is a reference to a subroutine. If the handler was previously set then the reference to the previous han- dler is returned. dtd Return the dtd (an XML::Twig::DTD object) of a twig root Return the root element of a twig set_root ($elt) Set the root of a twig first_elt ($optional_condition) Return the first element matching $optional_condition of a twig, if no condition is given then the root is returned elt_id ($id) Return the element whose "id" attribute is $id encoding This method returns the encoding of the XML document, as defined by the "encoding" attribute in the XML declaration (ie it is "undef" if the attribute is not defined) set_encoding This method sets the value of the "encoding" attribute in the XML declaration. Note that if the document did not have a declaration it is generated (with an XML version of 1.0) xml_version This method returns the XML version, as defined by the "version" attribute in the XML declaration (ie it is "undef" if the attribute is not defined) set_xml_version This method sets the value of the "version" attribute in the XML declaration. If the declaration did not exist it is created. standalone This method returns the value of the "standalone" declaration for the document set_standalone This method sets the value of the "standalone" attribute in the XML declaration. Note that if the document did not have a declaration it is generated (with an XML version of 1.0) set_doctype ($name, $system, $public, $internal) Set the doctype of the element. If an argument is "undef" (or not present) then its former value is retained, if a false ('' or 0) value is passed then the former value is deleted; entity_list Return the entity list of a twig entity_names Return the list of all defined entities entity ($entity_name) Return the entity change_gi ($old_gi, $new_gi) Performs a (very fast) global change. All elements $old_gi are now $new_gi. See "BUGS " flush ($optional_filehandle, $options) Flushes a twig up to (and including) the current element, then deletes all unnecessary elements from the tree that's kept in memory. "flush" keeps track of which elements need to be open/closed, so if you flush from handlers you don't have to worry about anything. Just keep flushing the twig every time you're done with a sub-tree and it will come out well-formed. After the whole parsing don't forget to"flush" one more time to print the end of the document. The doctype and entity declarations are also printed. flush take an optional filehandle as an argument. options: use the "update_DTD" option if you have updated the (internal) DTD and/or the entity list and you want the updated DTD to be output The "pretty_print" option sets the pretty printing of the document. Example: $t->flush( Update_DTD => 1); $t->flush( \*FILE, Update_DTD => 1); $t->flush( \*FILE); flush_up_to ($elt, $optional_filehandle, %options) Flushes up to the $elt element. This allows you to keep part of the tree in memory when you "flush". options: see flush. purge Does the same as a "flush" except it does not print the twig. It just deletes all ele- ments that have been completely parsed so far. purge_up_to ($elt) Purges up to the $elt element. This allows you to keep part of the tree in memory when you "purge". print ($optional_filehandle, %options) Prints the whole document associated with the twig. To be used only AFTER the parse. options: see "flush". sprint Return the text of the whole document associated with the twig. To be used only AFTER the parse. options: see "flush". ignore This method can only be called in "start_tag_handlers". It causes the element to be skipped during the parsing: the twig is not built for this element, it will not be accessible during parsing or after it. The element will not take up any memory and parsing will be faster. Note that this method can also be called on an element. If the element is a parent of the current element then this element will be ignored (the twig will not be built any more for it and what has already been built will be deleted) set_pretty_print ($style) Set the pretty print method, amongst '"none"' (default), '"nsgmls"', '"nice"', '"indented"', '"record"' and '"record_c"' WARNING: the pretty print style is a GLOBAL variable, so once set it's applied to ALL "print"'s (and "sprint"'s). Same goes if you use XML::Twig with "mod_perl" . This should not be a problem as the XML that's generated is valid anyway, and XML proces- sors (as well as HTML processors, including browsers) should not care. Let me know if this is a big problem, but at the moment the performance/cleanliness trade-off clearly favors the global approach. set_empty_tag_style ($style) Set the empty tag display style ('"normal"', '"html"' or '"expand"'). As with "set_pretty_print" this sets a global flag. "normal" outputs an empty tag '"<tag/>"', "html" adds a space '"<tag />"' and "expand" outputs '"<tag></tag>"' print_prolog ($optional_filehandle, %options) Prints the prolog (XML declaration + DTD + entity declarations) of a document. options: see "flush". prolog ($optional_filehandle, %options) Return the prolog (XML declaration + DTD + entity declarations) of a document. options: see "flush". finish Call Expat "finish" method. Unsets all handlers (including internal ones that set context), but expat continues parsing to the end of the document or until it finds an error. It should finish up a lot faster than with the handlers set. finish_print Stop twig processing, flush the twig and proceed to finish printing the document as fast as possible. Use this method when modifying a document and the modification is done. Methods inherited from XML::Parser::Expat A twig inherits all the relevant methods from XML::Parser::Expat. These methods can only be used during the parsing phase (they will generate a fatal error otherwise). Inherited methods are: depth in_element within_element context current_line current_column current_byte position_in_context base current_element element_index recognized_string original_string xpcroak xpcarp xml_escape (this one is broken on some versions of expat/XML::Parser) path ($gi) Return the element context in a form similar to XPath's short form: '"/root/gi1/../gi"' get_xpath ( $optional_array_ref, $xpath, $optional_offset) Performs a "get_xpath" on the document root (see <Elt|"Elt">) If the $optional_array_ref argument is used the array must contain elements. The $xpath expression is applied to each element in turn and the result is union of all results. This way a first query can be refined in further steps. find_nodes ( $optional_array_ref, $xpath, $optional_offset) same