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335 lines
10 KiB
335 lines
10 KiB
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<h1 align='right'><a name='BASICS'>2 - Getting Started with
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Mini-XML</a></h1>
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<p>This chapter describes how to write programs that use
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Mini-XML to access data in an XML file.</p>
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<h2>The Basics</h2>
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<p>Mini-XML provides a single header file which you include:</p>
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<pre>
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#include <mxml.h>
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</pre>
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<p>The Mini-XML library is included with your program using the
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<kbd>-lmxml</kbd> option:</p>
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<pre>
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<kbd>gcc -o myprogram myprogram.c -lmxml ENTER</kbd>
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</pre>
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<p>If you have the <tt>pkg-config(1)</tt> software installed,
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you can use it to determine the proper compiler and linker options
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for your installation:</p>
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<pre>
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<kbd>pkg-config --cflags mxml ENTER</kbd>
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<kbd>pkg-config --libs mxml ENTER</kbd>
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</pre>
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<h2>Nodes</h2>
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<p>Every piece of information in an XML file (elements, text,
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numbers) is stored in memory in "nodes". Nodes are defined by
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the <a
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href='#mxml_node_t'><tt>mxml_node_t</tt></a>
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structure. The <a
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href='#mxml_type_t'><tt>type</tt></a> member
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defines the node type (element, integer, opaque, real, or text)
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which determines which value you want to look at in the <a
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href='#mxml_value_t'><tt>value</tt></a> union.</p>
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<p>New nodes can be created using the <a
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href='#mxmlNewElement'><tt>mxmlNewElement()</tt></a>,
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<a
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href='#mxmlNewInteger'><tt>mxmlNewInteger()</tt></a>,
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<a
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href='#mxmlNewOpaque'><tt>mxmlNewOpaque()</tt></a>,
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<a href='#mxmlNewReal'><tt>mxmlNewReal()</tt></a>,
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and <a
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href='#mxmlNewText'><tt>mxmlNewText()</tt></a>
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functions. Only elements can have child nodes, and the top node
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must be an element, usually "?xml".</p>
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<p>Each node has pointers for the node above (<tt>parent</tt>),
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below (<tt>child</tt>), to the left (<tt>prev</tt>), and to the
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right (<tt>next</tt>) of the current node. If you have an XML
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file like the following:</p>
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<pre>
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<?xml version="1.0"?>
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<data>
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<node>val1</node>
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<node>val2</node>
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<node>val3</node>
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<group>
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<node>val4</node>
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<node>val5</node>
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<node>val6</node>
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</group>
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<node>val7</node>
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<node>val8</node>
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<node>val9</node>
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</data>
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</pre>
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<p>the node tree returned by <tt>mxmlLoadFile()</tt> would look
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like the following in memory:</p>
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<pre>
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?xml
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data
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node - node - node - group - node - node - node
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| | | | | | |
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val1 val2 val3 | val7 val8 val9
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node - node - node
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| | |
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val4 val5 val6
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</pre>
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<p>where "-" is a pointer to the next node and "|" is a pointer
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to the first child node.</p>
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<p>Once you are done with the XML data, use the <a
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href='#mxmlDelete'><tt>mxmlDelete()</tt></a>
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function to recursively free the memory that is used for a
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particular node or the entire tree:</p>
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<pre>
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mxmlDelete(tree);
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</pre>
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<h2>Loading XML</h2>
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<p>You load an XML file using the <a
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href='#mxmlLoadFile'><tt>mxmlLoadFile()</tt></a>
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function:</p>
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<pre>
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FILE *fp;
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<a href='#mxml_node_t'>mxml_node_t</a> *tree;
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fp = fopen("filename.xml", "r");
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tree = <a href='#mxmlLoadFile'>mxmlLoadFile</a>(NULL, fp, MXML_NO_CALLBACK);
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fclose(fp);
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</pre>
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<p>The first argument specifies an existing XML parent node, if
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any. Normally you will pass <tt>NULL</tt> for this argument
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unless you are combining multiple XML sources. The XML file must
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contain a complete XML document including the <tt>?xml</tt>
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element if the parent node is <tt>NULL</tt>.</p>
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<p>The second argument specifies the stdio file to read from, as
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opened by <tt>fopen()</tt> or <tt>popen()</tt>. You can also use
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<tt>stdin</tt> if you are implementing an XML filter
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program.</p>
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<p>The third argument specifies a callback function which
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returns the value type of the immediate children for a new
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element node: <tt>MXML_INTEGER</tt>, <tt>MXML_OPAQUE</tt>,
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<tt>MXML_REAL</tt>, or <tt>MXML_TEXT</tt>. Load callbacks are
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described in detail in <a href='#LOAD_CALLBACKS'>Chapter 3</a>.
