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<TITLE>Mini-XML Programmers Manual, Version 2.5</TITLE>
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<H1 align="right"><A name="BASICS"><IMG align="right" alt="2" height="100"
hspace="10" src="2.gif" width="100"></A>Getting Started with Mini-XML</H1>
<P>This chapter describes how to write programs that use Mini-XML to
access data in an XML file. Mini-XML provides the following
functionality:</P>
<UL>
<LI>Functions for creating and managing XML documents in memory.</LI>
<LI>Reading of UTF-8 and UTF-16 encoded XML files and strings.</LI>
<LI>Writing of UTF-8 encoded XML files and strings.</LI>
<LI>Support for arbitrary element names, attributes, and attribute
values with no preset limits, just available memory.</LI>
<LI>Support for integer, real, opaque (&quot;cdata&quot;), and text data types in
&quot;leaf&quot; nodes.</LI>
<LI>&quot;Find&quot;, &quot;index&quot;, and &quot;walk&quot; functions for easily accessing data in
an XML document.</LI>
</UL>
<P>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.</P>
<H2><A NAME="3_1">The Basics</A></H2>
<P>Mini-XML provides a single header file which you include:</P>
<PRE>
#include &lt;mxml.h&gt;
</PRE>
<P>The Mini-XML library is included with your program using the <KBD>
-lmxml</KBD> option:</P>
<PRE>
<KBD>gcc -o myprogram myprogram.c -lmxml ENTER</KBD>
</PRE>
<P>If you have the <TT>pkg-config(1)</TT> software installed, you can
use it to determine the proper compiler and linker options for your
installation:</P>
<PRE>
<KBD>pkg-config --cflags mxml ENTER</KBD>
<KBD>pkg-config --libs mxml ENTER</KBD>
</PRE>
<H2><A NAME="3_2">Nodes</A></H2>
<P>Every piece of information in an XML file (elements, text, numbers)
is stored in memory in &quot;nodes&quot;. Nodes are defined by the <A href="reference.html#mxml_node_t">
<TT>mxml_node_t</TT></A> structure. The <A href="#mxml_type_t"><TT>type</TT>
</A> member defines the node type (element, integer, opaque, real, or
text) which determines which value you want to look at in the <A href="reference.html#mxml_value_t">
<TT>value</TT></A> union.</P>
<!-- NEED 10 -->
<CENTER>
<TABLE border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary="Mini-XML Node Value Members"
width="80%"><CAPTION align="bottom"><I> Table 2-1: Mini-XML Node Value
Members</I></CAPTION>
<TR bgcolor="#cccccc"><TH>Value</TH><TH>Type</TH><TH>Node member</TH></TR>
<TR><TD>Custom</TD><TD><TT>void *</TT></TD><TD><TT>
node-&gt;value.custom.data</TT></TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Element</TD><TD><TT>char *</TT></TD><TD><TT>
node-&gt;value.element.name</TT></TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Integer</TD><TD><TT>int</TT></TD><TD><TT>node-&gt;value.integer</TT>
</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Opaque (string)</TD><TD><TT>char *</TT></TD><TD><TT>
node-&gt;value.opaque</TT></TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Real</TD><TD><TT>double</TT></TD><TD><TT>node-&gt;value.real</TT></TD>
</TR>
<TR><TD>Text</TD><TD><TT>char *</TT></TD><TD><TT>node-&gt;value.text.string</TT>
</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
</CENTER>
<P>Each node also has a <TT>user_data</TT> member which allows you to
associate application-specific data with each node as needed.</P>
<P>New nodes are created using the <A href="reference.html#mxmlNewElement">
<TT>mxmlNewElement</TT></A>, <A href="reference.html#mxmlNewInteger"><TT>
mxmlNewInteger</TT></A>, <A href="reference.html#mxmlNewOpaque"><TT>
mxmlNewOpaque</TT></A>, <A href="reference.html#mxmlNewReal"><TT>
mxmlNewReal</TT></A>, <A href="reference.html#mxmlNewText"><TT>
mxmlNewText</TT></A> <A href="reference.html#mxmlNewTextf"><TT>
mxmlNewTextf</TT></A> <A href="reference.html#mxmlNewXML"><TT>mxmlNewXML</TT>
</A> functions. Only elements can have child nodes, and the top node
must be an element, usually the <TT>&lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot;?&gt;</TT> node
