This programmers manual describes Mini-XML version 2.9, a small XML parsing library that you can use to read and write XML data files in your C and C++ applications.

Mini-XML was initially developed for the Gutenprint project to replace the rather large and unwieldy libxml2 library with something substantially smaller and easier-to-use. It all began one morning in June of 2003 when Robert posted the following sentence to the developer's list:

I took my own challenge and coded furiously for two days to produced the initial public release of Mini-XML, total lines of code: 696. Robert promptly integrated Mini-XML into Gutenprint and removed libxml2.

Thanks to lots of feedback and support from various developers, Mini-XML has evolved since then to provide a more complete XML implementation and now stands at a whopping 3,792 lines of code, compared to 140,410 lines of code for libxml2 version 2.9.1.

Aside from Gutenprint, Mini-XML is used for the following projects/software applications:

Please file a bug on msweet.org if you would like your project added or removed from this list, or if you have any comments/quotes you would like me to publish about your experiences with Mini-XML.

Organization of This Document

Notation Conventions

Various font and syntax conventions are used in this guide. Examples and their meanings and uses are explained below:

Abbreviations

Other References

Legal Stuff

Building, Installing, and Packaging Mini-XML

This chapter describes how to build, install, and package Mini-XML on your system from the source archive. You will need an ANSI/ISO-C compatible compiler to build Mini-XML - GCC works, as do most vendors' C compilers. If you are building Mini-XML on Windows, we recommend using the Visual C++ environment with the supplied solution file. For other operating systems, you'll need a POSIX-compatible shell and make program in addition to the C compiler.

Compiling Mini-XML

Mini-XML comes with both an autoconf-based configure script and a Visual C++ solution that can be used to compile the library and associated tools.

Compiling with Visual C++

Open the mxml.sln solution in the vcnet folder. Choose the desired build configuration, "Debug" (the default) or "Release", and then choose Build Solution from theBuild menu.

Compiling with Command-Line Tools

Type the following command to configure the Mini-XML source code for your system:

The default install prefix is /usr/local, which can be overridden using the --prefix option:

Once you have configured the software, use the make(1) program to do the build and run the test program to verify that things are working, as follows:

Installing Mini-XML

If you are using Visual C++, copy the mxml.lib and andmxml.h files to the Visual C++ lib andinclude directories, respectively.

Otherwise, use the make command with the install target to install Mini-XML in the configured directories:

Creating Mini-XML Packages

Mini-XML includes two files that can be used to create binary packages. The first file is mxml.spec which is used by the rpmbuild(8) software to create Red Hat Package Manager ("RPM") packages which are commonly used on Linux. Since rpmbuild wants to compile the software on its own, you can provide it with the Mini-XML tar file to build the package:

The second file is mxml.list which is used by the epm(1) program to create software packages in a variety of formats. The epm program is available from the following URL:

Use the make command with the epm target to create portable and native packages for your system:

The packages are stored in a subdirectory named dist for your convenience. The portable packages utilize scripts and tar files to install the software on the target system. After extracting the package archive, use the mxml.install script to install the software.

The native packages will be in the local OS's native format: RPM for Red Hat Linux, DPKG for Debian Linux, PKG for Solaris, and so forth. Use the corresponding commands to install the native packages.

Getting Started with Mini-XML

This chapter describes how to write programs that use Mini-XML to access data in an XML file. Mini-XML provides the following functionality:

Mini-XML doesn't do validation or other types of processing on the data based upon schema files or other sources of definition information, nor does it support character entities other than those required by the XML specification.

The Basics

If you have the pkg-config(1) software installed, you can use it to determine the proper compiler and linker options for your installation:

Nodes

Every piece of information in an XML file is stored in memory in "nodes". Nodes are defined by the mxml_node_t structure. Each node has a typed value, optional user data, a parent node, sibling nodes (previous and next), and potentially child nodes.

where "-" is a pointer to the sibling node and "|" is a pointer to the first child or parent node.

The mxmlGetType function gets the type of a node, one of MXML_CUSTOM, MXML_ELEMENT, MXML_INTEGER, MXML_OPAQUE, MXML_REAL, or MXML_TEXT. The parent and sibling nodes are accessed using the mxmlGetParent, mxmlGetNext , and mxmlGetPrevious functions. The mxmlGetUserData function gets any user data associated with the node.

CDATA Nodes

CDATA (MXML_ELEMENT) nodes are created using the mxmlNewCDATA function. The mxmlGetCDATA function retrieves the CDATA string pointer for a node.

Custom Nodes

Custom (MXML_CUSTOM) nodes are created using the mxmlNewCustom function or using a custom load callback specified using the mxmlSetCustomHandlers function. The mxmlGetCustom function retrieves the custom value pointer for a node.

Comment Nodes

Comment (MXML_ELEMENT) nodes are created using the mxmlNewElement function. The mxmlGetElement function retrieves the comment string pointer for a node, including the surrounding "!--" and "--" characters.

Element Nodes

Element (MXML_ELEMENT) nodes are created using the mxmlNewElement function. The mxmlGetElement function retrieves the element name, the mxmlElementGetAttr function retrieves the value string for a named attribute associated with the element, and the mxmlGetFirstChild and mxmlGetLastChild functions retrieve the first and last child nodes for the element, respectively.

Integer Nodes

Integer (MXML_INTEGER) nodes are created using the mxmlNewInteger function. The mxmlGetInteger function retrieves the integer value for a node.

Opaque Nodes

Opaque (MXML_OPAQUE) nodes are created using the mxmlNewOpaque function. The mxmlGetOpaque function retrieves the opaque string pointer for a node. Opaque nodes are like string nodes but preserve all whitespace between nodes.