as "get_xpath" findnodes ( $optional_array_ref, $xpath, $optional_offset) same as "get_xpath" (similar to the XML::LibXML method) findvalue ( $optional_array_ref, $xpath, $optional_offset) Return the "join" of all texts of the results of appling "get_xpath" to the node (sim- ilar to the XML::LibXML method) subs_text ($regexp, $replace) subs_text does text substitution on the whole document, similar to perl's " s///" operator. dispose Useful only if you don't have "Scalar::Util" or "WeakRef" installed. Reclaims properly the memory used by an XML::Twig object. As the object has circular references it never goes out of scope, so if you want to parse lots of XML documents then the memory leak becomes a problem. Use "$twig->dispose" to clear this problem. XML::Twig::Elt new ($optional_gi, $optional_atts, @optional_content) The "gi" is optional (but then you can't have a content ), the $optional_atts argument is a refreference to a hash of attributes, the content can be just a string or a list of strings and element. A content of '"#EMPTY"' creates an empty element; Examples: my $elt= XML::Twig::Elt->new(); my $elt= XML::Twig::Elt->new( para => { align => 'center' }); my $elt= XML::Twig::Elt->new( para => { align => 'center' }, 'foo'); my $elt= XML::Twig::Elt->new( br => '#EMPTY'); my $elt= XML::Twig::Elt->new( 'para'); my $elt= XML::Twig::Elt->new( para => 'this is a para'); my $elt= XML::Twig::Elt->new( para => $elt3, 'another para'); The strings are not parsed, the element is not attached to any twig. WARNING: if you rely on ID's then you will have to set the id yourself. At this point the element does not belong to a twig yet, so the ID attribute is not known so it won't be strored in the ID list. Note that "#COMMENT", "#PCDATA" or "#CDATA" are valid tag names, that will create text elements. To create an element "foo" containing a CDATA section: my $foo= XML::Twig::Elt->new( '#CDATA' => "content of the CDATA section") ->wrap_in( 'foo'); parse ($string, %args) Creates an element from an XML string. The string is actually parsed as a new twig, then the root of that twig is returned. The arguments in %args are passed to the twig. As always if the parse fails the parser will die, so use an eval if you want to trap syntax errors. As obviously the element does not exist beforehand this method has to be called on the class: my $elt= parse XML::Twig::Elt( "<a> string to parse, with <sub/> <elements>, actually tons of </elements> h</a>"); print ($optional_filehandle, $optional_pretty_print_style) Prints an entire element, including the tags, optionally to a $optional_filehandle, optionally with a $pretty_print_style. The print outputs XML data so base entities are escaped. sprint ($elt, $optional_no_enclosing_tag) Return the xml string for an entire element, including the tags. If the optional sec- ond argument is true then only the string inside the element is returned (the start and end tag for $elt are not). The text is XML-escaped: base entities (& and < in text, & < and " in attribute values) are turned into entities. gi Return the gi of the element (the gi is the "generic identifier" the tag name in SGML parlance). "tag" and "name" are synonyms of "gi". tag Same as "gi" name Same as "gi" set_gi ($gi) Set the gi (tag) of an element set_tag ($tag) Set the tag (="gi") of an element set_name ($name) Set the name (="gi") of an element root Return the root of the twig in which the element is contained. twig Return the twig containing the element. parent ($optional_condition) Return the parent of the element, or the first ancestor matching the $optional_condi- tion first_child ($optional_condition) Return the first child of the element, or the first child matching the $optional_con- dition has_child ($optional_condition) Return the first child of the element, or the first child matching the $optional_con- dition (same as first_child) has_children ($optional_condition) Return the first child of the element, or the first child matching the $optional_con- dition (same as first_child) first_child_text ($optional_condition) Return the text of the first child of the element, or the first child matching the $optional_condition If there is no first_child then returns ''. This avoids getting the child, checking for its existence then getting the text for trivial cases. Similar methods are available for the other navigation methods: "last_child_text", "prev_sibling_text", "next_sibling_text", "prev_elt_text", "next_elt_text", "child_text", "parent_text" All this methods also exist in "trimmed" variant: "last_child_trimmed_text", "prev_sibling_trimmed_text", "next_sibling_trimmed_text", "prev_elt_trimmed_text", "next_elt_trimmed_text", "child_trimmed_text", "parent_trimmed_text" field ($optional_condition) Same method as "first_child_text" with a different name trimmed_field ($optional_condition) Same method as "first_child_trimmed_text" with a different name first_child_matches ($optional_condition) Return the element if the first child of the element (if it exists) passes the $optional_condition "undef" otherwise if( $elt->first_child_matches( 'title')) ... is equivalent to if( $elt->{first_child} && $elt->{first_child}->passes( 'title')) "first_child_is" is an other name for this method Similar methods are available for the other navigation methods: "last_child_matches", "prev_sibling_matches", "next_sibling_matches", "prev_elt_matches", "next_elt_matches", "child_matches", "parent_matches" is_first_child ($optional_condition) returns true (the element) if the element is the first child of its parent (optionaly that satisfies the $optional_condition) is_last_child ($optional_condition) returns true (the element) if the element is the first child of its parent (optionaly that satisfies the $optional_condition) prev_sibling ($optional_condition) Return the previous sibling of the element, or the previous sibling matching $optional_condition next_sibling ($optional_condition) Return the next sibling of the element, or the first one matching $optional_condition. next_elt ($optional_elt, $optional_condition) Return the next elt (optionally matching $optional_condition) of the element. This is defined as the next element which opens after the current element opens. Which usu- ally means the first child of the element. Counter-intuitive as it might look this allows you to loop through the whole document by starting from the root. The $optional_elt is the root of a subtree. When the "next_elt" is out of the subtree then the method returns undef. You can then walk a sub tree with: my $elt= $subtree_root; while( $elt= $elt->next_elt( $subtree_root) { # insert processing code here } prev_elt ($optional_condition) Return the previous elt (optionally matching $optional_condition) of the element. This is the first element which opens before the current one. It is usually either the last descendant of the previous sibling or simply the parent children ($optional_condition) Return the list of children (optionally which matches $optional_condition) of the ele- ment. The list is in document order. children_count ($optional_condition) Return the number of children of the element (optionally which matches $optional_con- dition) children_text ($optional_condition) Return an array containing the text of children of the element (optionally which matches $optional_condition) children_copy ($optional_condition) Return a list of elements that are copies of the children of the element, optionally which matches $optional_condition descendants ($optional_condition) Return the list of all descendants (optionally which matches $optional_condition) of the element. This is the equivalent of the "getElementsByTagName" of the DOM (by the way, if you are really a DOM addict, you can use "getElementsByTagName" instead) descendants_or_self ($optional_condition) Same as "descendants" except that the element itself is included in the list if it matches the $optional_condition ancestors ($optional_condition) Return the list of ancestors (optionally matching $optional_condition) of the element. The list is ordered from the innermost ancestor to the outtermost one NOTE: the element itself is not part of the list, in order to include it you will have to use ancestors_or_self ancestors_or_self ($optional_condition) Return the list of ancestors (optionally matching $optional_condition) of the element, including the element (if it matches the condition>). The list is ordered from the innermost ancestor to the outtermost one att ($att) Return the value of attribute $att or "undef" set_att ($att, $att_value) Set the attribute of the element to the given value You can actually set several attributes this way: $elt->set_att( att1 => "val1", att2 => "val2"); del_att ($att) Delete the attribute for the element You can actually delete several attributes at once: $elt->del_att( 'att1', 'att2', 'att3'); cut Cut the element from the tree. The element still exists, it can be copied or pasted somewhere else, it is just not attached to the tree anymore. cut_children ($optional_condition) Cut all the children of the element (or all of those which satisfy the $optional_con- dition). Return the list of children copy ($elt) Return a copy of the element. The copy is a "deep" copy: all sub elements of the ele- ment are duplicated. paste ($optional_position, $ref) Paste a (previously "cut" or newly generated) element. Die if the element already belongs to a tree. Position options: first_child (default) The element is pasted as the first child of the element object this method is called on. last_child The element is pasted as the last child of the element object this method is called on. before The element is pasted before the element object, as its previous sibling. after The element is pasted after the element object, as its next sibling. within In this case an extra argument, $offset, should be supplied. The element will be pasted in the reference element (or in its first text child) at the given offset. To achieve this the reference element will be split at the offset. move ($optional_position, $ref) Move an element in the tree. This is just a "cut" then a "paste". The syntax is the same as "paste". replace ($ref) Replaces an element in the tree. Sometimes it is just not possible to"cut" an element then "paste" another in its place, so "replace" comes in handy. The calling element replaces $ref. replace_with (@elts) Replaces the calling element with one or more elements delete Cut the element and frees the memory. prefix ($text, $optional_option) Add a prefix to an element. If the element is a "PCDATA" element the text is added to the pcdata, if the elements first child is a "PCDATA" then the text is added to it's pcdata, otherwise a new "PCDATA" element is created and pasted as the first child of the element. If the option is "asis" then the prefix is added asis: it is created in a separate "PCDATA" element with an "asis" property. You can then write: $elt1->prefix( '<b>', 'asis'); to create a "<b>" in the output of "print". suffix ($text, $optional_option) Add a suffix to an element. If the element is a "PCDATA" element the text is added to the pcdata, if the elements last child is a "PCDATA" then the text is added to it's pcdata, otherwise a new PCDATA element is created and pasted as the last child of the element. If the option is "asis" then the suffix is added asis: it is created in a separate "PCDATA" element with an "asis" property. You can then write: $elt2->suffix( '</b>', 'asis'); simplify (%options) Return a data structure suspiciously similar to XML::Simple's. Options are identical to XMLin options, see XML::Simple doc for more details (or use DATA::dumper or YAML to dump the data structure) keyattr forcearray noattr content_key variables (%var_hash) %var_hash is a hash { name => value } 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 XMLout). A 'variable' is any text of the form ${name} (or $name) which occurs in an attribute value or in the text content of an element. If 'name' matches a key in the supplied hashref, ${name} will be replaced with the corresponding value from the hashref. If no matching key is found, the variable will not be replaced. var ($attribute_name) This option gives the name of an attribute that will be used to create variables in the XML: <dirs> <dir name="prefix">/usr/local</dir> <dir name="exec_prefix">$prefix/bin</dir> </dirs> use "var => 'name'" to get $prefix replaced by /usr/local in the generated data structure By default variables are captured by the following regexp: /$(\w+)/ var_regexp (regexp) This option changes the regexp used to capture variables. The variable name should be in $1 erase ([<tag1>, <tag2>...]) Option used to simplify the structure: elements listed will not be used. Their children will be, they will be considered children of the element parent. If the element is: <config host="laptop.xmltwig.com"> <server>localhost</server> <dirs> <dir name="base">/home/mrodrigu/standards</dir> <dir name="tools">$base/tools</dir> </dirs> <templates> <template name="std_def">std_def.templ</template> <template name="dummy">dummy</template> </templates> </config> Then