created by <TT>mxmlNewXML()</TT>.</P>
<P>Nodes have pointers to the node above (<TT>parent</TT>), below (<TT>
child</TT>), left (<TT>prev</TT>), and right (<TT>next</TT>) of the
current node. If you have an XML file like the following:</P>
<PRE>
&lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot;?&gt;
&lt;data&gt;
&lt;node&gt;val1&lt;/node&gt;
&lt;node&gt;val2&lt;/node&gt;
&lt;node&gt;val3&lt;/node&gt;
&lt;group&gt;
&lt;node&gt;val4&lt;/node&gt;
&lt;node&gt;val5&lt;/node&gt;
&lt;node&gt;val6&lt;/node&gt;
&lt;/group&gt;
&lt;node&gt;val7&lt;/node&gt;
&lt;node&gt;val8&lt;/node&gt;
&lt;/data&gt;
</PRE>
<P>the node tree for the file would look like the following in memory:</P>
<PRE>
?xml
|
data
|
node - node - node - group - node - node
| | | | | |
val1 val2 val3 | val7 val8
|
node - node - node
| | |
val4 val5 val6
</PRE>
<P>where &quot;-&quot; is a pointer to the next node and &quot;|&quot; is a pointer to the
first child node.</P>
<P>Once you are done with the XML data, use the <A href="reference.html#mxmlDelete">
<TT>mxmlDelete</TT></A> function to recursively free the memory that is
used for a particular node or the entire tree:</P>
<PRE>
mxmlDelete(tree);
</PRE>
<!-- NEW PAGE -->
<H2><A NAME="3_3">Creating XML Documents</A></H2>
<P>You can create and update XML documents in memory using the various <TT>
mxmlNew</TT> functions. The following code will create the XML document
described in the previous section:</P>
<PRE>
mxml_node_t *xml; /* &lt;?xml ... ?&gt; */
mxml_node_t *data; /* &lt;data&gt; */
mxml_node_t *node; /* &lt;node&gt; */
mxml_node_t *group; /* &lt;group&gt; */
xml = mxmlNewXML(&quot;1.0&quot;);
data = mxmlNewElement(xml, &quot;data&quot;);
node = mxmlNewElement(data, &quot;node&quot;);
mxmlNewText(node, 0, &quot;val1&quot;);
node = mxmlNewElement(data, &quot;node&quot;);
mxmlNewText(node, 0, &quot;val2&quot;);
node = mxmlNewElement(data, &quot;node&quot;);
mxmlNewText(node, 0, &quot;val3&quot;);
group = mxmlNewElement(data, &quot;group&quot;);
node = mxmlNewElement(group, &quot;node&quot;);
mxmlNewText(node, 0, &quot;val4&quot;);
node = mxmlNewElement(group, &quot;node&quot;);
mxmlNewText(node, 0, &quot;val5&quot;);
node = mxmlNewElement(group, &quot;node&quot;);
mxmlNewText(node, 0, &quot;val6&quot;);
node = mxmlNewElement(data, &quot;node&quot;);
mxmlNewText(node, 0, &quot;val7&quot;);
node = mxmlNewElement(data, &quot;node&quot;);
mxmlNewText(node, 0, &quot;val8&quot;);
</PRE>
<P>We start by creating the <TT>&lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot;?&gt;</TT> node common
to all XML files using the <A href="reference.html#mxmlNewXML"><TT>
mxmlNewXML</TT></A> function:</P>
<PRE>
xml = mxmlNewXML(&quot;1.0&quot;);
</PRE>
<P>We then create the <TT>&lt;data&gt;</TT> node used for this document using
the <A href="reference.html#mxmlNewElement"><TT>mxmlNewElement</TT></A>
function. The first argument specifies the parent node (<TT>xml</TT>)
while the second specifies the element name (<TT>data</TT>):</P>
<PRE>
data = mxmlNewElement(xml, &quot;data&quot;);
</PRE>
<P>Each <TT>&lt;node&gt;...&lt;/node&gt;</TT> in the file is created using the <TT>
mxmlNewElement</TT> and <A href="reference.html#mxmlNewText"><TT>
mxmlNewText</TT></A> functions. The first argument of <TT>mxmlNewText</TT>
specifies the parent node (<TT>node</TT>). 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:</P>
<PRE>
node = mxmlNewElement(data, &quot;node&quot;);
mxmlNewText(node, 0, &quot;val1&quot;);
</PRE>
<P>The resulting in-memory XML document can then be saved or processed
just like one loaded from disk or a string.</P>
<!-- NEW PAGE -->
<H2><A NAME="3_4">Loading XML</A></H2>
<P>You load an XML file using the <A href="reference.html#mxmlLoadFile"><TT>
mxmlLoadFile</TT></A> function:</P>
<PRE>
FILE *fp;
mxml_node_t *tree;
fp = fopen(&quot;filename.xml&quot;, &quot;r&quot;);
tree = mxmlLoadFile(NULL, fp,
MXML_TEXT_CALLBACK);
fclose(fp);
</PRE>
<P>The first argument specifies an existing XML parent node, if any.
