XML-Reader Version 0.46 Reading XML and providing path information based on a pull-parser. SYNOPSIS use XML::Reader; my $text = q{n tm r}; my $rdr = XML::Reader->new(\$text); while ($rdr->iterate) { printf "Path: %-19s, Value: %s\n", $rdr->path, $rdr->value; } This program produces the following output: Path: /init , Value: n t Path: /init/page/@node , Value: 400 Path: /init/page , Value: m r Path: /init , Value: DESCRIPTION XML::Reader provides a simple and easy to use interface for sequentially parsing XML files (so called "pull-mode" parsing) and at the same time keeps track of the complete XML-path. It was developped as a wrapper on top of XML::Parser (while, at the same time, some basic functions have been copied from XML::TokeParser). Both XML::Parser and XML::TokeParser allow pull-mode parsing, but do not keep track of the complete XML-Path. Also, the interfaces to XML::Parser and XML::TokeParser require you to distinguish between start-tags, end-tags and text on seperate lines, which, in my view, complicates the interface (although, XML::Reader allows option {filter => 4, mode => 'pyx'} which emulates start-tags, end-tags and text on separate lines, if that's what you want). There is also XML::TiePYX, which lets you pull-mode parse XML-Files (see L for an introduction to PYX). But still, with XML::TiePYX you need to account for start-tags, end-tags and text, and it does not provide the full XML-path. By contrast, XML::Reader translates start-tags, end-tags and text into XPath-like expressions. So you don't need to worry about tags, you just get a path and a value, and that's it. (However, should you wish to operate XML::Reader in a PYX compatible mode, there is option {filter => 4, mode => 'pyx'}, as mentioned above, which allows you to parse XML in that way). But going back to the normal mode of operation, here is an example XML in variable '$line1': my $line1 = q{ abc fgh ooo ppp }; This example can be parsed with XML::Reader using the methods C to iterate one-by-one through the XML-data, C and C to extract the current XML-path and its value. You can also keep track of the start- and end-tags: There is a method C, which returns 1 or 0, depending on whether the XML-file had a start tag at the current position. There is also the equivalent method C. There are also the methods C, C, C and C. C gives you the current tag-name, C returns the attribute-name, C returns either 'T' for text or '@' for attributes and C indicates the current nesting-level (a number >= 0). Here is a sample program which parses the XML in '$line1' from above to demonstrate the principle... use XML::Reader; my $rdr = XML::Reader->new(\$line1); my $i = 0; while ($rdr->iterate) { $i++; printf "%3d. pat=%-22s, val=%-9s, s=%-1s, e=%-1s, tag=%-6s, atr=%-6s, t=%-1s, lvl=%2d\n", $i, $rdr->path, $rdr->value, $rdr->is_start, $rdr->is_end, $rdr->tag, $rdr->attr, $rdr->type, $rdr->level; } ...and here is the output: 1. pat=/data , val= , s=1, e=0, tag=data , atr= , t=T, lvl= 1 2. pat=/data/item , val=abc , s=1, e=1, tag=item , atr= , t=T, lvl= 2 3. pat=/data , val= , s=0, e=0, tag=data , atr= , t=T, lvl= 1 4. pat=/data/item , val= , s=1, e=0, tag=item , atr= , t=T, lvl= 2 5. pat=/data/item/dummy , val= , s=1, e=1, tag=dummy , atr= , t=T, lvl= 3 6. pat=/data/item , val=fgh , s=0, e=0, tag=item , atr= , t=T, lvl= 2 7. pat=/data/item/inner/@id , val=fff , s=0, e=0, tag=@id , atr=id , t=@, lvl= 4 8. pat=/data/item/inner/@name, val=ttt , s=0, e=0, tag=@name , atr=name , t=@, lvl= 4 9. pat=/data/item/inner , val=ooo ppp , s=1, e=1, tag=inner , atr= , t=T, lvl= 3 10. pat=/data/item , val= , s=0, e=1, tag=item , atr= , t=T, lvl= 2 11. pat=/data , val= , s=0, e=1, tag=data , atr= , t=T, lvl= 1 INSTALLATION To install this module, run the following commands: perl Makefile.PL make make test make install SUPPORT AND DOCUMENTATION After installing, you can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command. perldoc XML::Reader You can also look for information at: RT, CPAN's request tracker http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=XML-Reader AnnoCPAN, Annotated CPAN documentation http://annocpan.org/dist/XML-Reader CPAN Ratings http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/XML-Reader Search CPAN http://search.cpan.org/dist/XML-Reader/ COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE Copyright (C) 2009-2011 by Klaus Eichner All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the artistic license 2.0, see http://www.opensource.org/licenses/artistic-license-2.0.php