callin simplify with "erase => [ 'dirs', 'templates']" makes the data struc- ture be exactly as if the start and end tags for "dirs" and "templates" were not there. A YAML dump of the structure base: '/home/mrodrigu/standards' host: laptop.xmltwig.com server: localhost template: - std_def.templ - dummy.templ tools: '$base/tools' split_at ($offset) Split a text ("PCDATA" or "CDATA") element in 2 at $offset, the original element now holds the first part of the string and a new element holds the right part. The new element is returned If the element is not a text element then the first text child of the element is split split ( $optional_regexp, $optional_tag, $optional_attribute_ref) Split the text descendants of an element in place, the text is split using the regexp, if the regexp includes () then the matched separators will be wrapped in $optional_tag, with $optional_attribute_ref attributes if $elt is "<p>tati tata <b>tutu tati titi</b> tata tati tata</p>" $elt->split( qr/(ta)ti/, 'foo', {type => 'toto'} ) will change $elt to <p><foo type="toto">ta</foo> tata <b>tutu <foo type="toto">ta</foo> titi</b> tata <foo type="toto">ta</foo> tata</p> The regexp can be passed either as a string or as "qr//" (perl 5.005 and later), it defaults to \s+ just as the "split" built-in (but this would be quite a useless behaviour without the $optional_tag parameter) $optional_tag defaults to PCDATA or CDATA, depending on the initial element type The list of descendants is returned (including un-touched original elements and newly created ones) mark ( $regexp, $optional_tag, $optional_attribute_ref) This method behaves exactly as split, except only the newly created elements are returned wrap_children ( $regexp_string, $tag, $optional_att, $optional_value) Wrap the children of the element that match the regexp in an element $tag. If $optional_att and $optional_value are passed then the new element will have an attribute $optional_att with a value $optional_value. Note that elements might get extra "id" attributes in the process. See add_id. Use strip_att to remove unwanted id's. Here is an example: If the element $elt has the following content: <elt> <p>para 1</p> <l_l1_1>list 1 item 1 para 1</l_l1_1> <l_l1>list 1 item 1 para 2</l_l1> <l_l1_n>list 1 item 2 para 1 (only para)</l_l1_n> <l_l1_n>list 1 item 3 para 1</l_l1_n> <l_l1>list 1 item 3 para 2</l_l1> <l_l1>list 1 item 3 para 3</l_l1> <l_l1_1>list 2 item 1 para 1</l_l1_1> <l_l1>list 2 item 1 para 2</l_l1> <l_l1_n>list 2 item 2 para 1 (only para)</l_l1_n> <l_l1_n>list 2 item 3 para 1</l_l1_n> <l_l1>list 2 item 3 para 2</l_l1> <l_l1>list 2 item 3 para 3</l_l1> </elt> Then the code $elt->wrap_children( q{<l_l1_1><l_l1>*} , li => { type => "ul1" }); $elt->wrap_children( q{<l_l1_n><l_l1>*} , li => { type => "ul" }); $elt->wrap_children( q{<li type="ul1"><li type="ul">+}, "ul"); $elt->strip_att( 'id'); $elt->strip_att( 'type'); $elt->print; will output: <elt> <p>para 1</p> <ul> <li> <l_l1_1>list 1 item 1 para 1</l_l1_1> <l_l1>list 1 item 1 para 2</l_l1> </li> <li> <l_l1_n>list 1 item 2 para 1 (only para)</l_l1_n> </li> <li> <l_l1_n>list 1 item 3 para 1</l_l1_n> <l_l1>list 1 item 3 para 2</l_l1> <l_l1>list 1 item 3 para 3</l_l1> </li> </ul> <ul> <li> <l_l1_1>list 2 item 1 para 1</l_l1_1> <l_l1>list 2 item 1 para 2</l_l1> </li> <li> <l_l1_n>list 2 item 2 para 1 (only para)</l_l1_n> </li> <li> <l_l1_n>list 2 item 3 para 1</l_l1_n> <l_l1>list 2 item 3 para 2</l_l1> <l_l1>list 2 item 3 para 3</l_l1> </li> </ul> </elt> subs_text ($regexp, $replace) subs_text does text substitution, similar to perl's " s///" operator. $regexp must be a perl regexp, created with the "qr" operatot. $replace can include "$1, $2"... from the $regexp. It can also be used to create ele- ment and entities, by using "&elt( tag => { att => val }, text)" (similar syntax as "new") and "&ent( name)". Here is a rather complex example: $elt->subs_text( qr{(?<!do not )link to (http://([^\s,]*))}, 'see &elt( a =>{ href => $1 }, $2)' ); This will replace text like link to http://www.xmltwig.com by see <a href="www.xmltwig.com">www.xmltwig.com</a>, but not do not link to... Generating entities (here replacing spaces with ): $elt->subs_text( qr{ }, '&ent( " ")'); or, using a variable: my $ent=" "; $elt->subs_text( qr{ }, "&ent( '$ent')"); Note that the substitution is always global, as in using the "g" modifier in a perl substitution, and that it is performed on all text descendants of the element. add_id Add an id to the element. The id is an attribute ("id" by default, see the "id" option for XML::Twig "new" to change it. Use an id starting with "#" to get an id that's not output by print, flush or sprint) that allows you to use the elt_id method to get the element easily. strip_att ($att) Remove the attribute $att from all descendants of the element (including the element) change_att_name ($old_name, $new_name) Change the name of the attribute from $old_name to $new_name. If there is no attribute $old_name nothing happens. sort_children_on_value( %options) Sort the children of the element in place according to their text. All children are sorted. Return the element, with its children sorted. %options are type : numeric | alpha (default: alpha) order : normal | reverse (default: normal) Return the element, with its children sorted sort_children_on_att ($att, %options) Sort the children of the element in place according to attribute $att. %options are the same as for "sort_children_on_value" Return the element. sort_children_on_field ($gi, %options) Sort the children of the element in place, according to the field $gi (the text of the first child of the child with this gi). %options are the same as for "sort_chil- dren_on_value". Return the element, with its children sorted sort_children( $get_key, %options) Sort the children of the element in place. The $get_key argument is a reference to a function that returns the sort key when passed an element. For example: $elt->sort_children( sub { $_[0]->{'att'}->{"nb"} + $_[0]->text }, type => 'numeric', order => 'reverse' ); field_to_att ($cond, $att) Turn the text of the first sub-element matched by $cond into the value of attribute $att of the element. If $att is ommited then $cond is used as the name of the attribute, which makes sense only if $cond is a valid element (and attribute) name. The sub-element is then cut. att_to_field ($att, $gi) Take the value of attribute $att and create a sub-element $gi as first child of the element. If $gi is ommited then $att is used as the name of the sub-element. get_xpath ($xpath, $optional_offset) Return