Normally you will pass <TT>NULL</TT> for this argument unless you are
combining multiple XML sources. The XML file must contain a complete
XML document including the <TT>?xml</TT> element if the parent node is <TT>
NULL</TT>.</P>
<P>The second argument specifies the stdio file to read from, as opened
by <TT>fopen()</TT> or <TT>popen()</TT>. You can also use <TT>stdin</TT>
if you are implementing an XML filter program.</P>
<P>The third argument specifies a callback function which returns the
value type of the immediate children for a new element node: <TT>
MXML_CUSTOM</TT>, <TT>MXML_IGNORE</TT>, <TT>MXML_INTEGER</TT>, <TT>
MXML_OPAQUE</TT>, <TT>MXML_REAL</TT>, or <TT>MXML_TEXT</TT>. Load
callbacks are described in detail in <A href="advanced.html#LOAD_CALLBACKS">
Chapter 3</A>. The example code uses the <TT>MXML_TEXT_CALLBACK</TT>
constant which specifies that all data nodes in the document contain
whitespace-separated text values. Other standard callbacks include <TT>
MXML_IGNORE_CALLBACK</TT>, <TT>MXML_INTEGER_CALLBACK</TT>, <TT>
MXML_OPAQUE_CALLBACK</TT>, and <TT>MXML_REAL_CALLBACK</TT>.</P>
<P>The <A href="reference.html#mxmlLoadString"><TT>mxmlLoadString</TT></A>
function loads XML node trees from a string:</P>
<!-- NEED 10 -->
<PRE>
char buffer[8192];
mxml_node_t *tree;
...
tree = mxmlLoadString(NULL, buffer,
MXML_TEXT_CALLBACK);
</PRE>
<P>The first and third arguments are the same as used for <TT>
mxmlLoadFile()</TT>. The second argument specifies the string or
character buffer to load and must be a complete XML document including
the <TT>?xml</TT> element if the parent node is <TT>NULL</TT>.</P>
<!-- NEW PAGE -->
<H2><A NAME="3_5">Saving XML</A></H2>
<P>You save an XML file using the <A href="reference.html#mxmlSaveFile"><TT>
mxmlSaveFile</TT></A> function:</P>
<PRE>
FILE *fp;
mxml_node_t *tree;
fp = fopen(&quot;filename.xml&quot;, &quot;w&quot;);
mxmlSaveFile(tree, fp, MXML_NO_CALLBACK);
fclose(fp);
</PRE>
<P>The first argument is the XML node tree to save. It should normally
be a pointer to the top-level <TT>?xml</TT> node in your XML document.</P>
<P>The second argument is the stdio file to write to, as opened by <TT>
fopen()</TT> or <TT>popen()</TT>. You can also use <TT>stdout</TT> if
you are implementing an XML filter program.</P>
<P>The third argument is the whitespace callback to use when saving the
file. Whitespace callbacks are covered in detail in <A href="SAVE_CALLBACKS">
Chapter 3</A>. The previous example code uses the <TT>MXML_NO_CALLBACK</TT>
constant to specify that no special whitespace handling is required.</P>
<P>The <A href="reference.html#mxmlSaveAllocString"><TT>
mxmlSaveAllocString</TT></A>, and <A href="reference.html#mxmlSaveString">
<TT>mxmlSaveString</TT></A> functions save XML node trees to strings:</P>
<PRE>
char buffer[8192];
char *ptr;
mxml_node_t *tree;
...
mxmlSaveString(tree, buffer, sizeof(buffer),
MXML_NO_CALLBACK);
...
