xmlParser  2.44
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Functions
Parsing XML files/strings to an XMLNode structure and Rendering XMLNode's to files/string.

Functions

static XMLNode XMLNode::parseString (XMLCSTR lpXMLString, XMLCSTR tag=NULL, XMLResults *pResults=NULL)
 Parse an XML string and return the root of a XMLNode tree representing the string. More...
 
static XMLNode XMLNode::parseFile (XMLCSTR filename, XMLCSTR tag=NULL, XMLResults *pResults=NULL)
 Parse an XML file and return the root of a XMLNode tree representing the file. More...
 
static XMLNode XMLNode::openFileHelper (XMLCSTR filename, XMLCSTR tag=NULL)
 Parse an XML file and return the root of a XMLNode tree representing the file. A very crude error checking is made. An attempt to guess the Char Encoding used in the file is made. More...
 
static XMLCSTR XMLNode::getError (XMLError error)
 this gives you a user-friendly explanation of the parsing error More...
 
XMLSTR XMLNode::createXMLString (int nFormat=1, int *pnSize=NULL) const
 Create an XML string starting from the current XMLNode. More...
 
XMLError XMLNode::writeToFile (XMLCSTR filename, const char *encoding=NULL, char nFormat=1) const
 Save the content of an xmlNode inside a file. More...
 
static char XMLNode::setGlobalOptions (XMLCharEncoding characterEncoding=XMLNode::char_encoding_UTF8, char guessWideCharChars=1, char dropWhiteSpace=1, char removeCommentsInMiddleOfText=1)
 Sets the global options for the conversions. More...
 
static XMLCharEncoding XMLNode::guessCharEncoding (void *buffer, int bufLen, char useXMLEncodingAttribute=1)
 Guess the character encoding of the string (ascii, utf8 or shift-JIS) More...
 

Detailed Description

Function Documentation

XMLSTR XMLNode::createXMLString ( int  nFormat = 1,
int *  pnSize = NULL 
) const

Create an XML string starting from the current XMLNode.

The returned string should be free'd using the "freeXMLString" function.

If nFormat==0, no formatting is required otherwise this returns an user friendly XML string from a given element with appropriate white spaces and carriage returns. if pnSize is given it returns the size in character of the string.

static XMLCSTR XMLNode::getError ( XMLError  error)
static

this gives you a user-friendly explanation of the parsing error

static XMLCharEncoding XMLNode::guessCharEncoding ( void *  buffer,
int  bufLen,
char  useXMLEncodingAttribute = 1 
)
static

Guess the character encoding of the string (ascii, utf8 or shift-JIS)

The "guessCharEncoding" function try to guess the character encoding. You most-probably will never have to use this function. It then returns the appropriate value of the global parameter "characterEncoding" described in the XMLNode::setGlobalOptions. The guess is based on the content of a buffer of length "bufLen" bytes that contains the first bytes (minimum 25 bytes; 200 bytes is a good value) of the file to be parsed. The XMLNode::openFileHelper function is using this function to automatically compute the value of the "characterEncoding" global parameter. There are several heuristics used to do the guess. One of the heuristic is based on the "encoding" attribute. The original XML specifications forbids to use this attribute to do the guess but you can still use it if you set "useXMLEncodingAttribute" to 1 (this is the default behavior and the behavior of most parsers). If an inconsistency in the encoding is detected, then the return value is "0".

static XMLNode XMLNode::openFileHelper ( XMLCSTR  filename,
XMLCSTR  tag = NULL 
)
static

Parse an XML file and return the root of a XMLNode tree representing the file. A very crude error checking is made. An attempt to guess the Char Encoding used in the file is made.

The "openFileHelper" function reports to the screen all the warnings and errors that occurred during parsing of the XML file. This function also tries to guess char Encoding (UTF-8, ASCII or SHIT-JIS) based on the first 200 bytes of the file. Since each application has its own way to report and deal with errors, you should rather use the "parseFile" function to parse XML files and program yourself thereafter an "error reporting" tailored for your needs (instead of using the very crude "error reporting" mechanism included inside the "openFileHelper" function).

If the XML document is corrupted, the "openFileHelper" method will:

  • display an error message on the console (or inside a messageBox for windows).
  • stop execution (exit).

I strongly suggest that you write your own "openFileHelper" method tailored to your needs. If you still want to parse the file, you can use the APPROXIMATE_PARSING option as explained inside the note at the beginning of the "xmlParser.cpp" file.

Parameters
filenamethe path of the XML file to parse.
tagthe name of the first tag inside the XML file. If the tag parameter is omitted, this function returns a node that represents the head of the xml document including the declaration term (<? ... ?>).
static XMLNode XMLNode::parseFile ( XMLCSTR  filename,
XMLCSTR  tag = NULL,
XMLResults pResults = NULL 
)
static

Parse an XML file and return the root of a XMLNode tree representing the file.

The "parseFile" function parse an XML file and return the root of a XMLNode tree. The "opposite" of this function is the function "writeToFile" that re-creates an XML file from an XMLNode tree. If the XML document is corrupted, the "parseFile" method will initialize the "pResults" variable with some information that can be used to trace the error. If you still want to parse the file, you can use the APPROXIMATE_PARSING option as explained inside the note at the beginning of the "xmlParser.cpp" file.