a list of elements satisfying the $xpath. $xpath is an XPATH-like expression. A subset of the XPATH abbreviated syntax is covered: gi gi[1] (or any other positive number) gi[last()] gi[@att] (the attribute exists for the element) gi[@att="val"] gi[@att=~ /regexp/] gi[att1="val1" and att2="val2"] gi[att1="val1" or att2="val2"] gi[string()="toto"] (returns gi elements which text (as per the text method) is toto) gi[string()=~/regexp/] (returns gi elements which text (as per the text method) matches regexp) expressions can start with / (search starts at the document root) expressions can start with . (search starts at the current element) // can be used to get all descendants instead of just direct children * matches any gi So the following examples from the XPath recommenda- tion<http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath.html#path-abbrev> work: para selects the para element children of the context node * selects all element children of the context node para[1] selects the first para child of the context node para[last()] selects the last para child of the context node */para selects all para grandchildren of the context node /doc/chapter[5]/section[2] selects the second section of the fifth chapter of the doc chapter//para selects the para element descendants of the chapter element children of the context node //para selects all the para descendants of the document root and thus selects all para elements in the same document as the context node //olist/item selects all the item elements in the same document as the context node that have an olist parent .//para selects the para element descendants of the context node .. selects the parent of the context node para[@type="warning"] selects all para children of the context node that have a type attribute with value warning employee[@secretary and @assistant] selects all the employee children of the context node that have both a secretary attribute and an assistant attribute The elements will be returned in the document order. If $optional_offset is used then only one element will be returned, the one with the appropriate offset in the list, starting at 0 Quoting and interpolating variables can be a pain when the Perl syntax and the XPATH syntax collide, so here are some more examples to get you started: my $p1= "p1"; my $p2= "p2"; my @res= $t->get_xpath( "p[string( '$p1') or string( '$p2')]"); my $a= "a1"; my @res= $t->get_xpath( "//*[@att=\"$a\"]); my $val= "a1"; my $exp= "//p[ \@att='$val']"; # you need to use \@ or you will get a warning my @res= $t->get_xpath( $exp); XML::Twig does not provide full XPATH support. If that's what you want then look no further than the XML::XPath module on CPAN, or even better, the XML::LibXML module. Note that the only supported regexps delimiters are / and that you must backslash all / in regexps AND in regular strings. find_nodes same as"get_xpath" text Return a string consisting of all the "PCDATA" and "CDATA" in an element, without any tags. The text is not XML-escaped: base entities such as "&" and "<" are not escaped. trimmed_text Same as "text" except that the text is trimmed: leading and trailing spaces are dis- carded, consecutive spaces are collapsed set_text ($string) Set the text for the element: if the element is a "PCDATA", just set its text, other- wise cut all the children of the element and create a single "PCDATA" child for it, which holds the text. insert ($gi1, [$optional_atts1], $gi2, [$optional_atts2],...) For each gi in the list inserts an element $gi as the only child of the element. The element gets the optional attributes in"$optional_atts<n>." All children of the ele- ment are set as children of the new element. The upper level element is returned. $p->insert( table => { border=> 1}, 'tr', 'td') put $p in a table with a visible border, a single "tr" and a single "td" and return the "table" element: <p><table border="1"><tr><td>original content of p</td></tr></table></p> wrap_in (@gi) Wrap elements $gi as the successive ancestors of the element, returns the new element. $elt->wrap_in( 'td', 'tr', 'table') wraps the element as a single cell in a table for example. insert_new_elt ($opt_position, $gi, $opt_atts_hashref, @opt_content) Combines a "new " and a "paste ": creates a new element using $gi, $opt_atts_hashref and @opt_content which are arguments similar to those for "new", then paste it, using $opt_position or 'first_child', relative to $elt. Return the newly created element erase Erase the element: the element is deleted and all of its children are pasted in its place. set_content ( $optional_atts, @list_of_elt_and_strings) ( $optional_atts, '#EMPTY') Set the content for the element, from a list of strings and elements. Cuts all the element children, then pastes the list elements as the children. This method will create a "PCDATA" element for any strings in the list. The $optional_atts argument is the ref of a hash of attributes. If this argument is used then the previous attributes are deleted, otherwise they are left untouched. WARNING: if you rely on ID's then you will have to set the id yourself. At this point the element does not belong to a twig yet, so the ID attribute is not known so it won't be strored in the ID list. A content of '"#EMPTY"' creates an empty element; namespace Return the URI of the namespace that the name belongs to. If the name doesn't belong to any namespace, "undef" is returned. expand_ns_prefix ($prefix) Return the uri to which the given prefix is bound in the context of the element. Returns "undef" if the prefix isn't currently bound. Use '"#default"' to find the cur- rent binding of the default namespace (if any). current_ns_prefixes Returna list of namespace prefixes valid for the element. The order of the prefixes in the list has no meaning. If the default namespace is currently bound, '"#default"' appears in the list. inherit_att ($att, @optional_gi_list) Return the value of an attribute inherited from parent tags. The value returned is found by looking for the attribute in the element then in turn in each of its ances- tors. If the @optional_gi_list is supplied only those ancestors whose gi is in the list will be checked. all_children_are ($optional_condition) return 1 if all children of the element pass the $optional_condition, 0 otherwise level ($optional_condition) Return the depth of the element in the twig (root is 0). If $optional_condition is given then only ancestors that match the condition are counted. WARNING: in a tree created using the "twig_roots" option this will not return the level