Mini-XML - Tiny XML Parsing Library v4 ====================================== ![Version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/michaelrsweet/mxml?include_prereleases) ![Apache 2.0](https://img.shields.io/github/license/michaelrsweet/mxml) ![Build](https://github.com/michaelrsweet/mxml/workflows/Build/badge.svg) [![Coverity Scan Status](https://img.shields.io/coverity/scan/23959.svg)](https://scan.coverity.com/projects/michaelrsweet-mxml) Mini-XML is a small XML parsing library that you can use to read XML data files or strings in your application without requiring large non-standard libraries. Mini-XML only requires a "make" program and a C99 compatible compiler - GCC works, as do most vendors' C compilers. Mini-XML provides the following functionality: - Reading of UTF-8 and UTF-16 and writing of UTF-8 encoded XML files and strings. - Data is stored in a linked-list tree structure, preserving the XML data hierarchy. - SAX (streamed) reading of XML files and strings to minimize memory usage. - Supports arbitrary element names, attributes, and attribute values with no preset limits, just available memory. - Supports integer, real, opaque, text, and custom data types in "leaf" nodes. - Functions for creating and managing trees of data. - "Find" and "walk" functions for easily locating and navigating trees of data. - Support for custom string memory management functions to implement string pools and other schemes for reducing memory usage. Mini-XML doesn't do validation or other types of processing on the data based upon schema files or other sources of definition information. Building Mini-XML ----------------- Mini-XML comes with an autoconf-based configure script; just type the following command to get things going: ./configure The default install prefix is `/usr/local`, which can be overridden using the `--prefix` option: ./configure --prefix=/foo Other configure options can be found using the `--help` option: ./configure --help Once you have configured the software, type `make` to do the build and run the test program to verify that things are working, as follows: make If you are using Mini-XML under Microsoft Windows with Visual C++, use the included project files in the `vcnet` subdirectory to build the library instead. Note: The static library on Windows is NOT thread-safe. Installing Mini-XML ------------------- The `install` target will install Mini-XML in the lib and include directories: sudo make install Once you have installed it, use the `-lmxml` option to link your application against it. Documentation ------------- The documentation is available in the `doc` subdirectory in the files `mxml.html` (HTML) and `mxml.epub` (EPUB). You can also look at the `testmxml.c` source file for examples of using Mini-XML. Mini-XML provides a single header file which you include: #include Nodes (elements, comments, declarations, integers, opaque strings, processing instructions, real numbers, and text strings) are represented by `mxml_node_t` pointers. New nodes can be created using the mxmlNewXxx functions. The top node must be the `` processing instruction. You load an XML file using the mxmlLoadFilename function: mxml_node_t *tree; tree = mxmlLoadFilename(/*top*/NULL, /*options*/NULL, "example.xml"); Similarly, you save an XML file using the mxmlSaveFilename function: mxml_node_t *tree; mxmlSaveFilename(tree, /*options*/NULL, "filename.xml"); There are variations of these functions for loading from or saving to file descriptors, `FILE` pointers, strings, and IO callbacks. You can find a named element/node using the mxmlFindElement function: mxml_node_t *node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, "name", "attr", "value", MXML_DESCEND_ALL); The `name`, `attr`, and `value` arguments can be passed as `NULL` to act as wildcards, e.g.: /* Find the first "a" element */ node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, "a", NULL, NULL, MXML_DESCEND_ALL); /* Find the first "a" element with "href" attribute */ node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, "a", "href", NULL, MXML_DESCEND_ALL); /* Find the first "a" element with "href" to a URL */ node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, "a", "href", "https://www.msweet.org/mxml", MXML_DESCEND_ALL); /* Find the first element with a "src" attribute*/ node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, NULL, "src", NULL, MXML_DESCEND_ALL); /* Find the first element with a "src" = "foo.jpg" */ node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, NULL, "src", "foo.jpg", MXML_DESCEND_ALL); You can also iterate with the same function: mxml_node_t *node; for (node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, "name", NULL, NULL, MXML_DESCEND_ALL); node != NULL; node = mxmlFindElement(node, tree, "name", NULL, NULL, MXML_DESCEND_ALL)) { ... do something ... } The mxmlFindPath function finds the (first) value node under a specific element using an XPath: mxml_node_t *value = mxmlFindPath(tree, "path/to/*/foo/bar"); The mxmlGetInteger, mxmlGetOpaque, mxmlGetReal, and mxmlGetText functions retrieve the corresponding value from a node: mxml_node_t *node; int intvalue = mxmlGetInteger(node); const char *opaquevalue = mxmlGetOpaque(node); double realvalue = mxmlGetReal(node); bool whitespacevalue; const char *textvalue = mxmlGetText(node, &whitespacevalue); Finally, once you are done with the XML data, use the mxmlDelete function to recursively free the memory that is used for a particular node or the entire tree: mxmlDelete(tree); Getting Help And Reporting Problems ----------------------------------- The [Mini-XML project page](https://www.msweet.org/mxml) provides access to the current version of this software, documentation, and Github issue tracking page. Legal Stuff ----------- Copyright © 2003-2024 by Michael R Sweet The Mini-XML library is licensed under the Apache License Version 2.0 with an *optional* exception to allow linking against GPL2/LGPL2-only software. See the files "LICENSE" and "NOTICE" for more information. > Note: The exception listed in the NOTICE file only applies when linking > against GPL2/LGPL2-only software. Some Apache License purists have objected > to linking Apache Licensed code against Mini-XML with these exceptions on the > grounds that it makes Mini-XML somehow incompatible with the Apache License. > For that reason, people wishing to retain their Apache License purity may > omit the exception from their copy of Mini-XML. > > Note 2: IANAL, but I am beginning to dislike them!