Text Nodes

Text (MXML_TEXT) nodes are created using the mxmlNewText and mxmlNewTextf functions. Each text node consists of a text string and (leading) whitespace value - the mxmlGetText function retrieves the text string pointer and whitespace value for a node.

Processing Instruction Nodes

Processing instruction (MXML_ELEMENT) nodes are created using the mxmlNewElement function. The mxmlGetElement function retrieves the processing instruction string for a node, including the surrounding "?" characters.

Real Number Nodes

Real number (MXML_REAL) nodes are created using the mxmlNewReal function. The mxmlGetReal function retrieves the CDATA string pointer for a node.

XML Declaration Nodes

XML declaration (MXML_ELEMENT) nodes are created using the mxmlNewXML function. The mxmlGetElement function retrieves the XML declaration string for a node, including the surrounding "?" characters.

Creating XML Documents

You can create and update XML documents in memory using the various mxmlNew functions. The following code will create the XML document described in the previous section:

We start by creating the declaration node common to all XML files using the mxmlNewXML function:

We then create the <data> node used for this document using the mxmlNewElement function. The first argument specifies the parent node (xml) while the second specifies the element name (data):

Each <node>...</node> in the file is created using the mxmlNewElement and mxmlNewText functions. The first argument of mxmlNewText specifies the parent node (node). The second argument specifies whether whitespace appears before the text - 0 or false in this case. The last argument specifies the actual text to add:

The resulting in-memory XML document can then be saved or processed just like one loaded from disk or a string.

Loading XML

The first argument specifies an existing XML parent node, if any. Normally you will pass NULL for this argument unless you are combining multiple XML sources. The XML file must contain a complete XML document including the ?xml element if the parent node is NULL.

The second argument specifies the stdio file to read from, as opened by fopen() or popen(). You can also use stdin if you are implementing an XML filter program.

The third argument specifies a callback function which returns the value type of the immediate children for a new element node: MXML_CUSTOM, MXML_IGNORE, MXML_INTEGER, MXML_OPAQUE, MXML_REAL, or MXML_TEXT. Load callbacks are described in detail in Chapter 3. The example code uses the MXML_TEXT_CALLBACK constant which specifies that all data nodes in the document contain whitespace-separated text values. Other standard callbacks include MXML_IGNORE_CALLBACK, MXML_INTEGER_CALLBACK, MXML_OPAQUE_CALLBACK, and MXML_REAL_CALLBACK.

The first and third arguments are the same as used for mxmlLoadFile(). The second argument specifies the string or character buffer to load and must be a complete XML document including the ?xml element if the parent node is NULL.

Saving XML

The first argument is the XML node tree to save. It should normally be a pointer to the top-level ?xml node in your XML document.

The second argument is the stdio file to write to, as opened by fopen() or popen(). You can also use stdout if you are implementing an XML filter program.

The third argument is the whitespace callback to use when saving the file. Whitespace callbacks are covered in detail in Chapter 3. The previous example code uses the MXML_NO_CALLBACK constant to specify that no special whitespace handling is required.

The first and last arguments are the same as used for mxmlSaveFile(). The mxmlSaveString function takes pointer and size arguments for saving the XML document to a fixed-size buffer, while mxmlSaveAllocString() returns a string buffer that was allocated using malloc().

Controlling Line Wrapping

When saving XML documents, Mini-XML normally wraps output lines at column 75 so that the text is readable in terminal windows. The mxmlSetWrapMargin function overrides the default wrap margin:

Memory Management

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:

You can also use reference counting to manage memory usage. The mxmlRetain and mxmlRelease functions increment and decrement a node's use count, respectively. When the use count goes to 0, mxmlRelease will automatically call mxmlDelete to actually free the memory used by the node tree. New nodes automatically start with a use count of 1.

Finding and Iterating Nodes

In addition, you can find a named element/node using the mxmlFindElement function:

The name, attr, and value arguments can be passed as NULL to act as wildcards, e.g.:

Finding Specific Nodes

The second argument is a "path" to the parent node. Each component of the path is separated by a slash (/) and represents a named element in the document tree or a wildcard (*) path representing 0 or more intervening nodes.

More Mini-XML Programming Techniques

This chapter shows additional ways to use the Mini-XML library in your programs.

Load Callbacks

Chapter 2 introduced the mxmlLoadFile() and mxmlLoadString() functions. The last argument to these functions is a callback function which is used to determine the value type of each data node in an XML document.

You can provide your own callback functions for more complex XML documents. Your callback function will receive a pointer to the current element node and must return the value type of the immediate children for that element node: MXML_INTEGER, MXML_OPAQUE, MXML_REAL, or MXML_TEXT. The function is called after the element and its attributes have been read, so you can look at the element name, attributes, and attribute values to determine the proper value type to return.

The following callback function looks for an attribute named "type" or the element name to determine the value type for its child nodes:

To use this callback function, simply use the name when you call any of the load functions:

Save Callbacks

Your callback function will be called up to four times for each element node with a pointer to the node and a "where" value of MXML_WS_BEFORE_OPEN, MXML_WS_AFTER_OPEN, MXML_WS_BEFORE_CLOSE, or MXML_WS_AFTER_CLOSE. The callback function should return NULL if no whitespace should be added and the string to insert (spaces, tabs, carriage returns, and newlines) otherwise.

The following whitespace callback can be used to add whitespace to XHTML output to make it more readable in a standard text editor:

To use this callback function, simply use the name when you call any of the save functions:

Custom Data Types

Mini-XML supports custom data types via global load and save callbacks. Only a single set of callbacks can be active at any time, however your callbacks can store additional information in order to support multiple custom data types as needed. The MXML_CUSTOM node type identifies custom data nodes.