ptr = mxmlSaveAllocString(tree, MXML_NO_CALLBACK);
</PRE>
<P>The first and last arguments are the same as used for <TT>
mxmlSaveFile()</TT>. The <TT>mxmlSaveString</TT> function takes pointer
and size arguments for saving the XML document to a fixed-size buffer,
while <TT>mxmlSaveAllocString()</TT> returns a string buffer that was
allocated using <TT>malloc()</TT>.</P>
<H3><A NAME="3_5_1">Controlling Line Wrapping</A></H3>
<P>When saving XML documents, Mini-XML normally wraps output lines at
column 75 so that the text is readable in terminal windows. The <A href="reference.html#mxmlSetWrapMargin">
<TT>mxmlSetWrapMargin</TT></A> function overrides the default wrap
margin:</P>
<PRE>
/* Set the margin to 132 columns */
mxmlSetWrapMargin(132);
/* Disable wrapping */
mxmlSetWrapMargin(0);
</PRE>
<!-- NEW PAGE-->
<H2><A NAME="3_6">Finding and Iterating Nodes</A></H2>
<P>The <A href="reference.html#mxmlWalkPrev"><TT>mxmlWalkPrev</TT></A>
and <A href="reference.html#mxmlWalkNext"><TT>mxmlWalkNext</TT></A>
functions can be used to iterate through the XML node tree:</P>
<PRE>
mxml_node_t *node;
node = mxmlWalkPrev(current, tree,
MXML_DESCEND);
node = mxmlWalkNext(current, tree,
MXML_DESCEND);
</PRE>
<P>In addition, you can find a named element/node using the <A href="reference.html#mxmlFindElement">
<TT>mxmlFindElement</TT></A> function:</P>
<PRE>
mxml_node_t *node;
node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, &quot;name&quot;,
&quot;attr&quot;, &quot;value&quot;,
MXML_DESCEND);
</PRE>
<P>The <TT>name</TT>, <TT>attr</TT>, and <TT>value</TT> arguments can be
passed as <TT>NULL</TT> to act as wildcards, e.g.:</P>
<!-- NEED 4 -->
<PRE>
/* Find the first &quot;a&quot; element */
node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, &quot;a&quot;,
NULL, NULL,
MXML_DESCEND);
</PRE>
<!-- NEED 5 -->
<PRE>
/* Find the first &quot;a&quot; element with &quot;href&quot;
attribute */
node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, &quot;a&quot;,
&quot;href&quot;, NULL,
MXML_DESCEND);
</PRE>
<!-- NEED 6 -->
<PRE>
/* Find the first &quot;a&quot; element with &quot;href&quot;
to a URL */
node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, &quot;a&quot;,
&quot;href&quot;,
&quot;http://www.easysw.com/&quot;,
MXML_DESCEND);
</PRE>
<!-- NEED 5 -->
<PRE>
/* Find the first element with a &quot;src&quot;
attribute */
node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, NULL,
&quot;src&quot;, NULL,
MXML_DESCEND);
</PRE>
<!-- NEED 5 -->
<PRE>
/* Find the first element with a &quot;src&quot;
= &quot;foo.jpg&quot; */
node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, NULL,
&quot;src&quot;, &quot;foo.jpg&quot;,
MXML_DESCEND);
</PRE>
<P>You can also iterate with the same function:</P>
<PRE>
mxml_node_t *node;
for (node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree,
&quot;name&quot;,
NULL, NULL,
MXML_DESCEND);
node != NULL;
node = mxmlFindElement(node, tree,
&quot;name&quot;,
NULL, NULL,
MXML_DESCEND))
{
... do something ...
}
</PRE>
<!-- NEED 10 -->
<P>The <TT>MXML_DESCEND</TT> argument can actually be one of three
constants:</P>
<UL>
<LI><TT>MXML_NO_DESCEND</TT> means to not to look at any child nodes in
the element hierarchy, just look at siblings at the same level or
parent nodes until the top node or top-of-tree is reached.
<P>The previous node from &quot;group&quot; would be the &quot;node&quot; element to the
left, while the next node from &quot;group&quot; would be the &quot;node&quot; element to
the right.
<BR>
<BR></P>
</LI>
<LI><TT>MXML_DESCEND_FIRST</TT> means that it is OK to descend to the
first child of a node, but not to descend further when searching.
You'll normally use this when iterating through direct children of a
parent node, e.g. all of the &quot;node&quot; and &quot;group&quot; elements under the
&quot;?xml&quot; parent node in the example above.
<P>This mode is only applicable to the search function; the walk
functions treat this as <TT>MXML_DESCEND</TT> since every call is a
first time.
<BR>
<BR></P>
</LI>
<LI><TT>MXML_DESCEND</TT> means to keep descending until you hit the
bottom of the tree. The previous node from &quot;group&quot; would be the &quot;val3&quot;
node and the next node would be the first node element under &quot;group&quot;.
<P>If you were to walk from the root node &quot;?xml&quot; to the end of the tree
with <TT>mxmlWalkNext()</TT>, the order would be:</P>
<P><TT>?xml data node val1 node val2 node val3 group node val4 node val5
node val6 node val7 node val8</TT></P>
<P>If you started at &quot;val8&quot; and walked using <TT>mxmlWalkPrev()</TT>,
the order would be reversed, ending at &quot;?xml&quot;.</P>
</LI>
</UL>
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