in the document tree, level 0 will be the document root, level 1 will be the "twig_roots" elements. During the parsing (in a "twig_handler") you can use the "depth" method on the twig object to get the real parsing depth. in ($potential_parent) Return true if the element is in the potential_parent ($potential_parent is an ele- ment) in_context ($gi, $optional_level) Return true if the element is included in an element whose gi is $gi, optionally within $optional_level levels. The returned value is the including element. pcdata Return the text of a "PCDATA" element or "undef" if the element is not "PCDATA". pcdata_xml_string Return the text of a PCDATA element or undef if the element is not PCDATA. The text is "XML-escaped" ('&' and '<' are replaced by '&' and '<') set_pcdata ($text) Set the text of a "PCDATA" element. append_pcdata ($text) Add the text at the end of a "PCDATA" element. is_cdata Return 1 if the element is a "CDATA" element, returns 0 otherwise. is_text Return 1 if the element is a "CDATA" or "PCDATA" element, returns 0 otherwise. cdata Return the text of a "CDATA" element or "undef" if the element is not "CDATA". set_cdata ($text) Set the text of a "CDATA" element. append_cdata ($text) Add the text at the end of a "CDATA" element. remove_cdata Turns all "CDATA" sections in the element into regular "PCDATA" elements. This is use- ful when converting XML to HTML, as browsers do not support CDATA sections. extra_data Return the extra_data (comments and PI's) attached to an element set_extra_data ($extra_data) Set the extra_data (comments and PI's) attached to an element append_extra_data ($extra_data) Append extra_data to the existing extra_data before the element (if no previous extra_data exists then it is created) set_asis Set a property of the element that causes it to be output without being XML escaped by the print functions: if it contains "a < b" it will be output as such and not as "a < b". This can be useful to create text elements that will be output as markup. Note that all "PCDATA" descendants of the element are also marked as having the prop- erty (they are the ones taht are actually impacted by the change). If the element is a "CDATA" element it will also be output asis, without the "CDATA" markers. The same goes for any "CDATA" descendant of the element set_not_asis Unsets the "asis" property for the element and its text descendants. is_asis Return the "asis" property status of the element ( 1 or "undef") closed Return true if the element has been closed. Might be usefull if you are somewhere in the tree, during the parse, and have no idea whether a parent element is completely loaded or not. get_type Return the type of the element: '"#ELT"' for "real" elements, or '"#PCDATA"', '"#CDATA"', '"#COMMENT"', '"#ENT"', '"#PI"' is_elt Return the gi if the element is a "real" element, or 0 if it is "PCDATA", "CDATA"... contains_only_text Return 1 if the element does not contain any other "real" element contains_only ($exp) Return the list of children if all children of the element match the expression $exp if( $para->contains_only( 'tt')) { ... } contains_a_single ($exp) If the element contains a single child that matches the expression $exp returns that element. Otherwise returns 0. is_field same as "contains_only_text" is_pcdata Return 1 if the element is a "PCDATA" element, returns 0 otherwise. is_empty Return 1 if the element is empty, 0 otherwise set_empty Flags the element as empty. No further check is made, so if the element is actually not empty the output will be messed. The only effect of this method is that the output will be "<gi att="value""/>". set_not_empty Flags the element as not empty. if it is actually empty then the element will be out- put as "<gi att="value""></gi>" child ($offset, $optional_condition) Return the $offset-th child of the element, optionally the $offset-th child that matches $optional_condition. The children are treated as a list, so "$elt->child( 0)" is the first child, while "$elt->child( -1)" is the last child. child_text ($offset, $optional_condition) Return the text of a child or "undef" if the sibling does not exist. Arguments are the same as child. last_child ($optional_condition) Return the last child of the element, or the last child matching $optional_condition (ie the last of the element children matching the condition). last_child_text ($optional_condition) Same as "first_child_text" but for the last child. sibling ($offset, $optional_condition) Return the next or previous $offset-th sibling of the element, or the $offset-th one matching $optional_condition. If $offset is negative then a previous sibling is returned, if $offset is positive then a next sibling is returned. "$offset=0" returns the element if there is no condition or if the element matches the condition>, "undef" otherwise. sibling_text ($offset, $optional_condition) Return the text of a sibling or "undef" if the sibling does not exist. Arguments are the same as "sibling". prev_siblings ($optional_condition) Return the list of previous siblings (optionaly matching $optional_condition) for the element. The elements are ordered in document order. next_siblings ($optional_condition) Return the list of siblings (optionaly matching $optional_condition) following the element. The elements are ordered in document order. pos ($optional_condition) Return the position of the element in the children list. The first child has a posi- tion of 1 (as in XPath). If the $optional_condition is given then only siblings that match the condition are counted. If the element itself does not match the condition then 0 is returned. atts Return a hash ref containing the element attributes set_atts ({att1=>$att1_val, att2=> $att2_val... }) Set the element attributes with the hash ref supplied as the argument del_atts Deletes all the element attributes. att_names return a list of the attribute names for the element att_xml_string ($att, $optional_quote) Return the attribute value, where '&', '<' and $quote (" by default) are XML-escaped if $optional_quote is passed then it is used as the quote. set_id ($id) Set the "id" attribute of the element to the value. See "elt_id " to change the id attribute name id Gets the id attribute value del_id ($id) Deletes the "id" attribute of the element and remove it from the id list for the docu- ment DESTROY Frees the element from memory. start_tag Return the string for the start tag for the element, including the "/>" at the end of an empty element tag end_tag Return the string for the end tag of an element. For an empty element, this