The load callback receives a pointer to the current data node and a string of opaque character data from the XML source with character entities converted to the corresponding UTF-8 characters. For example, if we wanted to support a custom date/time type whose value is encoded as "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ" (ISO format), the load callback would look like the following:

The function itself can return 0 on success or -1 if it is unable to decode the custom data or the data contains an error. Custom data nodes contain a void pointer to the allocated custom data for the node and a pointer to a destructor function which will free the custom data when the node is deleted.

The save callback receives the node pointer and returns an allocated string containing the custom data value. The following save callback could be used for our ISO date/time type:

Changing Node Values

All of the examples so far have concentrated on creating and loading new XML data nodes. Many applications, however, need to manipulate or change the nodes during their operation, so Mini-XML provides functions to change node values safely and without leaking memory.

Formatted Text

The mxmlNewTextf() and mxmlSetTextf() functions create and change text nodes, respectively, using printf-style format strings and arguments. For example, use the following function call to create a new text node containing a constructed filename:

Indexing

Mini-XML provides functions for managing indices of nodes. The current implementation provides the same functionality as mxmlFindElement(). The advantage of using an index is that searching and enumeration of elements is significantly faster. The only disadvantage is that each index is a static snapshot of the XML document, so indices are not well suited to XML data that is updated more often than it is searched. The overhead of creating an index is approximately equal to walking the XML document tree. Nodes in the index are sorted by element name and attribute value.

The first argument is the XML node tree to index. Normally this will be a pointer to the ?xml element.

The second argument contains the element to index; passing NULL indexes all element nodes alphabetically.

The third argument contains the attribute to index; passing NULL causes only the element name to be indexed.

The mxmlIndexEnum() function enumerates each of the nodes in the index and can be used in a loop as follows:

The mxmlIndexFind() function locates the next occurrence of the named element and attribute value in the index. It can be used to find all matching elements in an index, as follows:

The second and third arguments represent the element name and attribute value, respectively. A NULL pointer is used to return all elements or attributes in the index. Passing NULL for both the element name and attribute value is equivalent to calling mxmlIndexEnum.

When you are done using the index, delete it using the mxmlIndexDelete() function:

SAX (Stream) Loading of Documents

Mini-XML supports an implementation of the Simple API for XML (SAX) which allows you to load and process an XML document as a stream of nodes. Aside from allowing you to process XML documents of any size, the Mini-XML implementation also allows you to retain portions of the document in memory for later processing.

The mxmlSAXLoadFd, mxmlSAXLoadFile, and mxmlSAXLoadString functions provide the SAX loading APIs. Each function works like the corresponding mxmlLoad function but uses a callback to process each node as it is read.

The callback function receives the node, an event code, and a user data pointer you supply:

Elements are released after the close element is processed. All other nodes are released after they are processed. The SAX callback can retain the node using the mxmlRetain function. For example, the following SAX callback will retain all nodes, effectively simulating a normal in-memory load:

More typically the SAX callback will only retain a small portion of the document that is needed for post-processing. For example, the following SAX callback will retain the title and headings in an XHTML file. It also retains the (parent) elements like <html>, <head>, and <body>, and processing directives like <?xml ... ?> and <!DOCTYPE ... >:

The resulting skeleton document tree can then be searched just like one loaded using the mxmlLoad functions. For example, a filter that reads an XHTML document from stdin and then shows the title and headings in the document would look like:

Using the mxmldoc Utility

This chapter describes how to use mxmldoc(1) program to automatically generate documentation from C and C++ source files.

The Basics

Originally developed to generate the Mini-XML and CUPS API documentation, mxmldoc is now a general-purpose utility which scans C and C++ source files to produce HTML and man page documentation along with an XML file representing the functions, types, and definitions in those source files. Unlike popular documentation generators like Doxygen or Javadoc, mxmldoc uses in-line comments rather than comment headers, allowing for more "natural" code documentation.

By default, mxmldoc produces HTML documentation. For example, the following command will scan all of the C source and header files in the current directory and produce a HTML documentation file called filename.html:

You can also specify an XML file to create which contains all of the information from the source files. For example, the following command creates an XML file called filename.xml in addition to the HTML file:

You can then run mxmldoc again with the XML file alone to generate the HTML documentation:

Creating Man Pages

The --man filename option tells mxmldoc to create a man page instead of HTML documentation, for example:

Creating Xcode Documentation Sets

The --docset directory.docset option tells mxmldoc to create an Xcode documentation set containing the HTML documentation, for example:

Xcode documentation sets can only be built on Mac OS X with Xcode 3.0 or higher installed.

Commenting Your Code

As noted previously, mxmldoc looks for in-line comments to describe the functions, types, and constants in your code. Mxmldoc will document all public names it finds in your source files - any names starting with the underscore character (_) or names that are documented with the @private@ directive are treated as private and are not documented.

Comments appearing directly before a function or type definition are used to document that function or type. Comments appearing after argument, definition, return type, or variable declarations are used to document that argument, definition, return type, or variable. For example, the following code excerpt defines a key/value structure and a function that creates a new instance of that structure:

Mxmldoc also knows to remove extra asterisks (*) from the comment string, so the comment string:

Titles, Sections, and Introductions

Mxmldoc also provides options to set the title, section, and introduction text for the generated documentation. The --title text option specifies the title for the documentation. The title string is usually put in quotes:

The --section name option specifies the section for the documentation. For HTML documentation, the name is placed in a HTML comment such as:

For man pages, the section name is usually just a number ("3"), or a number followed by a vendor name ("3acme"). The section name is used in the .TH directive in the man page:

The default section name for man page output is "3". There is no default section name for HTML output.