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The example code uses the <tt>MXML_NO_CALLBACK</tt> constant
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which specifies that all data nodes in the document contain
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whitespace-separated text values.</p>
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<p>The <a href='#mxmlLoadString'><tt>mxmlLoadString()</tt></a>
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function loads XML node trees from a string:</p>
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<pre>
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char buffer[8192];
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<a href='#mxml_node_t'>mxml_node_t</a> *tree;
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...
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tree = <a href='#mxmlLoadString'>mxmlLoadString</a>(NULL, buffer, MXML_NO_CALLBACK);
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</pre>
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<p>The first and third arguments are the same as used for
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<tt>mxmlLoadFile()</tt>. The second argument specifies the
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string or character buffer to load and must be a complete XML
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document including the <tt>?xml</tt> element if the parent node
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is <tt>NULL</tt>.</p>
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<h2>Saving XML</h2>
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<p>You save an XML file using the <a
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href='#mxmlSaveFile'><tt>mxmlSaveFile()</tt></a> function:</p>
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<pre>
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FILE *fp;
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<a href='#mxml_node_t'>mxml_node_t</a> *tree;
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fp = fopen("filename.xml", "w");
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<a href='#mxmlSaveFile'>mxmlSaveFile</a>(tree, fp, MXML_NO_CALLBACK);
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fclose(fp);
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</pre>
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<p>The first argument is the XML node tree to save. It should
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normally be a pointer to the top-level <tt>?xml</tt> node in
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your XML document.</p>
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<p>The second argument is the stdio file to write to, as opened
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by <tt>fopen()</tt> or <tt>popen()</tt>. You can also use
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<tt>stdout</tt> if you are implementing an XML filter
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program.</p>
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<p>The third argument is the whitespace callback to use when
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saving the file. Whitespace callbacks are covered in detail in
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<a href='SAVE_CALLBACKS'>Chapter 3</a>. The example code above
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uses the <tt>MXML_NO_CALLBACK</tt> constant to specify that no
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special whitespace handling is required.</p>
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<p>The <a
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href='#mxmlSaveAllocString'><tt>mxmlSaveAllocString()</tt></a>,
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and <a href='#mxmlSaveString'><tt>mxmlSaveString()</tt></a>
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functions save XML node trees to strings:</p>
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<pre>
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char buffer[8192];
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char *ptr;
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<a href='#mxml_node_t'>mxml_node_t</a> *tree;
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...
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<a href='#mxmlSaveString'>mxmlSaveString</a>(tree, buffer, sizeof(buffer), MXML_NO_CALLBACK);
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...
