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299 lines
9.6 KiB
299 lines
9.6 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='reference.html#mxml_node_t'><tt>mxml_node_t</tt></a>
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structure. The <a
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href='reference.html#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='reference.html#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='reference.html#mxmlNewElement'><tt>mxmlNewElement()</tt></a>,
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<a
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href='reference.html#mxmlNewInteger'><tt>mxmlNewInteger()</tt></a>,
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<a
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href='reference.html#mxmlNewOpaque'><tt>mxmlNewOpaque()</tt></a>,
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<a href='reference.html#mxmlNewReal'><tt>mxmlNewReal()</tt></a>,
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and <a
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href='reference.html#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='reference.html#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 and Saving XML Files</h2>
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<p>You load an XML file using the <a
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href='reference.html#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='reference.html#mxml_node_t'>mxml_node_t</a> *tree;
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fp = fopen("filename.xml", "r");
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tree = <a href='reference.html#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 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>. This function is
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called <i>after</i> the element and its attributes have been
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read, so you can look at the element name, attributes, and
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attribute values to determine the proper value type to return.
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The default value type is MXML_TEXT if no callback is used.</p>
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<p>Similarly, you save an XML file using the <a
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href='reference.html#mxmlSaveFile'><tt>mxmlSaveFile()</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='reference.html#mxml_node_t'>mxml_node_t</a> *tree;
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fp = fopen("filename.xml", "w");
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<a href='reference.html#mxmlSaveFile'>mxmlSaveFile</a>(tree, fp, MXML_NO_CALLBACK);
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fclose(fp);
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</pre>
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<p>Callback functions for saving are used to optionally insert
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whitespace before and after elements in the node tree. Your
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function will be called up to four times for each element node
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with a pointer to the node and a "where" value of
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<tt>MXML_WS_BEFORE_OPEN</tt>, <tt>MXML_WS_AFTER_OPEN</tt>,
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<tt>MXML_WS_BEFORE_CLOSE</tt>, or <tt>MXML_WS_AFTER_CLOSE</tt>.
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The callback function should return <tt>NULL</tt> if no
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whitespace should be added and the string to insert (spaces,
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tabs, carriage returns, and newlines) otherwise.</p>
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<p>The <a
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href='reference.html#mxmlLoadString'><tt>mxmlLoadString()</tt></a>,
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<a
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href='reference.html#mxmlSaveAllocString'><tt>mxmlSaveAllocString()</tt></a>,
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and <a
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href='reference.html#mxmlSaveString'><tt>mxmlSaveString()</tt></a>
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functions load XML node trees from and save XML node trees to
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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='reference.html#mxml_node_t'>mxml_node_t</a> *tree;
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...
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tree = <a href='reference.html#mxmlLoadString'>mxmlLoadString</a>(NULL, buffer, MXML_NO_CALLBACK);
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...
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<a href='reference.html#mxmlSaveString'>mxmlSaveString</a>(tree, buffer, sizeof(buffer), MXML_NO_CALLBACK);
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...
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ptr = <a href='reference.html#mxmlSaveAllocString'>mxmlSaveAllocString</a>(tree, MXML_NO_CALLBACK);
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</pre>
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<h3>Finding and Iterating Nodes</h3>
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<p>The <a
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href='reference.html#mxmlWalkPrev'><tt>mxmlWalkPrev()</tt></a>
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and <a
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href='reference.html#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='reference.html#mxml_node_t'>mxml_node_t</a> *node = <a href='reference.html#mxmlWalkPrev'>mxmlWalkPrev</a>(current, tree, MXML_DESCEND);
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<a href='reference.html#mxml_node_t'>mxml_node_t</a> *node = <a href='reference.html#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='reference.html#mxmlFindElement'><tt>mxmlFindElement()</tt></a>
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function:</p>
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<pre>
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<a href='reference.html#mxml_node_t'>mxml_node_t</a> *node = <a href='reference.html#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='reference.html#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='reference.html#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='reference.html#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='reference.html#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='reference.html#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='reference.html#mxml_node_t'>mxml_node_t</a> *node;
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for (node = <a href='reference.html#mxmlFindElement'>mxmlFindElement</a>(tree, tree, "name", NULL, NULL, MXML_DESCEND);
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node != NULL;
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node = <a href='reference.html#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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