Finally, the --intro filename option specifies a file to embed after the title and section but before the generated documentation. For HTML documentation, the file must consist of valid HTML without the usual DOCTYPE, html, and body elements. For man page documentation, the file must consist of valid nroff(1) text.

Mini-XML License

The Mini-XML library and included programs are provided under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License version 2 (LGPL2) with the following exceptions:

1. Static linking of applications to the Mini-XML library does not constitute a derivative work and does not require the author to provide source code for the application, use the shared Mini-XML libraries, or link their applications against a user-supplied version of Mini-XML.

If you link the application to a modified version of Mini-XML, then the changes to Mini-XML must be provided under the terms of the LGPL2 in sections 1, 2, and 4.

2. You do not have to provide a copy of the Mini-XML license with programs that are linked to the Mini-XML library, nor do you have to identify the Mini-XML license in your program or documentation as required by section 6 of the LGPL2.

Version 2, June 1991
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Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
[This is the first released version of the library GPL. It is numbered 2 because it goes with version 2 of the ordinary GPL.]

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Release Notes

Changes in Mini-XML 2.9

Changes in Mini-XML 2.8

Changes in Mini-XML 2.7

Changes in Mini-XML 2.6

Changes in Mini-XML 2.5

Changes in Mini-XML 2.4

Changes in Mini-XML 2.3

Changes in Mini-XML 2.2.2

Changes in Mini-XML 2.2.1

Changes in Mini-XML 2.2

Changes in Mini-XML 2.1

Changes in Mini-XML 2.0

Changes in Mini-XML 1.3

Changes in Mini-XML 1.2

Changes in Mini-XML 1.1.2

Changes in Mini-XML 1.1.1

Changes in Mini-XML 1.1

Changes in Mini-XML 1.0

Changes in Mini-XML 0.93

Changes in Mini-XML 0.92

Changes in Mini-XML 0.91

Changes in Mini-XML 0.9

Library Reference

Functions
Data Types
Constants
- mxml_sax_event_e
- mxml_type_e

Functions

mxmlAdd

Add a node to a tree.

void mxmlAdd (
    mxml_node_t *parent,
    int where,
    mxml_node_t *child,
    mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

parent: Parent node
where: Where to add, MXML_ADD_BEFORE or MXML_ADD_AFTER
child: Child node for where or MXML_ADD_TO_PARENT
node: Node to add

Discussion

Adds the specified node to the parent. If the child argument is not NULL, puts the new node before or after the specified child depending on the value of the where argument. If the child argument is NULL, puts the new node at the beginning of the child list (MXML_ADD_BEFORE) or at the end of the child list (MXML_ADD_AFTER). The constant MXML_ADD_TO_PARENT can be used to specify a NULL child pointer.

mxmlDelete

Delete a node and all of its children.

void mxmlDelete (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node to delete

Discussion

If the specified node has a parent, this function first removes the node from its parent using the mxmlRemove() function.

Mini-XML 2.4 mxmlElementDeleteAttr

Delete an attribute.

void mxmlElementDeleteAttr (
mxml_node_t *node,
const char *name
);

Parameters

node: Element
name: Attribute name

mxmlElementGetAttr

Get an attribute.

const char *mxmlElementGetAttr (
mxml_node_t *node,
const char *name
);

Parameters

node: Element node
name: Name of attribute

Return Value

Attribute value or NULL

Discussion

This function returns NULL if the node is not an element or the named attribute does not exist.

mxmlElementSetAttr

Set an attribute.

void mxmlElementSetAttr (
    mxml_node_t *node,
    const char *name,
    const char *value
);

Parameters

node: Element node
name: Name of attribute
value: Attribute value

Discussion

If the named attribute already exists, the value of the attribute is replaced by the new string value. The string value is copied into the element node. This function does nothing if the node is not an element.

Mini-XML 2.3 mxmlElementSetAttrf

Set an attribute with a formatted value.

void mxmlElementSetAttrf (
    mxml_node_t *node,
    const char *name,
    const char *format,
    ...
);

Parameters

node: Element node
name: Name of attribute
format: Printf-style attribute value
...: Additional arguments as needed

Discussion

If the named attribute already exists, the value of the attribute is replaced by the new formatted string. The formatted string value is copied into the element node. This function does nothing if the node is not an element.

mxmlEntityAddCallback

Add a callback to convert entities to Unicode.

int mxmlEntityAddCallback (
mxml_entity_cb_t cb
);

Parameters

cb: Callback function to add

Return Value

0 on success, -1 on failure

mxmlEntityGetName

Get the name that corresponds to the character value.

const char *mxmlEntityGetName (
int val
);

Parameters

val: Character value

Return Value

Entity name or NULL

Discussion

If val does not need to be represented by a named entity, NULL is returned.

mxmlEntityGetValue

Get the character corresponding to a named entity.

int mxmlEntityGetValue (
const char *name
);

Parameters

name: Entity name

Return Value

Character value or -1 on error

Discussion

The entity name can also be a numeric constant. -1 is returned if the name is not known.

mxmlEntityRemoveCallback

Remove a callback.

void mxmlEntityRemoveCallback (
mxml_entity_cb_t cb
);

Parameters

cb: Callback function to remove

mxmlFindElement

Find the named element.

mxml_node_t *mxmlFindElement (
    mxml_node_t *node,
    mxml_node_t *top,
    const char *name,
    const char *attr,
    const char *value,
    int descend
);

Parameters

node: Current node
top: Top node
name: Element name or NULL for any
attr: Attribute name, or NULL for none
value: Attribute value, or NULL for any
descend: Descend into tree - MXML_DESCEND, MXML_NO_DESCEND, or MXML_DESCEND_FIRST

Return Value

Element node or NULL

Discussion

The search is constrained by the name, attribute name, and value; any NULL names or values are treated as wildcards, so different kinds of searches can be implemented by looking for all elements of a given name or all elements with a specific attribute. The descend argument determines whether the search descends into child nodes; normally you will use MXML_DESCEND_FIRST for the initial search and MXML_NO_DESCEND to find additional direct descendents of the node. The top node argument constrains the search to a particular node's children.