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ptr = <a href='#mxmlSaveAllocString'>mxmlSaveAllocString</a>(tree, MXML_NO_CALLBACK);
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</pre>
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<p>The first and last arguments are the same as used for
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<tt>mxmlSaveFile()</tt>. The <tt>mxmlSaveString()</tt> function
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takes pointer and size arguments for saving the XML document to
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a fixed-size buffer, while <tt>mxmlSaveAllocString()</tt>
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returns a string buffer that was allocated using
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<tt>malloc()</tt>.</p>
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<h3>Finding and Iterating Nodes</h3>
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<p>The <a
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href='#mxmlWalkPrev'><tt>mxmlWalkPrev()</tt></a>
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and <a
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href='#mxmlWalkNext'><tt>mxmlWalkNext()</tt></a>functions
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can be used to iterate through the XML node tree:</p>
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<pre>
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<a href='#mxml_node_t'>mxml_node_t</a> *node = <a href='#mxmlWalkPrev'>mxmlWalkPrev</a>(current, tree, MXML_DESCEND);
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<a href='#mxml_node_t'>mxml_node_t</a> *node = <a href='#mxmlWalkNext'>mxmlWalkNext</a>(current, tree, MXML_DESCEND);
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</pre>
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<p>In addition, you can find a named element/node using the <a
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href='#mxmlFindElement'><tt>mxmlFindElement()</tt></a>
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function:</p>
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<pre>
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<a href='#mxml_node_t'>mxml_node_t</a> *node = <a href='#mxmlFindElement'>mxmlFindElement</a>(tree, tree, "name", "attr",
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"value", MXML_DESCEND);
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</pre>
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<p>The <tt>name</tt>, <tt>attr</tt>, and <tt>value</tt>
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arguments can be passed as <tt>NULL</tt> to act as wildcards,
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e.g.:</p>
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<pre>
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/* Find the first "a" element */
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node = <a href='#mxmlFindElement'>mxmlFindElement</a>(tree, tree, "a", NULL, NULL, MXML_DESCEND);
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/* Find the first "a" element with "href" attribute */
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node = <a href='#mxmlFindElement'>mxmlFindElement</a>(tree, tree, "a", "href", NULL, MXML_DESCEND);
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/* Find the first "a" element with "href" to a URL */
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node = <a href='#mxmlFindElement'>mxmlFindElement</a>(tree, tree, "a", "href",
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"http://www.easysw.com/~mike/mxml/", MXML_DESCEND);
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/* Find the first element with a "src" attribute*/
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node = <a href='#mxmlFindElement'>mxmlFindElement</a>(tree, tree, NULL, "src", NULL, MXML_DESCEND);
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/* Find the first element with a "src" = "foo.jpg" */
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node = <a href='#mxmlFindElement'>mxmlFindElement</a>(tree, tree, NULL, "src", "foo.jpg", MXML_DESCEND);
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</pre>
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<p>You can also iterate with the same function:</p>
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<pre>
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<a href='#mxml_node_t'>mxml_node_t</a> *node;
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for (node = <a href='#mxmlFindElement'>mxmlFindElement</a>(tree, tree, "name", NULL, NULL, MXML_DESCEND);
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node != NULL;
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node = <a href='#mxmlFindElement'>mxmlFindElement</a>(node, tree, "name", NULL, NULL, MXML_DESCEND))
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{
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... do something ...
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}
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</pre>
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<p>The <tt>MXML_DESCEND</tt> argument can actually be one of
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three constants:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><tt>MXML_NO_DESCEND</tt> means to not to look at any
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child nodes in the element hierarchy, just look at
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siblings at the same level or parent nodes until the top
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node or top-of-tree is reached. The previous node from
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"group" would be the "node" element to the left, while
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the next node from "group" would be the "node" element
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to the right.</li>
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<li><tt>MXML_DESCEND_FIRST</tt> means that it is OK to
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descend to the first child of a node, but not to descend
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further when searching. You'll normally use this when
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iterating through direct children of a parent node, e.g.
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all of the "node" elements under the "?xml" parent node
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in the example above. This mode is only applicable to
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the search function; the walk functions treat this as
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<tt>MXML_DESCEND</tt> since every call is a first
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time.</li>
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<li><tt>MXML_DESCEND</tt> means to keep descending until
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you hit the bottom of the tree. The previous node from
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"group" would be the "val3" node and the next node would
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be the first node element under "group". If you were to
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walk from the root node "?xml" to the end of the
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tree with <tt>mxmlWalkNext()</tt>, the order would be:
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<pre>
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?xml
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data
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node
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val1
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node
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val2
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node
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val3
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group
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node
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val4
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node
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val5
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node
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val6
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node
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val7
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node
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val8
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node
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val9
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</pre>
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<p>If you started at "val9" and walked using
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<tt>mxmlWalkPrev()</tt>, the order would be reversed,
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ending at "?xml".</p></li>
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</ul>
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</body>
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</html>
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