Parameters
filenamethe path to the XML file to parse
tagthe name of the first tag inside the XML file. If the tag parameter is omitted, this function returns a node that represents the head of the xml document including the declaration term (<? ... ?>).
pResultsa pointer to a XMLResults variable that will contain some information that can be used to trace the XML parsing error. You can have a user-friendly explanation of the parsing error with the "getError" function.
static XMLNode XMLNode::parseString ( XMLCSTR  lpXMLString,
XMLCSTR  tag = NULL,
XMLResults pResults = NULL 
)
static

Parse an XML string and return the root of a XMLNode tree representing the string.

The "parseString" function parse an XML string and return the root of a XMLNode tree. The "opposite" of this function is the function "createXMLString" that re-creates an XML string from an XMLNode tree. If the XML document is corrupted, the "parseString" method will initialize the "pResults" variable with some information that can be used to trace the error. If you still want to parse the file, you can use the APPROXIMATE_PARSING option as explained inside the note at the beginning of the "xmlParser.cpp" file.

Parameters
lpXMLStringthe XML string to parse
tagthe name of the first tag inside the XML file. If the tag parameter is omitted, this function returns a node that represents the head of the xml document including the declaration term (<? ... ?>).
pResultsa pointer to a XMLResults variable that will contain some information that can be used to trace the XML parsing error. You can have a user-friendly explanation of the parsing error with the "getError" function.
static char XMLNode::setGlobalOptions ( XMLCharEncoding  characterEncoding = XMLNode::char_encoding_UTF8,
char  guessWideCharChars = 1,
char  dropWhiteSpace = 1,
char  removeCommentsInMiddleOfText = 1 
)
static

Sets the global options for the conversions.

The "setGlobalOptions" function allows you to change four global parameters that affect string & file parsing. First of all, you most-probably will never have to change these 3 global parameters.

Parameters
guessWideCharCharsIf "guessWideCharChars"=1 and if this library is compiled in WideChar mode, then the XMLNode::parseFile and XMLNode::openFileHelper functions will test if the file contains ASCII characters. If this is the case, then the file will be loaded and converted in memory to WideChar before being parsed. If 0, no conversion will be performed.
guessWideCharCharsIf "guessWideCharChars"=1 and if this library is compiled in ASCII/UTF8/char* mode, then the XMLNode::parseFile and XMLNode::openFileHelper functions will test if the file contains WideChar characters. If this is the case, then the file will be loaded and converted in memory to ASCII/UTF8/char* before being parsed. If 0, no conversion will be performed.
characterEncodingThis parameter is only meaningful when compiling in char* mode (multibyte character mode). In wchar_t* (wide char mode), this parameter is ignored. This parameter should be one of the three currently recognized encodings: XMLNode::encoding_UTF8, XMLNode::encoding_ascii, XMLNode::encoding_ShiftJIS.
dropWhiteSpaceIn most situations, text fields containing only white spaces (and carriage returns) are useless. Even more, these "empty" text fields are annoying because they increase the complexity of the user's code for parsing. So, 99% of the time, it's better to drop the "empty" text fields. However The XML specification indicates that no white spaces should be lost when parsing the file. So to be perfectly XML-compliant, you should set dropWhiteSpace=0. A note of caution: if you set "dropWhiteSpace=0", the parser will be slower and your code will be more complex.
removeCommentsInMiddleOfTextTo explain this parameter, let's consider this code:
XMLNode x=XMLNode::parseString("<a>foo<!-- hello -->bar<!DOCTYPE world >chu</a>","a");
If removeCommentsInMiddleOfText=0, then we will have:
x.getText(0) -> "foo"
x.getText(1) -> "bar"
x.getText(2) -> "chu"
x.getClear(0) --> "<!-- hello -->"
x.getClear(1) --> "<!DOCTYPE world >"
If removeCommentsInMiddleOfText=1, then we will have:
x.getText(0) -> "foobar"
x.getText(1) -> "chu"
x.getClear(0) --> "<!DOCTYPE world >"
Returns
"0" when there are no errors. If you try to set an unrecognized encoding then the return value will be "1" to signal an error.
Note
Sometime, it's useful to set "guessWideCharChars=0" to disable any conversion because the test to detect the file-type (ASCII/UTF8/char* or WideChar) may fail (rarely).
XMLError XMLNode::writeToFile ( XMLCSTR  filename,
const char *  encoding = NULL,
char  nFormat = 1 
) const

Save the content of an xmlNode inside a file.

If nFormat==0, no formatting is required otherwise this returns an user friendly XML string from a given element with appropriate white spaces and carriage returns. If the global parameter "characterEncoding==encoding_UTF8", then the "encoding" parameter is ignored and always set to "utf-8". If the global parameter "characterEncoding==encoding_ShiftJIS", then the "encoding" parameter is ignored and always set to "SHIFT-JIS". If "_XMLWIDECHAR=1", then the "encoding" parameter is ignored and always set to "utf-16". If no "encoding" parameter is given the "ISO-8859-1" encoding is used.