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlFindPath

Find a node with the given path.

mxml_node_t *mxmlFindPath (
mxml_node_t *top,
const char *path
);

Parameters

top: Top node
path: Path to element

Return Value

Found node or NULL

Discussion

The "path" is a slash-separated list of element names. The name "*" is considered a wildcard for one or more levels of elements. For example, "foo/one/two", "bar/two/one", "*/one", and so forth.

The first child node of the found node is returned if the given node has children and the first child is a value node.

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlGetCDATA

Get the value for a CDATA node.

const char *mxmlGetCDATA (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node to get

Return Value

CDATA value or NULL

Discussion

NULL is returned if the node is not a CDATA element.

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlGetCustom

Get the value for a custom node.

const void *mxmlGetCustom (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node to get

Return Value

Custom value or NULL

Discussion

NULL is returned if the node (or its first child) is not a custom value node.

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlGetElement

Get the name for an element node.

const char *mxmlGetElement (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node to get

Return Value

Element name or NULL

Discussion

NULL is returned if the node is not an element node.

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlGetFirstChild

Get the first child of an element node.

mxml_node_t *mxmlGetFirstChild (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node to get

Return Value

First child or NULL

Discussion

NULL is returned if the node is not an element node or if the node has no children.

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlGetInteger

Get the integer value from the specified node or its first child.

int mxmlGetInteger (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node to get

Return Value

Integer value or 0

Discussion

0 is returned if the node (or its first child) is not an integer value node.

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlGetLastChild

Get the last child of an element node.

mxml_node_t *mxmlGetLastChild (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node to get

Return Value

Last child or NULL

Discussion

NULL is returned if the node is not an element node or if the node has no children.

mxmlGetNextSibling

Return the node type...

mxml_node_t *mxmlGetNextSibling (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node to get

Return Value

Get the next node for the current parent.

NULL is returned if this is the last child for the current parent.

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlGetOpaque

Get an opaque string value for a node or its first child.

const char *mxmlGetOpaque (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node to get

Return Value

Opaque string or NULL

Discussion

NULL is returned if the node (or its first child) is not an opaque value node.

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlGetParent

Get the parent node.

mxml_node_t *mxmlGetParent (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node to get

Return Value

Parent node or NULL

Discussion

NULL is returned for a root node.

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlGetPrevSibling

Get the previous node for the current parent.

mxml_node_t *mxmlGetPrevSibling (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node to get

Return Value

Previous node or NULL

Discussion

NULL is returned if this is the first child for the current parent.

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlGetReal

Get the real value for a node or its first child.

double mxmlGetReal (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node to get

Return Value

Real value or 0.0

Discussion

0.0 is returned if the node (or its first child) is not a real value node.

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlGetRefCount

Get the current reference (use) count for a node.

int mxmlGetRefCount (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node

Return Value

Reference count

Discussion

The initial reference count of new nodes is 1. Use the mxmlRetain and mxmlRelease functions to increment and decrement a node's reference count. .

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlGetText

Get the text value for a node or its first child.

const char *mxmlGetText (
mxml_node_t *node,
int *whitespace
);

Parameters

node: Node to get
whitespace: 1 if string is preceded by whitespace, 0 otherwise

Return Value

Text string or NULL

Discussion

NULL is returned if the node (or its first child) is not a text node. The "whitespace" argument can be NULL.

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlGetType

Get the node type.

mxml_type_t mxmlGetType (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node to get

Return Value

Type of node

Discussion

MXML_IGNORE is returned if "node" is NULL.

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlGetUserData

Get the user data pointer for a node.

void *mxmlGetUserData (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node to get

Return Value

User data pointer

mxmlIndexDelete

Delete an index.

void mxmlIndexDelete (
mxml_index_t *ind
);

Parameters

ind: Index to delete

mxmlIndexEnum

Return the next node in the index.

mxml_node_t *mxmlIndexEnum (
mxml_index_t *ind
);

Parameters

ind: Index to enumerate

Return Value

Next node or NULL if there is none

Discussion

Nodes are returned in the sorted order of the index.

mxmlIndexFind

Find the next matching node.

mxml_node_t *mxmlIndexFind (
    mxml_index_t *ind,
    const char *element,
    const char *value
);

Parameters

ind: Index to search
element: Element name to find, if any
value: Attribute value, if any

Return Value

Node or NULL if none found

Discussion

You should call mxmlIndexReset() prior to using this function for the first time with a particular set of "element" and "value" strings. Passing NULL for both "element" and "value" is equivalent to calling mxmlIndexEnum().