returns the empty string (''). xml_string Equivalent to "$elt->sprint( 1)", returns the string for the entire element, excluding the element's tags (but nested element tags are present) xml_text Return the text of the element, encoded (and processed by the current "output_filter" or "output_encoding" options, without any tag. set_pretty_print ($style) Set the pretty print method, amongst '"none"' (default), '"nsgmls"', '"nice"', '"indented"', '"record"' and '"record_c"' pretty_print styles: none the default, no "\n" is used nsgmls nsgmls style, with "\n" added within tags nice adds "\n" wherever possible (NOT SAFE, can lead to invalid XML) indented same as "nice" plus indents elements (NOT SAFE, can lead to invalid XML) record table-oriented pretty print, one field per line record_c table-oriented pretty print, more compact than "record", one record per line set_empty_tag_style ($style) Set the method to output empty tags, amongst '"normal"' (default), '"html"', and '"expand"', set_indent ($string) Set the indentation for the indented pretty print style (default is 2 spaces) set_quote ($quote) Set the quotes used for attributes. can be '"double"' (default) or '"single"' cmp ($elt) Compare the order of the 2 elements in a twig. C<$a> is the <A>..</A> element, C<$b> is the <B>...</B> element document $a->cmp( $b) <A> ... </A> ... <B> ... </B> -1 <A> ... <B> ... </B> ... </A> -1 <B> ... </B> ... <A> ... </A> 1 <B> ... <A> ... </A> ... </B> 1 $a == $b 0 $a and $b not in the same tree undef before ($elt) Return 1 if $elt starts before the element, 0 otherwise. If the 2 elements are not in the same twig then return "undef". if( $a->cmp( $b) == -1) { return 1; } else { return 0; } after ($elt) Return 1 if $elt starts after the element, 0 otherwise. If the 2 elements are not in the same twig then return "undef". if( $a->cmp( $b) == -1) { return 1; } else { return 0; } path Return the element context in a form similar to XPath's short form: '"/root/gi1/../gi"' xpath Return a unique XPath expression that can be used to find the element again. It looks like "/doc/sect[3]/title": unique elements do not have an index, the others do. private methods Low-level methods on the twig: set_parent ($parent) set_first_child ($first_child) set_last_child ($last_child) set_prev_sibling ($prev_sibling) set_next_sibling ($next_sibling) set_twig_current del_twig_current twig_current flushed This method should NOT be used, always flush the twig, not an element. set_flushed del_flushed flush contains_text Those methods should not be used, unless of course you find some creative and inter- esting, not to mention useful, ways to do it. cond Most of the navigation functions accept a condition as an optional argument The first ele- ment (or all elements for "children " or "ancestors ") that passes the condition is returned. The condition is a single step of an XPath expression using the XPath subset defined by "get_xpath". Additional conditions are: The condition can be #ELT return a "real" element (not a PCDATA, CDATA, comment or pi element) #TEXT return a PCDATA or CDATA element regular expression return an element whose gi matches the regexp. The regexp has to be created with "qr//" (hence this is available only on perl 5.005 and above) code reference applies the code, passing the current element as argument, if the code returns true then the element is returned, if it returns false then the code is applied to the next candidate. XML::Twig::XPath XML::Twig implements a subset of XPath through the "get_xpath" method. If you want to use the whole XPath power, then you can use "XML::Twig::XPath" instead. In this case "XML::Twig" uses "XML::XPath" to execute XPath queries. You will of course need "XML::XPath" installed to be able to use "XML::Twig::XPath". See XML::XPath for more information. The methods you can use are: findnodes ($path) return a list of nodes found by $path. findnodes_as_string ($path) return the nodes found reproduced as XML. The result is not guaranteed to be valid XML though. findvalue ($path) return the concatenation of the text content of the result nodes XML::Twig::XPath::Elt The methods you can use are the same as on "XML::Twig::XPath" elements: findnodes ($path) return a list of nodes found by $path. findnodes_as_string ($path) return the nodes found reproduced as XML. The result is not guaranteed to be valid XML though. findvalue ($path) return the concatenation of the text content of the result nodes XML::Twig::Entity_list new Creates an entity list. add ($ent) Adds an entity to an entity list. delete ($ent or $gi). Deletes an entity (defined by its name or by the Entity object) from the list. print ($optional_filehandle) Prints the entity list. XML::Twig::Entity new ($name, $val, $sysid, $pubid, $ndata) Same arguments as the Entity handler for XML::Parser. print ($optional_filehandle) Print an entity declaration. name Return the name of the entity val Return the value of the entity sysid Return the system id for the entity (for NDATA entities) pubid Return the public id for the entity (for NDATA entities) ndata Return true if the entity is an NDATA entity text Return the entity declaration text. EXAMPLES See the test file in t/test[1-n].t Additional examples (and a complete tutorial) can be found on the XML::Twig Page<http://www.xmltwig.com/xmltwig/> To figure out what flush does call the following script with an XML file and an element name as arguments use XML::Twig; my ($file, $elt)= @ARGV; my $t= XML::Twig->new( twig_handlers => { $elt => sub {$_[0]->flush; print "\n[flushed here]\n";} }); $t->parsefile( $file, ErrorContext => 2); $t->flush; print "\n"; NOTES XML::Twig and various versions of Perl, XML::Parser and expat: Before being uploaded to CPAN, XML::Twig 3.12 has been tested under the following environ- ments: Linux, perl 5.8.2, expat 1.95.7, XML::Parser 2.34 Solaris, perl 5.6.1, expat ?, XML::Parser 2.31 Windows 98, perl 5.6.1 (Activestate build 635), XML::Parser 2.27 Windows 98, perl 5.8.2 (Activestate build 808), XML::Parser 2.34 Mac OS X, perl 5.6.0, XML::Parser 2.34 Mac OS X, perl 5.8.3, XML::Parser 2.34 Dec-OSF1 4.1G, perl 5.6.1, XML::Parser 2.34 Note that with Windows 98 and Perl 5.6.1 nmake may freeze while trying to copy the tools (xml_grep, xml_print and xml_spellcheck), so you have to answer no when asked if you want to install them. See <http://testers.cpan.org/search?request=dist&dist=XML-Twig> for the CPAN testers reports on XML::Twig XML::Twig does NOT work with expat 1.95.4 (upgrade to 1.95.5) XML::Parser 2.27 does NOT work under perl 5.8.0 When in doubt, upgrade expat, XML::Parser and Scalar::Util DTD Handling There are 3 possibilities here. They are: No DTD No doctype, no DTD information, no entity information, the world is simple... Internal DTD The XML document includes an internal DTD, and maybe entity declarations. If you use the load_DTD option when creating the twig the DTD information and the entity declarations can be accessed. The DTD and the entity declarations will be "flush"'ed (or "print"'ed) either as is (if they have not been modified) or as reconstructed (poorly, comments are lost, order is not kept, due to it's content this DTD should not be viewed by anyone) if they have been modified. You can also modify them directly by changing the "$twig->{twig_doc- type}->{internal}" field (straight from XML::Parser, see the "Doctype" handler doc) External DTD The XML document includes a reference to an external DTD, and maybe entity declara- tions. If you use the "load_DTD" when creating the twig the DTD information and the entity declarations can be accessed. The entity declarations will be "flush"'ed (or "print"'ed) either as is (if they have not been modified) or as reconstructed (badly, comments are lost, order is not kept). You can change the doctype through the "$twig->set_doctype" method and print the dtd through the "$twig->dtd_text" or "$twig->dtd_print" methods. If you need to modify the entity list this is probably the easiest way to do it. Flush If you set handlers and use "flush", do not forget to flush the twig one last time AFTER the parsing, or you might be missing the end of the document. Remember that element handlers are called when the element is CLOSED, so if you have han- dlers for nested elements the inner handlers will be called first. It makes it for example trickier than it would seem to number nested clauses. BUGS entity handling Due to XML::Parser behaviour, non-base entities in attribute values disappear: "att="val&ent;"" will be turned into "att => val", unless you use the "keep_encoding" argument to "XML::Twig->new" DTD handling Basically the DTD handling methods are competely bugged. No one uses them and it seems very difficult to get them to work in all cases, including with several slightly incompatible versions of XML::Parser and of libexpat. So use XML::Twig with standalone documents, or with documents refering to an external DTD, but don't expect it to properly parse and even output back the DTD. memory leak If you use a lot of twigs you might find that you leak quite a lot of memory (about 2Ks per twig). You can use the "dispose " method to free that memory after you are done. If you create elements the same thing might happen, use the "delete" method to get rid of them. Alternatively installing the "Scalar::Util" (or "WeakRef") module on a version of Perl that supports it (>5.6.0) will get rid of the memory leaks automagically. ID list The ID list is NOT updated when ID's are modified or elements cut or deleted. change_gi This method will not function properly if you do: $twig->change_gi( $old1, $new); $twig->change_gi( $old2, $new); $twig->change_gi( $new, $even_newer); sanity check on XML::Parser method calls XML::Twig should really prevent calls to some XML::Parser methods, especially the "setHandlers" method. pretty printing Pretty printing (at least using the '"indented"' style) is hard to get right! Only elements that belong to the document will be properly indented. Printing elements that do not belong to the twig makes it impossible for XML::Twig to figure out their depth, and thus their indentation level. Also there is an anavoidable bug when using "flush" and pretty printing for elements with mixed content that start with an embedded element: <elt><b>b</b>toto<b>bold</b></elt> will be output as <elt> <b>b</b>toto<b>bold</b></elt> if you flush the twig when you find the "<b>" element Globals These are the things that can mess up calling code, especially if threaded. They might also cause problem under mod_perl. Exported constants Whether you want them or not you get them! These are subroutines to use as constant when creating or testing elements PCDATA return '#PCDATA' CDATA return '#CDATA' PI return '#PI', I had the choice between PROC and PI :--( Module scoped values: constants these should cause no trouble: %base_ent= ( '>' => '>', '<' => '<', '&' => '&', "'" => ''', '"' => '"', ); CDATA_START = "<![CDATA["; CDATA_END = "]]>"; PI_START = "<?"; PI_END = "?>"; COMMENT_START = "<!--"; COMMENT_END = "-->"; pretty print styles ( $NSGMLS, $NICE, $INDENTED, $RECORD1, $RECORD2)= (1..5); empty tag output style ( $HTML, $EXPAND)= (1..2); Module scoped values: might be changed Most of these deal with pretty printing, so the worst that can happen is probably that XML output does not look right, but is still valid and processed identically by XML processors. $empty_tag_style can mess up HTML bowsers though and changing $ID would most likely create problems. $pretty=0; # pretty print style $quote='"'; # quote for attributes $INDENT= ' '; # indent for indented pretty print $empty_tag_style= 0; # how to display empty tags $ID # attribute used as a gi ('id' by default) Module scoped values: definitely changed These 2 variables are used to replace gi's by an index, thus saving some space when creating a twig. If they really cause you too much trouble, let me know, it is proba- bly possible to create either a switch or at least a version of XML::Twig that does not perform this optimisation. %gi2index; # gi => index @index2gi; # list of gi's TODO SAX handlers Allowing XML::Twig to work on top of any SAX parser multiple twigs are not well supported A number of twig features are just global at the moment. These include the ID list and the "gi pool" (if you use "change_gi" then you change the gi for ALL twigs). A future version will try to support this while trying not to be to hard on perfor- mance (at least when a single twig is used!). AUTHOR Michel Rodriguez <mirod AT xmltwig.com> LICENSE This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Bug reports should be sent using: RT<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=XML-Twig> Comments can be sent to mirod AT xmltwig.com The XML::Twig page is at <http://www.xmltwig.com/xmltwig/> It includes the development version of the module, a slightly better version of the documentation, examples, a tuto- rial and a: Processing XML efficiently with Perl and XML::Twig: <http://www.xmltwig.com/xmltwig/tutorial/index.html> SEE ALSO XML::Parser,XML::Parser::Expat, Encode, Text::Iconv, Scalar::Utils perl v5.8.5 2005-02-21 Twig(3) |