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlIndexGetCount

Get the number of nodes in an index.

int mxmlIndexGetCount (
mxml_index_t *ind
);

Parameters

ind: Index of nodes

Return Value

Number of nodes in index

mxmlIndexNew

Create a new index.

mxml_index_t *mxmlIndexNew (
    mxml_node_t *node,
    const char *element,
    const char *attr
);

Parameters

node: XML node tree
element: Element to index or NULL for all
attr: Attribute to index or NULL for none

Return Value

New index

Discussion

The index will contain all nodes that contain the named element and/or attribute. If both "element" and "attr" are NULL, then the index will contain a sorted list of the elements in the node tree. Nodes are sorted by element name and optionally by attribute value if the "attr" argument is not NULL.

mxmlIndexReset

Reset the enumeration/find pointer in the index and return the first node in the index.

mxml_node_t *mxmlIndexReset (
mxml_index_t *ind
);

Parameters

ind: Index to reset

Return Value

First node or NULL if there is none

Discussion

This function should be called prior to using mxmlIndexEnum() or mxmlIndexFind() for the first time.

mxmlLoadFd

Load a file descriptor into an XML node tree.

mxml_node_t *mxmlLoadFd (
    mxml_node_t *top,
    int fd,
    mxml_load_cb_t cb
);

Parameters

top: Top node
fd: File descriptor to read from
cb: Callback function or MXML_NO_CALLBACK

Return Value

First node or NULL if the file could not be read.

Discussion

The nodes in the specified file are added to the specified top node. If no top node is provided, the XML file MUST be well-formed with a single parent node like <?xml> for the entire file. The callback function returns the value type that should be used for child nodes. If MXML_NO_CALLBACK is specified then all child nodes will be either MXML_ELEMENT or MXML_TEXT nodes.

The constants MXML_INTEGER_CALLBACK, MXML_OPAQUE_CALLBACK, MXML_REAL_CALLBACK, and MXML_TEXT_CALLBACK are defined for loading child nodes of the specified type.

mxmlLoadFile

Load a file into an XML node tree.

mxml_node_t *mxmlLoadFile (
    mxml_node_t *top,
    FILE *fp,
    mxml_load_cb_t cb
);

Parameters

top: Top node
fp: File to read from
cb: Callback function or MXML_NO_CALLBACK

Return Value

First node or NULL if the file could not be read.

Discussion

mxmlLoadString

Load a string into an XML node tree.

mxml_node_t *mxmlLoadString (
    mxml_node_t *top,
    const char *s,
    mxml_load_cb_t cb
);

Parameters

top: Top node
s: String to load
cb: Callback function or MXML_NO_CALLBACK

Return Value

First node or NULL if the string has errors.

Discussion

The nodes in the specified string are added to the specified top node. If no top node is provided, the XML string MUST be well-formed with a single parent node like <?xml> for the entire string. The callback function returns the value type that should be used for child nodes. If MXML_NO_CALLBACK is specified then all child nodes will be either MXML_ELEMENT or MXML_TEXT nodes.

The constants MXML_INTEGER_CALLBACK, MXML_OPAQUE_CALLBACK, MXML_REAL_CALLBACK, and MXML_TEXT_CALLBACK are defined for loading child nodes of the specified type.

Mini-XML 2.3 mxmlNewCDATA

Create a new CDATA node.

mxml_node_t *mxmlNewCDATA (
mxml_node_t *parent,
const char *data
);

Parameters

parent: Parent node or MXML_NO_PARENT
data: Data string

Return Value

New node

Discussion

The new CDATA node is added to the end of the specified parent's child list. The constant MXML_NO_PARENT can be used to specify that the new CDATA node has no parent. The data string must be nul-terminated and is copied into the new node. CDATA nodes use the MXML_ELEMENT type.

Mini-XML 2.1 mxmlNewCustom

Create a new custom data node.

mxml_node_t *mxmlNewCustom (
    mxml_node_t *parent,
    void *data,
    mxml_custom_destroy_cb_t destroy
);

Parameters

parent: Parent node or MXML_NO_PARENT
data: Pointer to data
destroy: Function to destroy data

Return Value

New node

Discussion

The new custom node is added to the end of the specified parent's child list. The constant MXML_NO_PARENT can be used to specify that the new element node has no parent. NULL can be passed when the data in the node is not dynamically allocated or is separately managed.

mxmlNewElement

Create a new element node.

mxml_node_t *mxmlNewElement (
mxml_node_t *parent,
const char *name
);

Parameters

parent: Parent node or MXML_NO_PARENT
name: Name of element

Return Value

New node

Discussion

The new element node is added to the end of the specified parent's child list. The constant MXML_NO_PARENT can be used to specify that the new element node has no parent.

mxmlNewInteger

Create a new integer node.

mxml_node_t *mxmlNewInteger (
mxml_node_t *parent,
int integer
);

Parameters

parent: Parent node or MXML_NO_PARENT
integer: Integer value

Return Value

New node

Discussion

The new integer node is added to the end of the specified parent's child list. The constant MXML_NO_PARENT can be used to specify that the new integer node has no parent.

mxmlNewOpaque

Create a new opaque string.

mxml_node_t *mxmlNewOpaque (
mxml_node_t *parent,
const char *opaque
);

Parameters

parent: Parent node or MXML_NO_PARENT
opaque: Opaque string

Return Value

New node

Discussion

The new opaque node is added to the end of the specified parent's child list. The constant MXML_NO_PARENT can be used to specify that the new opaque node has no parent. The opaque string must be nul-terminated and is copied into the new node.

mxmlNewReal

Create a new real number node.

mxml_node_t *mxmlNewReal (
mxml_node_t *parent,
double real
);

Parameters

parent: Parent node or MXML_NO_PARENT
real: Real number value

Return Value

New node

Discussion

The new real number node is added to the end of the specified parent's child list. The constant MXML_NO_PARENT can be used to specify that the new real number node has no parent.

mxmlNewText

Create a new text fragment node.

mxml_node_t *mxmlNewText (
    mxml_node_t *parent,
    int whitespace,
    const char *string
);

Parameters

parent: Parent node or MXML_NO_PARENT
whitespace: 1 = leading whitespace, 0 = no whitespace
string: String

Return Value

New node

Discussion

The new text node is added to the end of the specified parent's child list. The constant MXML_NO_PARENT can be used to specify that the new text node has no parent. The whitespace parameter is used to specify whether leading whitespace is present before the node. The text string must be nul-terminated and is copied into the new node.

mxmlNewTextf

Create a new formatted text fragment node.

mxml_node_t *mxmlNewTextf (
    mxml_node_t *parent,
    int whitespace,
    const char *format,
    ...
);

Parameters

parent: Parent node or MXML_NO_PARENT
whitespace: 1 = leading whitespace, 0 = no whitespace
format: Printf-style frmat string
...: Additional args as needed

Return Value

New node

Discussion

The new text node is added to the end of the specified parent's child list. The constant MXML_NO_PARENT can be used to specify that the new text node has no parent. The whitespace parameter is used to specify whether leading whitespace is present before the node. The format string must be nul-terminated and is formatted into the new node.

Mini-XML 2.3 mxmlNewXML

Create a new XML document tree.

mxml_node_t *mxmlNewXML (
const char *version
);

Parameters

version: Version number to use

Return Value

New ?xml node

Discussion

The "version" argument specifies the version number to put in the ?xml element node. If NULL, version 1.0 is assumed.

Mini-XML 2.3 mxmlRelease

Release a node.

int mxmlRelease (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node

Return Value

New reference count

Discussion

When the reference count reaches zero, the node (and any children) is deleted via mxmlDelete().

mxmlRemove

Remove a node from its parent.

void mxmlRemove (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node to remove

Discussion

Does not free memory used by the node - use mxmlDelete() for that. This function does nothing if the node has no parent.

Mini-XML 2.3 mxmlRetain

Retain a node.

int mxmlRetain (
mxml_node_t *node
);

Parameters

node: Node

Return Value

New reference count

Mini-XML 2.3 mxmlSAXLoadFd

Load a file descriptor into an XML node tree using a SAX callback.

mxml_node_t *mxmlSAXLoadFd (
    mxml_node_t *top,
    int fd,
    mxml_load_cb_t cb,
    mxml_sax_cb_t sax_cb,
    void *sax_data
);

Parameters

top: Top node
fd: File descriptor to read from
cb: Callback function or MXML_NO_CALLBACK
sax_cb: SAX callback or MXML_NO_CALLBACK
sax_data: SAX user data

Return Value

First node or NULL if the file could not be read.

Discussion

Mini-XML 2.3 mxmlSAXLoadFile

Load a file into an XML node tree using a SAX callback.

mxml_node_t *mxmlSAXLoadFile (
    mxml_node_t *top,
    FILE *fp,
    mxml_load_cb_t cb,
    mxml_sax_cb_t sax_cb,
    void *sax_data
);

Parameters

top: Top node
fp: File to read from
cb: Callback function or MXML_NO_CALLBACK
sax_cb: SAX callback or MXML_NO_CALLBACK
sax_data: SAX user data

Return Value

First node or NULL if the file could not be read.

Discussion

Mini-XML 2.3 mxmlSAXLoadString

Load a string into an XML node tree using a SAX callback.

mxml_node_t *mxmlSAXLoadString (
    mxml_node_t *top,
    const char *s,
    mxml_load_cb_t cb,
    mxml_sax_cb_t sax_cb,
    void *sax_data
);

Parameters

top: Top node
s: String to load
cb: Callback function or MXML_NO_CALLBACK
sax_cb: SAX callback or MXML_NO_CALLBACK
sax_data: SAX user data

Return Value

First node or NULL if the string has errors.

Discussion

mxmlSaveAllocString

Save an XML tree to an allocated string.

char *mxmlSaveAllocString (
mxml_node_t *node,
mxml_save_cb_t cb
);

Parameters

node: Node to write
cb: Whitespace callback or MXML_NO_CALLBACK

Return Value

Allocated string or NULL

Discussion

This function returns a pointer to a string containing the textual representation of the XML node tree. The string should be freed using the free() function when you are done with it. NULL is returned if the node would produce an empty string or if the string cannot be allocated.

The callback argument specifies a function that returns a whitespace string or NULL before and after each element. If MXML_NO_CALLBACK is specified, whitespace will only be added before MXML_TEXT nodes with leading whitespace and before attribute names inside opening element tags.

mxmlSaveFd

Save an XML tree to a file descriptor.

int mxmlSaveFd (
    mxml_node_t *node,
    int fd,
    mxml_save_cb_t cb
);

Parameters

node: Node to write
fd: File descriptor to write to
cb: Whitespace callback or MXML_NO_CALLBACK

Return Value

0 on success, -1 on error.

Discussion

The callback argument specifies a function that returns a whitespace string or NULL before and after each element. If MXML_NO_CALLBACK is specified, whitespace will only be added before MXML_TEXT nodes with leading whitespace and before attribute names inside opening element tags.

mxmlSaveFile

Save an XML tree to a file.

int mxmlSaveFile (
    mxml_node_t *node,
    FILE *fp,
    mxml_save_cb_t cb
);

Parameters

node: Node to write
fp: File to write to
cb: Whitespace callback or MXML_NO_CALLBACK

Return Value

0 on success, -1 on error.

Discussion

mxmlSaveString

Save an XML node tree to a string.

int mxmlSaveString (
    mxml_node_t *node,
    char *buffer,
    int bufsize,
    mxml_save_cb_t cb
);

Parameters

node: Node to write
buffer: String buffer
bufsize: Size of string buffer
cb: Whitespace callback or MXML_NO_CALLBACK

Return Value

Size of string

Discussion

This function returns the total number of bytes that would be required for the string but only copies (bufsize - 1) characters into the specified buffer.

The callback argument specifies a function that returns a whitespace string or NULL before and after each element. If MXML_NO_CALLBACK is specified, whitespace will only be added before MXML_TEXT nodes with leading whitespace and before attribute names inside opening element tags.

Mini-XML 2.3 mxmlSetCDATA

Set the element name of a CDATA node.

int mxmlSetCDATA (
mxml_node_t *node,
const char *data
);

Parameters

node: Node to set
data: New data string

Return Value

0 on success, -1 on failure

Discussion

The node is not changed if it (or its first child) is not a CDATA element node.

Mini-XML 2.1 mxmlSetCustom

Set the data and destructor of a custom data node.

int mxmlSetCustom (
    mxml_node_t *node,
    void *data,
    mxml_custom_destroy_cb_t destroy
);

Parameters

node: Node to set
data: New data pointer
destroy: New destructor function

Return Value

0 on success, -1 on failure

Discussion

The node is not changed if it (or its first child) is not a custom node.

mxmlSetCustomHandlers

Set the handling functions for custom data.

void mxmlSetCustomHandlers (
mxml_custom_load_cb_t load,
mxml_custom_save_cb_t save
);

Parameters

load: Load function
save: Save function

Discussion

The load function accepts a node pointer and a data string and must return 0 on success and non-zero on error.

The save function accepts a node pointer and must return a malloc'd string on success and NULL on error.

mxmlSetElement

Set the name of an element node.

int mxmlSetElement (
mxml_node_t *node,
const char *name
);

Parameters

node: Node to set
name: New name string

Return Value

0 on success, -1 on failure

Discussion

The node is not changed if it is not an element node.

mxmlSetErrorCallback

Set the error message callback.

void mxmlSetErrorCallback (
mxml_error_cb_t cb
);

Parameters

cb: Error callback function

mxmlSetInteger

Set the value of an integer node.

int mxmlSetInteger (
mxml_node_t *node,
int integer
);

Parameters

node: Node to set
integer: Integer value

Return Value

0 on success, -1 on failure

Discussion

The node is not changed if it (or its first child) is not an integer node.

mxmlSetOpaque

Set the value of an opaque node.

int mxmlSetOpaque (
mxml_node_t *node,
const char *opaque
);

Parameters

node: Node to set
opaque: Opaque string

Return Value

0 on success, -1 on failure

Discussion

The node is not changed if it (or its first child) is not an opaque node.

mxmlSetReal

Set the value of a real number node.

int mxmlSetReal (
mxml_node_t *node,
double real
);

Parameters

node: Node to set
real: Real number value

Return Value

0 on success, -1 on failure

Discussion

The node is not changed if it (or its first child) is not a real number node.

mxmlSetText

Set the value of a text node.

int mxmlSetText (
    mxml_node_t *node,
    int whitespace,
    const char *string
);

Parameters

node: Node to set
whitespace: 1 = leading whitespace, 0 = no whitespace
string: String

Return Value

0 on success, -1 on failure

Discussion

The node is not changed if it (or its first child) is not a text node.

mxmlSetTextf

Set the value of a text node to a formatted string.

int mxmlSetTextf (
    mxml_node_t *node,
    int whitespace,
    const char *format,
    ...
);

Parameters

node: Node to set
whitespace: 1 = leading whitespace, 0 = no whitespace
format: Printf-style format string
...: Additional arguments as needed

Return Value

0 on success, -1 on failure

Discussion

The node is not changed if it (or its first child) is not a text node.

Mini-XML 2.7 mxmlSetUserData

Set the user data pointer for a node.

int mxmlSetUserData (
mxml_node_t *node,
void *data
);

Parameters

node: Node to set
data: User data pointer

Return Value

0 on success, -1 on failure

Mini-XML 2.3 mxmlSetWrapMargin

Set the wrap margin when saving XML data.

void mxmlSetWrapMargin (
int column
);

Parameters

column: Column for wrapping, 0 to disable wrapping

Discussion

Wrapping is disabled when "column" is 0.

mxmlWalkNext

Walk to the next logical node in the tree.

mxml_node_t *mxmlWalkNext (
    mxml_node_t *node,
    mxml_node_t *top,
    int descend
);

Parameters

node: Current node
top: Top node
descend: Descend into tree - MXML_DESCEND, MXML_NO_DESCEND, or MXML_DESCEND_FIRST

Return Value

Next node or NULL

Discussion

The descend argument controls whether the first child is considered to be the next node. The top node argument constrains the walk to the node's children.

mxmlWalkPrev

Walk to the previous logical node in the tree.

mxml_node_t *mxmlWalkPrev (
    mxml_node_t *node,
    mxml_node_t *top,
    int descend
);

Parameters

node: Current node
top: Top node
descend: Descend into tree - MXML_DESCEND, MXML_NO_DESCEND, or MXML_DESCEND_FIRST

Return Value

Previous node or NULL

Discussion

The descend argument controls whether the previous node's last child is considered to be the previous node. The top node argument constrains the walk to the node's children.

Constants

MXML_SAX_CDATA: CDATA node
MXML_SAX_COMMENT: Comment node
MXML_SAX_DATA: Data node
MXML_SAX_DIRECTIVE: Processing directive node
MXML_SAX_ELEMENT_CLOSE: Element closed
MXML_SAX_ELEMENT_OPEN: Element opened

mxml_type_e

The XML node type.

Constants

MXML_CUSTOM Mini-XML 2.1: Custom data
MXML_ELEMENT: XML element with attributes
MXML_IGNORE Mini-XML 2.3: Ignore/throw away node
MXML_INTEGER: Integer value
MXML_OPAQUE: Opaque string
MXML_REAL: Real value
MXML_TEXT: Text fragment

XML Schema

This appendix provides the XML schema that is used for the XML files produced by mxmldoc. This schema is available on-line at: